Indeed, another one.

I've been looking around to find more information on what's causing this problem.
I'm not paying 2000$ for data recovery, but i'd like to have my pictures, video and audio back, so i hope somebody can help me out..

I wanted to analyse the hard disk with MHDD, but it doesn't show up in the drive list..
I have no experience at all with datarecovery or MHDD, does anybody know how this is possible? Are there any other free tools to analyse it? I'd like to know if the clicking is caused by a defect PCB or broken heads... I really hope it's just the PCB because i've never changed heads and it doesn't seem that easy..

more info:

Model: WD5000KS - 00MNB0
Date: 06 OCT 2006
DCM: HCHCAJAAB

PCB# 2060-701383-001 REV A.


Kind Regards
Wolf Bracke

No. It's not the PCB and you can't try anything else apart sending to a pro and paying, no free tool can access a failing disk. You are wasting your time searching for help if you are not experienced (WD drives are a world apart). IF YOU DON'T WANT TO PAY, ALL YOUR DIGITAL STUFF AT PRESENT IS NOT LOST : IT WILL REMAIN SAFE AND SOUND INSIDE THE DRIVE so put it in a drawer and when someone with good chances of repairing will make you an offer you can affort, then you can go for it. In the mean time, if you want to experiment, good luck. Don't expect a training in head swapping or anything similar. Be real. Sad but true.
P.S. how much will you pay for having the drive repaired ? Say it loud, maybe someone here accept, so get in contact with him and... good luck again.

Rgds.

Bad, bad attitude. Have you called the WD help desk ?

Hello, Lupe

In this way you can only ruin the chance of you ever get back your data....
The clicking noise is always bad news, and the problem can be different and never easy to solve.

I suggest, find a pro, who can accept your money.
The most important thing here is the proper diagnosis!
If you make mistake, your data is gone forever....

(In my lab, the first level diagnosis is always free. Where are you located?)

Regards,
Janos

I read somewhere that there is a small chance that there is a problem with the PCB, in that case i'd find a similar hdd and change the PCB (I thought that wasn't too dangerous, or is it?).

Or are you 100% sure this is a head problem?

Well, i'm from Belgium so if there's somewhere around who could make me a nice price i'd think about it..
I'm a student so i cant pay what the recoverycompanies ask..

On the wd site i find as a recovery company in belgium only 'Norman Data Recovery', can't find a pricelist but voor a 500gb HDD it must be way too much..
I understand a company wants to pay 2000$ if their important documents are lost, but as i student i simply can't..

it's like 99.9999999999999999999999999999999%

_________________
SAN, NAS, RAID, Server, and HDD Data Recovery.

Such WD drive could be recovered only by experts. Experts don't work for free
I suggest take it as a bad luck and forget about information, life is still moving forward

_________________
SAN, NAS, RAID, Server, and HDD Data Recovery.

You could PM dobrevjetser, aka Marc Vergalle. He's an active member of this forum and very professional. He's based in Belgium. I'm not sure what his prices are but it's worth contacting him.

_________________
Data Recovery Ireland

In any case it's not going to cost 20 EUR.

For the future, beware of these 1TB , 500 GB.... the cost is relatively low but these are very delicate equipment with very high density recording. A small bump and voila... the drive is gone. A small glitch in the power supply and.. poof ! the drive is gone. Why not having more robust 160, 250 GB. and backup on inexpensive DVDs the relevant materials , maybe in 2 copies stored in different safe places ? Caveat emptor - Beware, you buyer !

Also don't forget that all the borderline production, mass refurbished and factory repaired drive still reappear on the market... guess in what form ?

The drive comes out of a WD Mybook, i thought it was time to take a backup on a 1TB drive.
Everything seems fine, i never had a problem, the HDD never fell of the table and it was just transferring.
A few hours and 100gb later the drive starts to make a zooming noise, computer didn't react no more.
I restarted my computer and the hdd wasn't visible anymore, if i started the hdd, it gives two times three clicks and goes to idle.

I looked around, found this site: http://www.fixya.com/support/t304875-book_makes_clicking_noise_not_show_up where a lot of people report problems on this drive, but almost everybody seems to get their data back by dismanteling it. http://www.ransackery.com/western-digital-mybook-open-case-recover-data.htm Here i found how to do it without completely destroying it.

I followed these steps, connected hdd with a sata cable to my motherboard and still nothing..

I read so many stories of people who got their data back after a few simple steps..

I can't believe the heads broke down by just transferring some data.. The only thing i can imagine is overheating, but still why the fucking hell should a company make 500GB harddisks if they crash after transferring 100GB of data??

Maybe i should contact WD garanty service, tell them their harddisks sucks balls and force them to pay my data recovery..
Is their any chance they will do?

Thanks for your responses

No. You're screwed. Any component of any man-made device can fail at any time for seemingly no reason. It's good that some people recovered their data from an easy problem, but that's no guarantee you have an easy problem. On the contrary, you're screwed. You do have a few choices.

1) Toss the drive, and take solace in the fact you learned a good lesson well. Back up everything important to you.
2) Wrap up the drive in an antistatic bag, put it on a shelf, and hope sometime in your future $2000 isn't a big deal to you.
3) Find a pro in your price range. Be aware that, if your price range is too low, you'll likely only find scammers with bootleg software (None of which will help anyway).

Best of luck.

You're TOTALLY screwed because you opened the enclosure. At least, if you didn't open it, WD in the warranty period had changed your HDD with another one.
To make it DEFINITIVELY clear, the manufacturer has a warranty on the drive, not on the data you put in it. The security of YOUR data is up to you.
Read carefully the instructions and the end-user agreement.
In no way you can have your data recovered at WD's expenses. Simply the drive has failed. They don't ask why during warranty, they better change the drives with no questions (unless of course the drive has been tampered or in case of misuse!)
If you buy a cassette tape or a DVD and it has defects during recording of a un-repeatable event, the maximum extent of warranty is to have a new tape or DVD in replace of the defective one.
It's up to you to make copies of your valuable data and materials.
At this point you may want to punctualize and stygmatize and this discussion could go on and on and on pointlessly : the matter of fact is that you have a defective drive with data inside and - the worse thing, blame internet and this strange DIY subculture - probably you could have the drive at last replaced.
And don't buy large drives again.