And another wdbpck0010bbk out.

You only find out how bad the drives are when one fails on you and you start searching.. Man...

Nothing caused by bumps or anything, but it may have been static, but does static ruin the heads or the board?

Blue led blinking fast, disc spins up on boot but heads start clicking in pattern 6 - 2 - 2 clicks or so it seems, so the heads can't pick up anything?

Would a donor board work? Does it require firmware transfer and eeprom transfer?
Can the eeprom be read out through a port?
If this encrypted drive?

I appreciate your tips. I had a RAID NAS on order, but Murphy got me first..

well i haven't seen a Element or Passport drive with faulty pcb not so far, it is very rare in these drives also symptoms you describe suggest head failure, if data is important better send disk to a DR company and get the price estimate first.

yes, when transferring board you need to transfer ROM and yes it can be read by a port and probably your drive is encrypted also (not sure). In your case problem is not firmware or board related.

sorry not a DIY.

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Data Recovery Pakistan

99% certainly heads and/or media issues, PCB won't help with or without a ROM swap.

We can assist in UK, or member "dobrevjetser" in Belgium

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Thanks for responding, indeed I found online no cases where transplant of pcb solved a clicking drive.. (That is WD elements..)

Is there a lot off difference in heads on the various versions of this drive? I mean if one had a donor drive, would a platter change or head change work (in a clean room or relativly clean room

They charge like 600-1000 euro for cases like this?

Some variants of heads, but that's not the issue. Even physical swapping the heads is only a tiny proportion of the headaches with these drives.

Platter swap is out of the question, pointless and doomed to fail!

600-1000 Euro sounds a little steep, but not out of the ballpark

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

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