I have a question regarding the affect of drive formatting (if any) on a PCB swap that I've done with a WD Caviar Green 1 TB drive.

Here is the history behind the project:
I had a WD Caviar Green drive stop working recently and determined that the issue was likely with a failed PCB on the drive. By "stop" I mean that the unit simply stopped working as though it wasn't getting any power ... and even the LED lights on the enclosure wouldn't come on when the unit was powered up. There were no symptoms whatsoever prior to the failure on the drive.

At any rate, I attempted to get a replacement PCB from one of the companies that offers such things. However, with this particular drive a firmware transfer was required. Unfortunately, the company ran into issues with the firmware transfer (the cpu chip with the firmware from the original drive was reported to be bad) and they were not able to create a new, working PCB.

Although I know that the chances of successfully swapping in a PCB from a similar, donor drive are very small I did happen to find a nearly identical drive with an identical PCB and thought that I'd give it a try.

For completeness, here are the spec numbers on the two drives. The only differences are with the WWN numbers (which are similar save the last six digits) and the date of manufacture:

Failed, patient drive
MDL: WD10EADS-00M2B0
WWN: 50014EE2AD9F30AA
DATE: 17 Jun 2009
DCM: HANCNV2MHB
LBA: 1953525168
R/N 701640
Made in Thailand

2060-701640-000 Rev P1 (on the PCB)
2061-701640-A00 05P (on the barcode sticker on the PCB)


Working, donor drive
MDL: WD10EADS-00M2B0
WWN: 50014EE2ADF325A4
DATE: 27 Aug 2009
DCM: HANCNV2MHB
LBA: 1953525168
R/N 701640
Made in Thailand

2060-701640-000 Rev P1 (on the PCB)
2061-701640-A00 05P (on the barcode sticker on the PCB)


Results of PCB Swap:
Based on the initial results of a straight PCB swap (no modifications to the PCB or any sort of firmware transfer) I am hopeful that I am close to getting the failed, patient drive up and running long enough to retrieve the data. Once I swapped the PCB and tried to start up the failed, patient drive here is was I observed. When the enclosure is powered on, the unit issues a short "beep" followed by the distinct sound of the drive spinning up. The spin up takes a few seconds. Once the spin achieves a steady state, the drive issues the faint sound of what seems to be the drive heads moving around inside the drive. This sound continues for maybe 4-6 seconds before it stops. After the faint sound of the heads moving stops, the only sound coming from the drive is that of the spinning disk. All during the time of start-up the LED lights on the hard drive enclosure are rapidly flickering. Once the faint sounds of the heads moving stops the LEDs go to a steady state. Unfortunately, the drive isn't recognized and mounted by any of my computers.

This start-up sequence is identical to that observed for the working, donor drive when I power it up in the same hard drive enclosure except that this drive is recognized and mounted by the computers.

Another observation with the failed, patient drive is that the LED lights of the enclosure will flicker for about 10 - 15 seconds every couple of minutes after the initial start-up sequence described above ... as though the unit is trying to work or is "looking" for something. However, no sounds other than the spinning disk are associated with this.


My take from all of this is that the failed, patient drive is working from a physical standpoint and that the issue is, in fact, related to the PCB. This finally brings me to my question ... does anyone know if it is possible that the reason why the drive isn't being recognized and mounted by the computers is somehow related to the file formatting on the patient / donor drives? In other words, is the firmware chip / electronics somehow placed into a different "setting" or "state" when the drive is formatted for MS-DOS as opposed to a Mac Journaled format?

I believe that the failed, patient drive was originally formatted for MS-DOS when I purchased it about a year and a half ago and I then formatted the drive to Mac Journaled for use on my system. It should have been in this drive format when it failed. The working, donor drive was formatted for MS-DOS when I received it and performed the first PCB swap for which I observed the start-up sequence described above. I then wondered if the format might have some significance and then moved the PCB back to the working, donor drive and then re-formatted it to Mac Journaled. Upon moving the PCB back to the failed, donor drive I still observed the same start-up sequence without mounting to the computers.

At any rate, I am hoping that someone in the community might happen to have some insight into this as my instinct is that I am close to actually getting the failed drive working long enough to retrieve the data off of it and that there is simply something that I am overlooking.

Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated. Many, many thanks in advance for your help.

Regards,

Shawn

This is your problem...

And incomplete diagnosis. Heads could also be bad.

_________________
You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

1. HFS+ (Mac) vs. NTFS or FAT32 makes no difference - all are supported;
2. The chances are very slim that your PCB has compatible firmware;
3. Most WDC enclosures incorporate encryption - data on the drive is encrypted / decrypted by the PCB in the enclosure;
4. DRC is spot on - you won't go far without a proper diagnosis
5. There isn't much you can do without proper gear experience, etc.
6. You might be able to fix the original PCB if indeed it is broken, but otherwise, you need a pro if you want your data.

_________________
http://www.datasaversllc.com

The PCB may have failed because of something else. How was it determined ?



No wonder



Oh !



NO. (At least from what you said and reported symptoms)



NO.



I would have done something else (not DIYable by you) . The discussion, however, is pointless because expensive tooling and K-H is required either for certain diagnose and eventually for fixing the issue. Unluckily, expenses are unavoidable....

1. Since the drive was in an enclosure and is 1tb with that model I am almost certain it was a smartware enclosure which means you need to have the drive in the enclosure since the enclosure encrypts the data.

2. As others have said you cannot just Swap a board with these drives. ( Well you can, but you will be based on very , very , very good luck you get the right board). That is if it is just the board that is an issue.

3. If the board fried, then it is possible the preamp fried and now you are looking at Mechanical failures as well

4. If the data is really important I would recommend you get a proper diagnosis from a professional lab without tinkering with the drive anymore. Without knowing how hard drives work from the inside out, you are only speculating what the issue could be.

5. Format of the drive has no impact on how the drive operates. It could be HFS+, EXT2/3/4, Dos, NTFS, Fat32, XFS... That is like saying your car will drive differently if you have leather over cloth seats.