Hello,

I have a WD2500JB-22GVC0 harddrive. It runs almost constantly and last week I shut the computer down before going on vacation. When I got home, I turned the computer on and now the harddrive clicks 10 times then pauses. It does this 4 times. So 4 sets of 10 clicks. The harddrive spins the entire time until the last set. After the last set it stops spinning. Neither the BIOS nor XP recognizes it. MHDD sees it but gives me the error "This device does not support LBA mode." no matter what I do. I have an identical drive that was manufactured 5 days after this one.

I truly do not have enough money to send this to a DR specialist. I feel pretty confident taking apart drives and doing headstack changes or just switching the board. Obviously I'm not an expert, but I can try that with my other drive if it comes down to it. The data is sentimental (pictures and videos of the family) but nothing critical. My father has some electrician skills and knowledge and i know basics. Between the two of us I'm sure we could test boards or unsolder components.

At this point, I'm just not sure of the first steps to take and I can't find out if that error message means something specific or not. Anyone have any advice?

Thanks,
--Jonnie

Don't take this the wrong way but I'd say you had an almost zero percent chance of successfully doing this yourself. ( And that's being optimistic; your chances are probably closer to absolute zero.) Even professional DR people have difficulty with head exchanges on this type of WD drive. Even if you succeed in getting the bad heads off and the new ones on without screwing them up (which is not likely if you've never done it before) you are still faced with an alignment issue once the cover has been removed. However, in the spirit of adventure give it a shot and enjoy yourself.

Before I dive into switching out the heads, what can be done with the other PCB board on the other identical drive? Should I remove the firmware chip and put it on the defective drive's PCB board or are there checks I need to do before doing that.

Also, if I do switch out the heads later, do I use the old PCB or the new PCB board? And do I need to switch any components of the PCB boards with whichever one I use?

I'm really not planning to get this data recovered. It would be cool if I got some of it back, but I'm not doing any of this with the expectation of getting data. Like msurgeon said...its all in the "spirit of adventure".

You had enough advice...

If you ever want those pictures, video's back, just hold on to your drive until you have enough spared for professional recovery services. You will save yourself a good drive, a lot of time and frastration. Otherwise just proceed with what you have in your mind, because other advices won't do you any good.

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www.datarecoveryne.com

WDs are PITA without knowledge, so if u happen to successfully replace the head stack (if it is the root of the problem indeed), almost surely the drive won't be able the user area.
So if u want to loose a working drive as well, go for it!

pepe

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

So, correct me if I'm wrong please...

You're pretty much telling me that there is nothing I can do on the outside (PCB board) or from MHDD to find and possibly fix the root cause of this problem?

It sounds like you're all assuming off the start that the heads are the cause of the problem and I know that's a major ordeal so no need for me to attempt that.

Can anyone clarify the error I'm currently getting in MHDD? I can't find anywhere that says what it means.

Thanks for the help. I really appreciate you all taking your time to respond.

MHDD:
MHDD gets a reply for the ID command, but it contains invalid data. This is because the drive could not read its service area due to total inability to read anything from the surface.
This is caused by either Head (90%) or preamp (5%) or PCB (5%) damage.

pepe

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

Agree, pepe are right.
You can only ruin the surface with the bad/damaged head if you continue the "testing"....

Janos

Alrighty....thanks for the helpful explanations. I've sent a couple requests for quotes to a couple companies so I can get an idea of how much this will cost. I'll have to start saving some money for it.

Thanks again!