Hello,

I came across this site while doing some Google searches after one of my hard drives recently seems to have failed.
I've posted on other tech sites I frequent, but it seems there may be more experts here, so I would like to ask if anyone has any advice for my particular situation.

First off, I know I should have backups, but the timing was unfortunate. I was actually in the middle of preparing the data on my PC (spread across 4 HD's) for backup onto a 1.5TB drive I purchased specifically to hold a copy of all my data. The particular drive that failed is a WD5000AAKS-00GYA0 drive. It may have actually failed upwards of a week ago, but I can't be sure. This drive held static, long-term storage files, and as such I rarely needed to access the drive; especially when I was busy sorting files between 2 other, more active, drives. I noticed a couple days ago when I tried to access it that it was missing from Windows (XP.)

At this point, I thought it was maybe a loose connection that may have developed or something, so I rebooted and checked the connections.
I noticed that Windows took a lot longer than normal to start up, and once I was in, the drive was still missing from 'My Computer.'
I checked device manager, but it didn't see the drive at all; nor did Disk Management.
I rebooted again and went into the BIOS. Unfortunately, it wasn't listed there either.
While booting up, during the AHCI check (my system is configured to run in AHCI mode, rather than IDE) I noticed that it would say there were 6 ports with 6 devices connected - which is correct - but it was only able to list 5 of the drives, while it timed out waiting for the 6th (the failed drive.) I'm not sure of the significance of this, but after I pulled it out, it would speed through the AHCI check again simply saying 6 ports, 5 connected devices.

At this point, I'm not sure what's going on.
I have an external USB/eSATA enclosure, so I decided to try it in there to rule out a faulty cable/SATA port.

I first connected it via USB to my laptop (PC was down while I took out the HD) and I can confirm it still turns on and spins up.
I also did not hear any obvious clicking or other weird noises besides a bit of seek noise initially; that would go away and I'd be left with just the whirring/hum of the platters spinning.
My laptop attempted to install drivers for the USB device, and it briefly showed up detected as a WD50 00AAKS (not sure why there was a space) but that was as far as it got; it wouldn't assign a drive letter, so I couldn't access it.

Next, I booted my PC and connected the enclosure to my PC via eSATA.
This time, device manager picked up an unknown "Disk" but that was it.
I checked the event manager and there were a lot of log entries, starting with

The device, \Device\Harddisk5\D, is not ready for access yet.

and then lots of

The device, \Device\Scsi\Jraid1, did not respond within the timeout period.

Each time I get the second message, the entire system pauses, I assume because it's still waiting for the drive.

I then tried connecting it to USB instead, and as with the laptop, new hardware wizard will pop up and find the WD5000AAKS, but then fail to initialize it. This doesn't cause my system to pause, but I do hear the drive spin up, then suddenly spin down and spin back up again. Event manager logs the following during this:

The device, \Device\Harddisk5\D, is not ready for access yet.

followed by

The device 'Disk drive' (SCSI\Disk&Ven_WDC&Prod_WD5000AAKS-00YGA&Rev_210.\5&2cfd9831&0&010) disappeared from the system without first being prepared for removal.

In either case, disk management could not pick it up.

The model of the drive is a WD5000AAKS-00GYA0, but when I plugged it in via USB, it briefly came up and claimed it was an -00GYA2.
From some Googling around, it seems this may be some sort of firmware/circuit board issue, but I'm not exactly sure.
I do have another working WD5000AAKS-00GYA0, as I ordered 2 of them from Newegg at the same time (although I'll probably replace all of them now) but I'm not sure how identical or different they are, or if I should even bother attempting a PCB transplant. The drive itself is still covered under WD warranty, so I can RMA it, but I'd like to see if I can at least recover the data first, before sending it in.
I have looked at data recovery companies but their prices are really quite high for a home user; I can see it being OK on a business level though. At the low end of about $500, I can maybe do, but from what I can tell, people claim it's normally in the $1000-1500 range.

In any case, does anyone have any advice on what to do?

Thanks in advance.

Could possibly be a PCB issue, but these drives 99/100 times require ROM re-programming which requires specialist equipment and knowledge.

Should be easily doable for <$500 if it's not fiddled with too much.

Most decent DR firms will offer a free diagnosis anyway, see if you can find one that is represented on this forum.

Who's the nearest pro to NYC here?

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

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

Thank you for your response, pcimage.

Someone from another forum also indicated it sounded like a circuit board/PCB issue, so I'm slightly relieved to see more people agreeing.
At the very least I think this is probably preferably to a mechanical failure (out of any failure I guess.)

It would be excellent if it could be done for under $500, but I'm not entirely sure. Someone said my drive is apparently part of WD's ROYL series (not sure what that means) and is a pain in the ass to work with, apparently. In any case, if the PCB is the issue, what exactly needs to be done? Or rather, can I still submit the drive to WD for an RMA afterwards, or does some process in doing this void the warranty somehow? I noticed on WD's support pages that they have some "preferred" DR partners where they claim they will not void the warranty, but it sounds like that's more for mechanical failures where the drive needs to be opened.

In any case, any other advice/suggestions are wholeheartedly welcomed.

Thanks.

You can't have a pig that give wool, can be milked, you can ride and eventually eat : if it is opened for recovery , it is out of warranty. The same if the PCB is reworked or the drive is in any form tampered (it depends on how it is done). In any case the drive has developed problems : there are problems that can be corrected and the drive can still be used (I won't do it on WD5000 in any case) and other not, once data is extracted the drive should not be used again for storage.

Thanks for your comment BlackST. I apologize though, but I don't quite understand what exactly you meant.
I think you meant that one can't expect to have everything; both data recovery and an RMA?

I know if the drive is opened at all that the warranty will be void, but I thought if it was something less serious, like a PCB or firmware issue, that it could be worked out without having to open it up (like plugging a cable into it and working from there.) If at all possible, it would be nice to still be able to RMA the drive, but I understand it's not always possible. I know I will definitely not use the drive again after recovery though, even if it comes back working.

I'm considering some options for now though, as it seems like this isn't something I can fix at home, even with a very similar drive.
If anyone has any other suggestions/advice, I'll be happy to hear them.