I've got a Hitachi 2.5" 7200 500GB which does not ID at all. Doesn't click, spins up and stays spinning and sounds normal and is DRD and DSC. I tried checking FW modules but PC3K couldn't read any. I though perhaps weak heads so I stuck in a set of good donor heads, but have the same problem.

Test : Start SA checking

Module is not loaded (RESF, Main module table)
NV-RAM reading.......................... : Ok

Module checking
Module RSVD Copy 0...................... : Error
Module RSVD Copy 1...................... : Error

Drive then goes BSY and stays BSY when trying to check modules. Donor heads work fine if they are put back in donor. Can't read any modules, drive doesn't ID...stuck. Any ideas would be welcome. Thanks. A good weekend to all.

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I've put patient heads into donor and they work, so heads aren't the issue...

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Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
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I have seen strange things with Hitachi drives. I would try to rule out the PCB next.

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

Yes, you should swap it to be sure it's fine.

I found the solution to this one by troubleshooting everything I could Bizarre and was the last thing I expected, but have full access to user data now.

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Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Data Recovery Cape Town

Good deal congrats on this one glad you figured it out

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Iorana Haraharaini

Nick, out of curiosity, what was the problem with the drive after all?

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It seems I have exact same issue as Nick. Heads are OK, NVRAM reads fine, FW mods can not be read, NVRAM from SA can not be read. Drive does not ID. Doesn't click, spins up and stays spinning and sounds normal.

I AM using HD Doctor however.

Nick, care to give a hint as to what you found?

What is the history on the drive?
Are you using the original heads to read the firmware?

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

Thanks for replying--I've been working on this drive for 3 weeks.

Spins when powered up, but no 'initialization' sound from heads.
Comes to Ready, does not Load from HDD (goes to error state)
Read NVRAM--succeed
Read NVRAM from SA--FAIL
Read RAM--succeed
Read ROM--succeed

Heads click when trying to read first F/W Module: RSVD (and fails to read, of course)
Read of other modules fail without head noise, or if I try to to read any individual module. Also, goes into 'error' state after/while trying to read any module (and fails to read). Have to power off/on to bring to 'ready' again.

All above is same with donor PCB. With patient PCB attached to donor drive and appropriate ICs swapped, donor drive works perfectly, so PCB is not the issue.

Have tried programming with donor NVRAM.

Same symptoms with head swap.

As far as the history, it wasn't dropped or jarred--just received it that way in a laptop from a customer.

Do the donor heads still work after placing them back on the donor?

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

Yes, head stack from donor to patient then back to donor--donor drive still works, as in Nick_CT's original post above.

Seems like media damage in the SA.

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

This was a long time ago..... If my memory serves me correctly it required a compatible donor PCB with NVRAM written to it.

_________________
Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Data Recovery Cape Town