Hi,

I have a WD5000AAKS drive on my table. That's a 6 heads drive. The client said, that the drive wasn't dropped. It was just laying in his cabinet. The first Head0-3 were reading fine. Head 4 was reading slow, but I got some clicks in between. The Head 5 is not reading at all also failing the heads test.

Currently I tried to clean the contacts (on the PCB) of the heads and also switched the board and rewrote the firmware to it - same.
Is the WD5000AAKS one of the drives, where the top lid and the head screw has to be tightened in some way? Or is there no other way then change the heads.

I saw same behavior when somebody putted magnet on top of drive. Low heads are fine, but top can't read or clicking.

Sorry, i can't get why u didn't swap heads if u think something is wrong with them. What's the point of messing with fw in such case?
Also, wouldn't bad contact affect all heads' reading?

@drHdd: before swapping heads (or at least measure some signals) it is a bit steep to presume such problem, don't you think?

_________________
Adatmentés - Data recovery

I didn't messed with the firmware, but with the PCB. Why? Take a to the picture of the PCB. Before I do anything with the heads of the drive, I try everything else. And I didn't mess anything with the firmware, I just rewrote it to a donor PCB.

Why I didn't swap the heads? Because I don't have such heads in my lab. And the problem itself is strange. The customer said, that this drive was just lying in his cabinet. After 1 year, he wanted to use it again, but it didn't worked. 4 Heads on the bottom were reading just fine. The head under the top platter was clicking and reading slow, the top head didn't read at all.

So the counter question is, why should the heads be damaged? By what? And only the two top heads?

is it just the lighting, or is one of the read channel pads lifted? I don't see how you could have read anything if it's lifted, so must just be the lighting.

_________________
Sabo Computer Repairs & Data Recovery

Yes, he should change heads in first.

i thought you rewrote firmware to SA, sorry.

use a rubber eraser to clean the contacts, but it has nothing to do with your current problem.

_________________
Adatmentés - Data recovery

Was this drive computer in a place with a lot of moisture ? Have you seen the computer ( to understand where the hdd was positioned and what could be over it ).

Does the top label looks ok and without holes ( if you didn´t open the drive yet, that is )