Hi,
The Western Digital WD3200BPVT hard drive in my Acer Aspire One notebook computer failed while I was using it. My screen froze and I was unable to do anything but reboot the computer. Upon reboot, I got the message "Install bootable device..." I looked at the BIOS settings and my drive was still properly identified at that point.

After trying to reboot a few times, the drive identification information was gone from the BIOS but comes and goes intermittently, with attempted reboots of the system. And upon each reboot attempt, the drive makes a single "clicking" noise which it never made before.

My computer is only 6 months old and has never been dropped or mishandled. I have some very important information on the drive that I'd like to recover before sending it in for warranty repairs.

So far, I have tried using a SATA to USB cable to see if it can be recognized by another computer. The existence of the drive was detected, but it has been only recognized as a 320 GB drive, with no other information.

It seems to me that if the BIOS is unable to reliably communicate with the drive, the drive pcb controller board ROM must be defective. I am tempted to replace it if I can find a donor which is the same model and close in manufacture date, serial number, etc.

Can anyone tell me what it means that it is intermittently seen in the BIOS and never bootable? What is the most likely problem?

Thanks a Lot! LAGB

IMHO that's the wrong guess - the ROM is one of the parts that is likely to be OK, especially given that the behaviour varies intermittently.

Have a read of these articles for a bit more overview of what drives need to do internally, before they are recognised by the BIOS:

newbie-info-from-and-for-newbies-about-firmware-etc-t6562.html
diy-what-the-big-deal-t12671.html


Swapping the PCB requires more work than just getting a donor, can require specialist extra equipment (which you won't have) if the ROM is not separate, and in this case is anyway likely to be a waste of your time and money. Of course this is just a remote guess, based on very limited info - diagnosis may change when someone with suitable experience has the drive on their bench...


Sounds like an internal drive problem to me - likely heads. That is not a sensible, low-risk DIY replacement option for you.

IMHO your next choice is whether to go ahead with some attempts at DIY recovery, without opening the drive, but with the risk that you may cause more deterioration in that drive during your attempts, and therefore make any later recovery attempts by a pro more difficult / expensive or even impossible. Choices depend on your skills, available time, budget, value of the data to you, your decision about risks you want to take etc.

Vulcan is giving you the right answer here.
Your pcb is fine, your rom is fine. Some internal problem with the drive, possibly a weak head or so. It needs to be evaluated by a pro. If you care about the data, contact a pro near you to have your drive tested and so you'll know what youre dealing with.

I suggest member jono-ats, he 's in Atlanta.

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