Got it! Thanks

Perhaps WD do in fact provide for the function of these pins to be redefined by the bridge firmware in accordance with a particular jumper???

GPIO pins are sometimes utilised in this fashion. For example, pin #11 of a SATA power connector can either be used to drive an external activity LED, or to provide staggered spinup control.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Thanks for the suggestions. As per fzabkar request, here are pics of the HDD frame & 12 pin connector.

I called Jon from Data Savers LLC in Atlanta GA.

I'm sending him the HDD tomorrow first thing in the morning by UPS Next Day.

Thanks Jon for taking the time to explain the DR process and possible failure reasons.
Looking forward to hear from you and get your diagnostic once the HDD is in your hands.

Merci d'avance

What are you even talking about

Was there a thread somewhere where someone said the pins were a secret, and wouldn't tell you what they are for?

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

Had me scratching my head as well.

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Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

I'm talking about the countless threads where visitors have photographed this mysterious connector and asked what it was used for. There were never any responses, at least none that answered the question. In the light of the trivial revelation in this thread, one would have to ask why?

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

You've made the right choice my friend

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I can't think of any of these. Maybe I didn't read them. I do recall plenty where people asked how they could hook a SATA connection up to the pins, and of course nobody ever told them how because you can't.

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

@drc:

Just FYI, here is the recent post that I remember from those which mentioned that connector, and which I quoted in my earlier comment, about WD saying that the connector was for data recovery:

wd5000bmvv-connector-t16203.html#p127365

I do see that someone mentioned the connector in passing. I'm not sure how that qualifies as any other members stonewalling them on some crucial information related to recovering their data, as Franc seems to be implying.

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

And that's all I was showing, in case it helped to see an example.