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Question

Hard drive failure, PCB recognised but not the drive itself

Aug 9, 2018 7:19PM PDT

So the issue first started when I was using the hard drive (it's in a external enclosure) and it failed and turned off, I turned it back on and windows recoginsed it and I went back on it and the same happened. Turned it back on and windows didn't recognise the drive anymore, I changed the PCB with a correct replacement to see if this helped and the same as above happened so no result.

So after doing some research on the drive (WD green WD20EARS) I read that these drives have a bit of a firmware issue on the head and can stop the drive booting up, so I then proceeded to think to buy a donor drive to take the head out. So I have done the head swap (used the correct head tools) and still no luck, the drive spins up and the heads go back and forth a few times and the the drive spins down and stops.

Under computer management I try to initialize drive in either MBR or GPT, when I try GPT it tells me the drive is not big enough for it and with MBR it tells me unable to initialize. I've tried the head with both pcb's and am begging to run out of ideas on how to get this drive back up and running long enough to get the data transferred to a different hard drive.

The aim is to get the information of the drive.

All help will be much appreciated

Post was last edited on August 9, 2018 7:20 PM PDT

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Hdd failure
Aug 10, 2018 8:23AM PDT

Remove the drive from the enclosure and install it in your desktop....test.

If it fails there then contact a place like drivesavers to get an estimate on cost.

You did not do yourself any favors by opening that hdd outside a clean room.

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hdd
Aug 20, 2018 4:17AM PDT

I've done all of the mentioned in regards to testing and the drive doesn't have any really particularly valuable information on it just a few photos so I don't really see the need to spend good money to get the data recovered professionally hence why I opened it myself to try and repair it.

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(NT) Good luck then with that.
Aug 20, 2018 4:34AM PDT
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Answer
I worry here
Aug 10, 2018 9:30AM PDT
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Answer
Diagnostic tool of the manufacturer.
Aug 10, 2018 10:30AM PDT

Hi,

you can also test the drive with the diagnostic tool that the manufacturer provides for free (not always). If the drive is still under warranty, you could use the results of that test to appeal for an RMA.

You can also connect the drive with other cables and (if possible) to another computer. Is the drive now detected correctly by the Disk Management? Could you make a screenshot of it?