Hi there,
My first ever post here and to me a mindboggling one

WD5000AAKS-75MA0 Rev A00

I started to have lost this HDD from showin in my system and it does now as unknown device.
The Bios on 2 systems do not recognize the drive
I have this HDD tested in Mhdd but it does not get recognized properly when it half does it shows LBA on and not accesible. it does also see the same corruption in mhdd as far as fw goes
Victoria does see a corrupt fw but is unable to get its passport.
the serial is shown as 1 and so is the rest of that ID info with more 1's
It seems to me this firmware has gone corrupt on me.
can i reflash it and if so does the serial number mather ????
Or is there another explenation for this strange behaviour

Greets Jax

Don't try to reflash anything.

The drive probably has SA firmware corruption (not the EEROM) and needs a pro.

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Model will be WD5000AAKS-75TMA0

Does it spin up, tick quietly a few times then spin down?

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It does not want to spin up.
It does seem to be "recognized as a unknown device" in 2 windows 7 PC's though the controller BIOS POST does not list it.

Via mhdd and victoria i see most info after determined refreshing. it does not show the modelmake nor the serial.

If it does not spin up at all, and no noises at all, then it's probably a PCB issue.

From memory there is no external ROM on this board, so there's no DIY (unless there is a TVS issue - search it)

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I am investing much time in this trying not to break anything ofcourse.
So far i found that a DRQ error is not helping me much and blocks me in mhdd and Victoria, does this point to a busted PCB?.
The TVS i havent come around to check out yet but not to mess too much with it pulling it apart.
(Seems i need a smaller torx to buy for that too)
I been told a donor pcb does the job, yet my thought is "Does the AAKS-75MAO work via a, so i read $50, PC3000 card"
For future purpose I would reckon a PC3000 would be wiser than a brand and model specific donor pcb.

So i continue to investigate.

(I havent come across a post yet pointing me a failsafeish solution for a wd this make without ROM nor a combo with the DRQ Error i get)

If it's just a PCB fault, then you don't need PC3000 to repair your drive. I believe you should be able to do it with WDR-UDMA.

You need to replace the board and then use WDR-UDMA (or some other tool) to transfer the "ROM" data from the platters to your flash memory. The whole job should cost around US$250, including a replacement PCB.

You may even be able to do it with AFF Repair Station, but I would contact the author before proceeding.

See fried-wd10eads-pcb-2060-701640-001-rev-t16966-40.html

BTW, you say that your drive appears as an unknown device. Have you set the PM2 jumper??? This configures the drive to power up in standby (PUIS). If you haven't set this jumper, then do so and see whether the board identifies itself any differently.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

thanks for the insight fzabkar,

I tried pm2 and fw jumpers but no joy.
I got me a donor pcb and the hdd does make sounds now like it wants to boot but then spins down.
I tried AFF but it didnt recognize the hdd anymore with new PCB or any controller.

It seems i get some noise and since donor and patient arent a match yet its to try match em now.

I did see the Smooth-chip had a bang, burnout....

tbc..

Could we see the damage to the SMOOTH motor controller chip?

If the damage is on the side of the DC-DC converters, then it may be that the preamp inside the HDA is damaged, in which case you would be looking at a cost of around US$800 plus parts to recover your data.

BTW, a direct board swap is very unlikely to work, even between "matched" boards. This is because your PCB stores unique, drive specific "adaptive" data inside the Marvell MCU chip (big "M"). These data would need to be transferred to your donor PCB.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Hi this afternoon ,again,
I used an example img of the same PCB, and down J6 as marked red I have the damage to the chip wich on the surface has molten away a bit

http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/9028/exemplar.jpg


(PS: if you want a real own PCB pic, i need to go get a camera of higher res first)

Thanks for the info thusfar fzabkar

That's the spindle motor side of the chip, which would suggest that the DC-DC converters are probably OK.

I'm not a data recovery professional, so I don't know where to go from here as far as DIY is concerned. Personally I would take a gamble by purchasing WDR-UDMA or the earlier serial version, but you may be throwing good money after bad. Then again, you could always try reselling the tool.

BTW, sometimes you can use a scanner instead of camera. My scanner produces excellent images (eg http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/SP ... 3_Vcc2.jpg), but not all do.

Just to be sure, the large dimple in the IC in your photo is actually a mould mark that identifies pin #1. It does not indicate damage.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.