Hello,

I am wondering if anyone can help me out.

I have a WD3200JB 00KFA0 (IDE hard drive).

My Operating system is Xp Home Edition SP3 (Legal copy)

On the board it has these numbers :
2060-701314-003 REV A

On the sticker it has these numbers :
2061-701314-A00 AP XT .... .... . ....... . ... (The dots represent other numbers that I dont think mean anything...)

DCM : HHCACAJAAN

DATE : 22 NOVEMBER 2006

My computer shut down on me and when it restarted it had a few errors, (dll error of some kind.) so I restarted it again and it would not fire up. It said : Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information.

At that point it was still recognized on device manager but not in disk management. I did the windows test from Western Digitals site. Data Lifeguard tool I think. (I downloaded it to another pc) and it told me that the test could not be done because of a cable error. (I forget the exact error.) So I called Western Digital and the guy was telling me to shut it down and restart it and do a bunch of different things to see if I could see it anywhere. So then a few restarts and I could no longer see it anywhere. Bios would not recognize or boot the drive. So then I totally lost power with it and it would not spin up and it is not recognized anywhere.

Western Digital basically told me the disk is bad and there is nothing they could do for me but warranty it and suggest a place that could recover the data for a price. So I checked out a few places and got quotes that were RIDICULOUS TO ME. The more I looked into data recovery the more money I seen they charge. LOL! I guess I just cant justify paying that much to do it. Maybe it does take lots of time so I cant blame them for what they charge, but I dont want to have to pay that.

I have pictures and files on there that I would like to salvage. Its personal to me. I cant afford and dont want to pay the big money to a company to fix this. After doing a bunch of research on google and looking at any thread that I could find on it I felt that IT MAY BE THE pcb. I took it off my drive and then looked at it and the only thing I seen was it looked burnt a bit on one leg of the MOTOR CONTROL CHIP. One leg was basically burnt off of it. The chip was not melted or anything and the pad that was under the pcb was slightly burnt where the Motor Control chip was. So off to ebay I went and ended up buying a hard drive that had the date of OCTOBER 2005 (I forget the exact day) and the sticker number was the same, but the board read a 2060-701314-002 REV A instead of 2060-701314-003 REV A and needless to say, it did not work. It powered up and it made tick tick sound and then stopped and 5 seconds later tick tick and stop... It did this about 4 times and then it would say that it failed. I should also mention that I put this drive in a few different computers with XP PRO Edition and XP Home Edition and tried to see if I would see the data when running it as a slave drive.... So with this board, Bios would recognize it as WDC ROM MODEL-BUCCANER- 0805J08. (That is when it would recognize it.) So I gave up on that board. Then I got my replacement from WD and I was amazed that the drive they sent me had the absolute identical board as my original one. The only difference was the year. (Mine said 2004 and the new one said 2006) So I tried that out and same thing happened as the last one. tick tick... tick tick.... then it would not be recognized in bios half the time and when it did, it would recognize it as WDC ROM MODEL-BUCCANER- 0805J08. So after a bunch more researching, I decided to try the U12 swap off of my original pcb and the new one from Western Digital. I dont solder, so I finally found a guy to do it for me and he was confident that he could do it and said that he done it before, he said he just has to take his time to do it and time is money... LOL. So I went there and he did it for me in 45 minutes and charged me 35 bucks... I got home and tried it out and same thing.... But the only difference was it recognized it in bios as WDC ROM MODEL-BUCCANER- 08.05J08 (There is a DOT after the 8 now) I tried rebooting it a million times and now it rarely even finds it in bios but it still ticks twice, about 4 or 5 different times and then tells me primary slave failed to boot.

The only thing I wish I would have done was tried the NEW DRIVE from Western Digital to see if it worked from the start before taking the pcb off of it. (Might have been faulty from the start.) So I ended up trying the pcb back on the new drive that I originally took the pcb off of (Keep in mind the U12 chip is off the original burnt pcb) and it did some ticking noises and was recognized in bios as WDC ROM MODEL-BUCCANER- 08.05J08. So I just shut it off right away and took the pcb back off and put it on the hard drive that I am trying to salvage. So then I tried new ribbon cables and tried running it stand alone in the pc and still nothing... It recognizes it sometimes in bios as WDC ROM MODEL-BUCCANER- 08.05J08 and then when I try to boot it just tells me that it failed to boot.

Somewhere in the middle of all this I did the Data lifeguard test and it gave me ERROR/STATUS CODE : 0132 Command Error. (This was off the floppy boot disk test.)

I want to ask if I could change the disks inside the drive. If I could take them out of mine and put them in a donor hard drive. (The one I bought from ebay.) Will it all work? From what I also understand, there is firmware inside the drive. So my question would be, why cant I just change the disks inside my drive (If I find a clean room work area) and put them in the donor one that works perfectly fine?

I also want to ask if anyone can suggest anything from here.

What shoud I try next?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What shoud I try next?

Send your drive to a competent data recovery firm if you want the data back. You have done all that you can and more than most but your symptoms suggest that the preamp portion of the head stack is bad.

YOU CANNOT REPAIR THIS YOURSELF, NO MATTER HOW HARD YOU TRY. Recovery requires special gear and expertise that you lack. Removing the lid on this drive is A VERY BAD IDEA. So either pony up the $$$ to recover your drive or forget about it. Period.

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

Learn about WD SA structure and hardware anomalies before you even think of swapping the platters (or disks) of your WD drive. Swapping platters against WD (specially this model) will not be as easy as putting the disks to new chassis and hoping it works just like that. Clean room is not "the answer". There are more problems than just "clean room" works against WD drives. Search this forum about posts regarding miscellaneous problems after heads/platters swap with WD - you will find that even the pros with years of experience still have problems to resolve..


WD drives are not easy to deal with, and even the so said "standard DR shop" can not deal with damaged WD drives. Only very experienced ones and yes, truth really hurts....with expensive charge (maybe starting @ 350 USD and goes up to 2,000 USD .....)

I only can recommend you to keep your drive in safe place until you can find a reputable DR company with affordable price, otherwise, if you still have enough confidence of yourself, go on......swap the platters out and I can guarantee, you'll never have your data back.

Just curious, how much did the company quote you for the recovery ? (Hint : I will quote 1,200 USD for this case)

Good luck.
Jonathan

PS : WD is just not as easy as "that brand"

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My Forum

jono-ats, cryoborgofthevenus, Thank you for the replies. I am/will be looking into this further and that is why I put this post on here. (So I would hopefully get some knowledgeable opinions on what I should do next.)

I realize that my options were always a professional recovery service. It is a cost that I have been trying to avoid, like I said its all personal data that would be nice to have, but I am not willing to pay for it at this time. I have recieved quotes anywhere from $400.00 to $6000.00 (Canadian dollars.) Then there was also a question on whether or not it would be software related and if it was and ONLY if it worked, then I would have to pay $40.00 to $300.00. (Canadian dollars.) That was quotes from different companies and people from my area.

I do have it in a safe place and I highly doubt that I will let the drive out of my hands. I dont want someone that says that they are a pro to be working on it if they are not a pro. LOL... My last resort was to open it and work on it on my own. Again, that is why I came and wrote a post on here.

I have a 80GB WD drive that is no good and I was thinking of taking that apart just to look at it and see how it works.

I am also thinking of looking for another pcb that was manufactured sometime in November of 2006 and early December of 2006. The only reason I was thinking about trying this again is for the fact that I did not try the new hard drive that I originally took the pcb off of.

I am curious on whether or not it would have made a difference that I did not format the hard drive before trying the pcb from it. (This was a new drive that WD SENT ME on warranty.)

Thank you in advance for any further replies.

What is it with people?

You GOT knowledgeable opinions and good advice. That's not what you want. You think we are holding back and that there is someone out there who will -- if you can find them -- tell you easy, esoteric steps for getting your data back.

Do you tell your auto mechanic that you want to rebuild your engine with just a pair of pliers? Do you argue with him when he tells you that you cannot do it?

Keep asking, though. And be sure to continue to ignore any and all answers that are based upon experience, facts, and reality.

_________________
http://www.datasaversllc.com

I am not here to get put down and told that I did not appreciate an opinion... Had that been the case I would not have thanked you.

I got some answers and thats what I am here for, but I did not NECESSARILY GET THE ONE THAT I WOULD HAVE LIKED TO HEAR, EVEN THOUGH IT "MIGHT" be the right one... Had I wanted sarcasm and someone to belittle me, I would not be here. I clearly stated in my original post that I DID NOT WANT TO DO THE PRO SERVICE because I cant justify it at this time and your reply was telling me to do that. I already had ruled that option out. I am by far not a hard drive guru, but I am very handy at fixing different things and have a wide variety of knowledge in many different things because I am willing to listen to what others have to say. So I would appreciate it if you kept those kind of comments to yourself in the future. Please and thank you.

I dont mean to be rude and I hope that you did not take anything I said to be rude, I just want to focus on fixing my hard drive and not defending myself.

I am looking for suggestions and I am not going to take the first ones that I hear.

I'm very sorry that you feel that I was belittling you by giving you advice that would not result in the destruction of your data. No good deed goes unpunished.

I confess. I have not been fully forthright with you. There is a solution that has been referenced many times in this forum that you can try. It is called Hard Drive Spray. See, for example:

working-scratched-platter-t10739.html?hilit=hard%20drive%20spray

This is not the first suggestion that you have received, so I hope that it meets your rigid criteria.

Best of luck.

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

If you've used a new PCB and moved the EEPROM and that still didn't work then you're in the territory of bad heads/preamp/media.



Sorry, there's no other option at that point.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Not only the spray : freezer, oven, youtube diy videos, napalm, Wile E. Coyote, McGyver, pray, close this thread...

Thank you drccsc.

I am not sure if the pcb that I tried was a working pcb or not. I did not fire up the hard drive at all before trying it. So the question is there now for me whether it was good or not to begin with. So I just posted that I am looking for a pcb or hard drive that is closest to the date mine was made...

A failed PCB on a new drive seems highly unlikely to me, and your symptoms fit perfectly for other issues.

I think some of the other folks here get ruffled when people post asking for help, receive a free diagnosis and free advice that is probably 90% likely to be right on, and then go on to ignore that. Most of the people here typically get paid to diagnose and advise on hard drive failure, so they feel like they're doing people a favor by answering end user questions on the forums at all.

If you're just looking for parts there is a different subforum to post in.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

drccsc, if you were implying that you were upset, I apologize. That was/is not my intension. I am trying to fix my hard drive at as little expense as I can and that is why I am posting here and not taking it to a business... Afterall I think that is the idea of this sort of site. (To get info and help from whoever is willing to give it.)

I already posted that I am looking for a pcb in another area on here, as well as another site.

I am just trying to get different ideas and take the ones that I can afford and then put them to use. Like you said, it is UNLIKELY, but it could have been. So to rule it out, if I find a board for a reasonable price, I dont mind taking that risk.

Eli,

You might want to think logically.

ROM SWAP: $35
Purchased Donor: $80 (I'm guessing)
Another Donor: $80 (I'm guessing)
Another ROM SWAP: $35
------------------------------------
Total Try Out Cost: About $230 with lots of time invested = No Data...

Not to mention, you may end up buying 1 more donor on top of that to get the right match, by then it will be well over $300 with all the S&H you have to pay. Didn't you say the lowest DR Quote was $400?????

Do you see my point????

You are willing to spend about the same price as the DR Pro here and there. Why not send it in for the DR Pro with the low bid???

You may end up paying just under $400 with your own attempt and get no result or additional damages to your drive that DR Pro may quote you for over $1000 by the time you decided to take it to the pro with all the damages you caused on your drive.

When I got into the DR with proper HW and SW tools with lots of old pro's advises and live demo, I thought I could handle physically damaged HDD easy but the fact was even with the right HW/SW tools without some experience, you have high risk of further damaging your drive and make it impossible to recover the data. (Your data may be recoverable if it was handled by the pro from the start...)

If a leg from your U12 was burnt/melted, more likely you have other issues and not to mention, how do you know that original U12 will work for you on the new PCB??? You might need a DR Pro who can program a new U12 and put it in there...

No, I was just trying to help you understand why some of the other posters reacted the way they did.

Just imagine if someone came to you and wanted you to do for them what you do for a living, but said "I'm trying to do this as cheap as possible so I don't want to actually pay anyone, but can you tell me how to do it myself?" In most cases that involve any kind of skilled labor the answer is going to be "Eh, not really", or something less polite.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Drccsc,

There are a lot of posters who try to be helpful. I usually do, but . . .

The fact that the OP wanted to pay nothing for detailed, professional assistance isn't a problem -- that seems to be the norm here. What I find annoying is that people took the time to give him useful, practical advice so that he could avoid losing his data, yet he dismissed all of that out-of-hand, coupled with an attitude.

What more can you do for someone who argues with good, free advice? They deserve to reap all that they have paid for.

Jono

_________________
http://www.datasaversllc.com

I agree!!!!! You'll get a lot of nasty responses if you ask that here in the US. Specially the way the economy is going right now. Everyone is trying to survive.

I'm always up to help financially less fortunate customers here and there but learned that some of them are nice people but a lot of them are plain jerks. Ask you to work for the cost for whatever the good cause they said, you you tried everything you can to salvage the drive by running test to find out it's an internal damage. When you open the drives to find out nice rings on the platters and the financially less fortunates will start yelling and cussing that you created the damage and they want $$$ for restitution or instead of a lawsuit.

Two cases, I pushed it and got these financially less fortunates' data in the My Documents folder to find out there are no such important files as he/she claimed to be. Just bunch of family photos, copied iTunes songs, a few funny pics, some porns, DELETED escort service/prostitutes info&photos from Craigslist, R rated e-mails from deleted e-mails, and sorry a** looking resume. (I called the number that was given by the client, his wife answered the phone. I tried to leave a simple message saying just call me back, but she told me she wanted to know how much data i was able to get. She insisted that he was on the other line and told her to ask me about the data. I heard a guy on the background telling her to ask for the detail and telling her to go pick up the DVDs.

I told her, I found lots of her family photos but I have some adult photos that I wasn't sure If they wanted to keep because I needed to lable the DVDs as adult contents before I can send it to them. She personally came and picked up the DVDs. She paid it in full & told me to make sure I don't have any backup data because the data was private. She demanded that she get to see my computer and personally witness I delete all of her files. So I did. She viewed the pictures of his mistresses or prostitues and she broke all the DVDs and slamed my door and left!!!! (He came back and see if we could burn him another DVDs. Showed him a signed receipt from her/president of the non-profit and payment. Told him she requested we keep no backup so the data was gone) He wasn't a big shot as he claimed to be and she was...

The second case, after she threatened the lawsuit that we damaged the drive, I told her her data was not available for recovery. (She wanted a pro bono work for her non-profit, in fact it was her personal laptop...) Put everything back with a recommendation to take it to Ontrack for a chance to recover her data with a damaged platter photo attached. I should have but I didn't give her data back

After that, I'm still willing to help financially less fortunate but we usually google or research them before accepting the drive. If they can't pay, it's not end of our business. If clients want their data, they will pay!!! It's not worth dealing with cheap customers because they will bring more drama.

Most of us are here for mutual interest, and for community.



I have a feeling that your preamp is shot. As would be confirmed by swapping a PCB and U12.



Eli, quit whining. What part of "you have a bad preamp and you cannot fix it by yourself" don't you understand?

You're right about one thing, Eli. I'm finally done.

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

Once again, thank you jono-ats for your opinion on the hard drive.

Hi Eli,

I got bunch of blank U12 chips laying around here for me to do the old WD drive recovery. Sure I can sell you the programmed u12 chip for that particular brand and make for $100. If you want, you can send me your original U12 via airmail for $1 or so.

If you sent me your U12 chip from the bad drive, I'll even run a test on your chip to see if it's still good, however, if it was still good, I don't think you'll listen that your chip was good and you may demand to buy a brand new reprogramed U12 chip.

I program these U12 chip via an external terminal without putting any solder thing for the DR and other purposes just like any other DR compnaies. I think we all have that in our toolbox...

US domestic sale S&H is $10, Canada sale: S&H $15, FedEX International Shipping: $50

But again, you may not be happy with the result. Just like everyone said, replacing the U12 chip may not be the only problem you have. We don't want anyone waisting their time & money. DR is a very expensive service and it get worse when clients make their attempts and make the condition worsen.

Just like I posted in the past, sometimes it's not worth helping people who try to cut corners because it will bring more cussing and yelling. In this case, if I sell you a perfectly reprogrammed brand new U12 chip without any solder on it and you'll receive it in a few business days, however, when you put it on your donor PCB, you may realize that your Preamp was shot and you'll blame me for the faulty U12 chip. ( I don't think you have access to the right tools to tell if your Preamp is fried...) So I only sell a brand new U12 chip as is without warranty!!!!! I only provide replacement for the DOA chip but you have to send me the DOA chip before I can ship a new one to you... Return Shipping is on you and I'll cover the Shipping cost to you via standard air mail. if you send me a perfectly fine U12 chip with a claim of DOA, YOU WILL BE RESPONSIBLE for another return S&H to canada for $15 USD

Oh, I only take a USD Postal Money Order or USD Money Order. NO PAYPAL or CREDIT CARD on the chip sales!!! I can see if I take a credit card, it will be an issue with a charge back fight with the bank. I can already see that's comming.