Hi,

This is my first post here. However I am regular visitor of this forum and got very useful info from this forum.

I have extrernal WD My passport essential SE 1 TB hard disk. I have been using this HD for past 10 months. One day I connected this HD to my friend's desktop and it gave power surge error, after that this HD is undetectable on any PC/Laptop. The hard disk spins up, LED blinks for a while and then remains stable.
I heard the hard disk sound closely, platter spins and I can hear the one click and light vibration (like head is trying to access platter), after that platter only spins and power LED stays stable.
Following are the details of Hard disk:

WD P/N : WD10TMVW-11ZSMS5
DCM : HHMT2BBN
DCX : XZ55S77M9
WWN: 50014EE159BAAEE0
PCB : 2060-771814-001 REV P1

I gave my hard disk to two different local data recovery companies and they told me that my R/W head has crashed to platter also my PCB has problem, but I dont hear any screeching or whirring sound from HD. I still don't believe recovery company because they gave me estimation of 25000 INR (approx 450 USD) to recover data.
I still thinks problem is in PCB only and if I swap PCB with compatible donor, it will work. I have found the donor PCB with same REV.
Please help me,
1) Can I go ahead and SWAP PCB, also transferring U12 chip from old PCB to donor PCB?
2) How to check R/W head crash?

Regards,
Anzar

Have the drive decently diagnosed by a professional who has the right gear , otherwise you'll get this kind of........ answers. On the other hand, when your decisions are biased by the urge NOT to spend money (= data is not important maybe ?) you get his kind of results.

P.S. if there was a real crash the drive would have behaved differently. The problem is elsewhere (if exist at all).

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, the first thing they asked that data is important or not? I told them that not all data is important, but some of them are. I was ready to spend some cash on it. However 450 USD is way too high.
Anyway, Now I'm planning to do it myself. Can you confirm that my approach of replacing PCB is right?
Is there a way to check head crash? If I'm checking it in a clean room.

Honestly, unless you are more than experienced, have a REAL Class 100 or less clean room and already know how these drives are made, you are going to kill (if any... depending on what was done on the drive) the chances of getting data back. There are also too many things to consider in this specific case (WD , My Passport).

The PCB is the latest thing to work on in such case - I use other kind of equipment.

Finally, you can "see" only the top platter surface if you open the drive (BUT DON'T DO IT !) , not the other surfaces underneath.

In my opinion the problem is elsewhere, but I cannot convince you about the contrary , and even if I succeed you either don't have any equipment to work with the drive neither know how to use it, so it's pointless.
And we still don't know what the 2 companies have done to your drive (opened it ? worked on it and with what ?)...

@BlackST.

I got your point. I'm an engineer and understands the criticality of opening hard disk. However, yes, I don't have the equipments .

Regarding those two recovery companies, they are locals and I strongly believe that they have not opened the hard disk at all.

I just want to get the exact cause of hard disk failure.
If my platters are affected then I'll just dump this hard disk because data is not that much important.
If platters not affected then I'll go ahead replace the PCB(transfer chip U12 & U14 also), and hope that my hard disk starts working again.
If drive has some firmware corrupt issue then PCB replacement will not work.

I'll not open the hard disk unless it is really needed. I work in a datacentre and that is the clean room for me.

PCB is not at fault to me. If there is a problem it is firmware related, always in my opinion. It's just guessing as I didn't see the drive and analyzed it.

Can also be that there is NO problem at all in the drive itself. Was encryption used by a chance ?

I got power surge error, which definitely affected PCB.

I didn't enable any encryption(i.e. no password nothing). But this kind of drive(WD My passport essential) has hardware encryption enabled by default. Some 512 bytes AES encryption.

Then I can't tell anything without seeing the drive. Encryption - however - will add other problems. I give up, sorry.

(Still convinced that the problem is elsewhere/marginal as it spin up and stay on , but I have everything it takes to fix it....).

@BlackST

Thanks for your help.

If I find exact PCB sticker and number for replacement, do I have to move firmware/ROM chip to donor PCB?

Yes you would need to move the U12 (& maybe the U14) to the donor.
If the U12 is empty then its embedded in the U5 which will need specialist tools to do unless you get it done when purchasing the pcb.

Here isa pic of your board from pcb-hdd.com http://pcb-hdd.com/images/WD10TMVW-11ZS ... c7fd9bbab9

They also have them in stock http://pcb-hdd.com/wd10tmvw-11zsms5-206 ... -1112.html

Remember that DIY has risks & limits & is depended on correct diagnosis

Loki

I doubt that PCB is the problem, neither is it likely to be heads given that it spins up and sounds normal.

I would expect that it either has a firmware problem, or has bad sectors preventing the smartware from initialising.

Nothing you can do DIY I'm afraid, but we can offer a good deal for hddguru members

Contact me via our website if interested.

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

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

I can help aswell if you don't mind crossing the borders and if at least data is worth it.

Guys,

Thanks for your replies. I'll scan my PCB today to see any burn marks.

I'll post images of PCB soon.

Hi Guys,

No burn marks found on the PCB. Attached the snaps.

I guess PCB swap won't help.

Any suggestions????

Either you don't understand or don't want to listen.... or maybe what you heard is not what you wanted to hear, who knows....

I give up, anyway.

You have already been told it wasn't the PCB.

You have also already been told the likely problem and it's not DIY.

There is nothing YOU can do, you do not have the (expensive) equipment.

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

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

Thanks Guys.

I should dump this hard disk as data was not so important that I would spent money on that.

Hi Guys,

If I don't want my data back, is there any way I can make my hard disk work again?

Simple answer : NO.

Detailed answer : the drive has been most probably tampered in uncontrolled / unknown way so it in any case won't be reliable. AND in any case the abovementioned expensive tools are required even for refurbishing it.

Can the thread be closed ?