Hi Guys, currently working on a really strange case.

Original problem, disk comes ready, no nasty clicking sounds, can feel heads moving, trying to read surface. Disk does not detect. Cannot access firmware or read modules.

I changed head stack, the 'bad' headstack had 3 heads, donor head stack had 4 heads. After head stack change, disk comes ready but does not detect. I am now able to read both copies of modules, NV RAM etc.

I changed pcb, then worte NV RAM, still same problem. All modules appear to be correct. (except DUMP)

I have tried writing mods from a good donor but still no luck. I can access SA area and read the mods but no sectors can be read in data area even with a loader.

I'm starting to think NV RAM may be corrupt. I am using HDD Doctor from SD, when I connect a good working donor, I have the option to read NV-RAM from SA, with this disk, the option is not available.

I seem to have run into a dead end. Does anyone have any advice? Has anyone successfully hotswapped a hitachi travelstar?

Thanks

I don't think you can hotswap a Hitachi Travelstar. I've never had any luck with that.

If you had a PC3000, you might try booting with the start-up resources, then ID'ing the drive.

Jono

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

I get a lot of these drives. I usually have at least two or three of them on the go at any point in time. I haven't experienced this problem, yet. The only thing I can suggest is to try another set of heads and Jono's PC3000 suggestion.

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Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

Heads are fine.

If heads were not fine then I wouldn't be able to read all 3 copies of the modules. But all 3 copies don't show any errors.

Maybe errors in NV-RAM. Anyone know what to look for in NV-RAM, can any common corruption be identified?

I don't believe it's NVRAM issue as you will have no access to any copy of firmware under NVRAM corruption. I guess it should be firmware corruption. You can backup all modules and open it with Winhex. Check whether there's strings of "40404040" in any of the modules. And I also suggest you to overwrite firmware of copy A with the one from copy C. Attention, module RAM0 is not allowed to be borrowed from copy C. Otherwise it will cause HDD to click after overwriting.

thanks for the good info. I'll give it a try.

If there was any 404040 errors in any mods, surely data compass would be able to access data? I have tried it and it didn't work (surprise surprise)