I have a WD3200BEVT-60A23T0, clicking constantly, drive still detected by BIOS, seems like it needs heads replaced, only Donor Drive I have is WD3200BEVT-11A03T0 which is a dual platter head, the 60A23T0 is a single platter, is there some kind of handy reference somewhere that lists not only interface board compatibility between drive models but head compatibility???

https://www.donordrives.com/blog/matching-guide

That's the best explanation i can find unless someone else has more to add please share your wisdom

A23 = Jamaica family, 1 platter
A03 = Pluto family, 1 or 2 platter, usually 2.

You will need to find a Jamaica drive with matching heads number, type and preamp or some drive from a compatible family like Everest.

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Where did you find this information about what family what drives belong to

You could use the demo version of WDMarvel to dump the drive's firmware resources. Module 0xC5 usually contains the family name.

https://wdmarvel.com/en/demo/

You could also consult firmware databases, eg ...

https://firmware.hddsurgery.com/?manufacturer=Western%20Digital&family=Jamaica

You might find this article useful:

Headstack matching for Western Digital:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=1036

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Wrong conclusion. Heads are OK. The only thing you can do is to ruine the drive.

So what do you think the problem is if it's not the heads worn out causing the drive clicking, drive clicking is usually head problem correct?

Wrong. Damaged media, most likely SA.

It could be the platter is damaged, there is no visible damage but it is an old drive and the customer reported it getting slower and slower before it became unreadable so it might be the platter is be mostly bad sectors, actually originally the drive would sow up in BIOS but would make windows hang on startup and linux too until the drives drops out but I was able to get it to boot windows and drive was still detected but unreadable to i can probably view the SMART data, I'll go have a look

Wrong. it can be simply bad heads as well.
Just for the sake of argument

pepe

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@pepe
Define "bad heads".

@TheRabidtech

Do you have Data extract tool. Like pc3000,mrt,dfl

Did you connect it DE tool and what happend? You says " drive still detect by bios." It means i think there is a chance to recover drive, still without swap the heads, sometimes. atleast part of data.

@BGman:
there are other questions related to this job as well, namely that what we call 'detected' and how exactly it clicks.
So i think we would need more info to identify the problem more precisely.

pepe

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All doubts will end when the drive is at your hand.
Almost all customers always tells a fake story.

yes, but this drive is in Australia and we are never gonna get it for eval.
pepe

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I think a recorded sound from the drive will do the job to precisely diagnose the problem.

@pepe

From your POV , this drive needs DR, so it's some kind of chalenge to you.
From my POV, it's a damaged drive that has to be trashed without waisting of time....

it does not matter much what our POV is. What matters is the OP's POV. Does he need the data or not.
pepe

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