WD500AKS ???
LOL haha ya right…
Last week a family member mailed me one of those to see if i could save his Documents folder
and that thing is a brick big time. it doesn’t spin up at all and you can hear a loud buzzing noise.
platters are seized and won’t budge i’m pretty sure and when i looked at the pcb magnified
it looks like the drive was burnt with high voltage, there is minor burn markings on 70% of the solder contact points and on the center point where the platter spins (outside of drive)
ANd i’m in a similar position as the OP but i’m afraid you sound like your trying to extort them lol
you can’t threaten them for something better… I doubt it would work anyway 
If it does pm me so i can threaten them for an SSD myself lol
Gimme one or else !!! lol
