The drive does not report password protected although it is acting in a similar way.

Drive doesn't take a long time to detect. It comes RDY very fast. Below is a log from drive info tool:
-------------------------------------------
Device reset...
Device recal...

Identify command...

WDC WD800JD-00LSA0
* Serial number: WD-WMAM9D181351
* Firmware revision: 06.01D06
* LBA sectors = 156301488
* LBA48 sectors = 156301488
* Size = 80026361856 bytes (76319 MB)
* UDMA-6 supported
* Automatic Acoustic Management (AAM) supported


HPA:
* HPA security extension supported
* HPA Native Max LBA48: 156301487

Security:
* Security not enabled

SMART:
* SMART enabled
* SMART status : Good drive
-------------------------------------------

_________________
regards

John - http://www.dq-int.co.uk

Have you checked the P-List?

I mean for erroneous entries, which would render the translator bad?

Sean

_________________
PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

The PLIST appears normal. Is there anything specific we should be looking out for?

_________________
regards

John - http://www.dq-int.co.uk

Just thought I'd let you know the situation with this drive now. We have still not recovered it. Salvationdata have released a new version of their software so if anyone can download the MODS & RES files from a donor and send them to us, that could be helpful.

_________________
regards

John - http://www.dq-int.co.uk

Have you tried a smart hot swap?

You can regenerate the translator on a suitable donor and see what happens.

Jon

_________________
http://www.datasaversllc.com

Would be more usefull u can show us the SA scan structure,

Regards

A few things from my recent WD + salvation experiences:

You can still upload a ROM even if the existing one is so corrupt the drive doesn't spin. This typically requires putting the drive in PCB mode (on pata drives its typically three jumpers at once, the specific setting is in your hd doctor for wd manual).

The old version of salvation's WD tool sometimes doesn't download the entire ROM. I had multiple drives with 256k ROM that the tool only got 128k of. The new version of the tool seems to fix that.

The new version of the tool has a translator regeneration button on one of the tabs.

Does your drive identify correctly (i.e. WDC-WD800JD-00LSA0 rather than just WDCWD800JD for example)? A drive that I had recently with corrupt ROM would show up without the suffix after I uploaded a donor module 11. Still worked, though slowly.

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

This drive is based on the Marvell chipset. Adaptive data is stored in ROM. If the ROM is in fact corrupted on the original PCB you will have to examine the ROM file contents and note the last 1024 bytes. This is the adaptive data. Copy this block to the corresponding block in the donor's ROM file. Then copy this edited ROM file to the subject PCB. If there is no internal damage, this should do the trick.

Hi Guys,
I have a Exact Same Drive that i received today and its doing the Same thing.
I tried using Deepspar and All I get its abort error, Im new to data recovery so i dont have that much Experience in this field.

Do you guys have any suggestion or advice regarding this problem?

I appriciate it.
Thank you

What do you mean by 'doing the same thing'? Like out of the box? Or have you swapped the PCBs?

_________________
http://www.datasaversllc.com

Do you know if this applies to the Royal (pain) family of Marvell drives too?

_________________
http://www.datasaversllc.com

More details please.

_________________
www.datarecoveryne.com

Sorry guys if i dont have enough details, Hard drive Doesnt have any physical Problem and it becomes ready very Fast on deepspar or even if i connect it to a Windows machine.
Hard drive it cant not read any good sector at all, once you start a recovery with Deepspar all you get its a AAAAAAAAAAAA on each sector ( ABORT ).

I guess if i had data Compass i had more chance accessing a Data in these situations??? or im guessing i have to do a hot board swap?

If ROM on WD gets corrupted the drive would just hang in BSY. You could read ROM contents from external ROM chip on Marvell drives using ROM programmer but on ROYL drives it's masked inside CPU so how would you go about that?

Most likely it's a firmware problem. Neither Data Compass nor board swap will help.
You need PC3000 to check modules and hopefully it's just corrupted translator.

Most likely its ( SMART ) modules or ( RBBLST ) Module are corrubted

ROM contents in processor can still be read using suitable professional tools. And as far as I know the same fact holds true as for other Marvell drives: last 1024 bytes of ROM is adaptive data.