Hi All,

HELP! out of ideas.

Have an external hard drive, mdl WD5000AAKS-00TMA0

It ceased working one day, completely, no power. The PCB was burnt out, highly scorched in places so i changed it (an disposed of the broken one )

The new PCB was from exactly the same model, manufactured at a similar date. The drive now spins up and runs but unfortunately i can't get any information from it. Cant get it to detect mounted in a PC, through the external carriage it detects the disk but doesnt recognize the size. Through Western Digital diagnosis the disk is detected but again no repair is possible, no size detected etc. If i boot up in something like disk part no detection occurs.

I'm all out of ideas and changing disk heads is a last last last resort. Can someone give me some pointers? does the PCB have a firmware with it as when i boot up another disk in WD Diagnosis model number, serial number etc is displayed.

Seeking help, now at a brick wall. Please help experts!!

Your original PCB contained crucial information relating to the unique operation of your specific HDD. No two HDD's will ever operate 100% the same.

This information can be restored via specialist (and very expensive) equipment.

The fact that contemplating changing the heads 'as a last resort' confirms that you clearly have no idea about data recovery and your best and only option here is to get professional assistance.

Assuming is just the PCB that is damaged and you have done nothing except replace PCB the recovery should be straight forward and inexpensive.

Search this forum for WD ROM, or WD PCB and you will see many many threads like yours.

i have know idea about data recovery. Dam True. But i'm fairly technical! Thanks for the help, further support much appreciated! where next?

Maybe you missed the part where I said "This information can be restored via specialist (and very expensive) equipment.".

Without this there is no possibility of restoring the native ROM information to a replacement PCB.

Even with the equipment you would need experience and basic understanding of HDD operation.

Realistically if you want to go down the DIY road you are likely not going to rescue your data.

Next stage in DIY:

Purchase 100+ donor drives, maybe you will get lucky with a small chance of finding suitable ROM (unlikely)

Next Stage for data recovery:

Send to somebody who has the equipment and the know-how and you will get your data back.

You can't do this job yourself, you need to send it in.

Best to send it to forum member pcimage in the UK, he will sort it out for you. Just do a search.

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Data Recovery Cape Town

Thanks for your help guys.

Will look at the professional route as the next option then,

M

Should be fairly straightforward and relatively inexpensive at this stage.

PM me if you want me to tak a look

_________________
PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

See wd5000aaks-00tma0-damaged-t19077-40.html

BTW, could we see the damage to the original board? Sometimes there is an easy DIY fix.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

According to the original post, he's disposed of it

_________________
PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

going to have to rebuild the ROM from the SA. No DIY there... There is a chance that a donor board from the drive with same parameters will work - but its like playing the lottery. IMO you will spend more money on the boards then going for PCimage. The procedure for ROM reconstruction is fast and relatively simple and as such - not expensive. Plus i hear Pcimage is not as bloodthirsty as some data recovery companies out there =)))

How many attempts do you normally require before you are able to gain access to the SA using foreign adaptives, assuming that's how you do it?

I'm wondering whether it may be quicker to hack the board by wiring up some external Vcore and Vio regulators, and then enabling the POR signal which is normally controlled by the motor IC. If the MCU is alive, then I expect you would be able to access its adaptives.

The external regulators could be bussed from a similar PCB, or you could adapt a switchmode cigarette lighter adapter for a mobile phone, for example. Another way would be to take a hacksaw to the Vcore and Vio regulators on a socket 7 motherboard, and then modify the jumper settings and/or feedback resistors to select the desired voltages. An even easier way to generate the Vio rail would be to lift the base pin of the NPN pass transistor for the +3.3V regulator, and then add a resistor and 3.9V zener diode to this pin.

It may sound like an involved procedure, but the jig could be reused over and over again. Moreover, a PCB vendor may be able to use such a procedure to supply a compatible board with the original adaptives, without seeing the actual drive.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.