Hello all.
This is my first post here, although I often check here and there.
I'm from the German speaking Alps of Italy (South Tyrol) and, as for many other users here on hddguru... I try to solve some technological problems DIY style.
DIY but with some expert advice!
In this case I'm trying to help a friend.

This SATA WD5000AAJS was inside a Verbatim bulky and blueish enclosure connected to a Mac. Suddenly the system couldn't see the disk anymore.

So we open the enclosure and I take the drive home to see what Windows 7 tells me.
Connect it to an open PCB I have there and... Spin up... stays so for a while and spin down.
System sees nothing.
And then I realize, looking around on the forum, that maybe this Verbatim enclosure encrypts data: never thought some of them do!

How can I/we proceed now? Is the board faulty? How can I tell?
If the board is faulty... what next?
Data on the drive are not vital... but are data nonetheless.

Thank you all for help and advice.

Hi, this is not a DIY case sorry to say.
One or more heads are gone, you need to seek out pro help to get your files back.
Down in your area is Dobrejevster in Begium or BlackST in Italy to recommend.

Cheers/ Bosse

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Rescue IT Datarecovery service Sweden
Rescue IT Dataräddning Göteborg AB
http://www.rescue-it.se

I would also not power the drive many times if your data is valuable, as it might even get the case worse.

Also, most of the guys here do not charge for diagnosis, so you can at least take a good opinnion about your case.

I vote for heads. If it has not been dropped of course

What is the part number on the largest chip (Marvell MCU) on the HDD PCB?

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Hello fzakbar. Sorry for answering so late...
The numbers on the Marvell chip are:
88i6745-TFJ1
YPMA162AE
0737 B1P
TW

Ciao BlackST!
No, never been dropped...
Could we get in touch via PM?

That chip is known to have a problem that mimics damaged heads.

See wd5000aaks-00tma0-damaged-t19077.html

The following PCB supplier offers a free PCB adaptation service:
http://www.donordrives.com/services
http://www.donordrives.com/blog/pcbswapguide
http://www.donordrives.com/hard-drive-p ... swap-match

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Peccato che il problema è da tutta altra parte...

If it spins down, then likely issue is somewhere else, internally.

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

Maybe, but that wasn't the case in that other thread. The drive in that thread spun down, but it actually turned out to be a PCB fault.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Out of the norm things can happen, definitely.

Generally speaking, in my experience, a drive with a faulty PCB mimicking a faulty head should not cause a spin down.

Or maybe we are talking about different things... Not sure.

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

Hmmm, secondo te? Non posso inviare MP, troppo giovane... tu puoi?

I rechecked a few minutes ago.
The drive starts to spin;
4 faint clicks (separated by maybe 2 seconds) as if the heads start positioning;
sound of motor steadily increasing for some seconds;
spin down of the motor;
windows sound that device is connected (CrossFire... I believe the name of the Verbatim enclosure).

The whole lasts for some 40 seconds...