WD5000AAKS - PCB swap

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
1

Hello everyone,

If anyone is interested to help me on this one…the drive is a WD5000AAKS and it’s dead; no powering up, no spinning, no sounds, no vibration, no anything - dead. This didn’t happen while using the drive, I just powered on the pc one day and the drive didn’t power up.

I searched for a donor drive to swap the PCBs, found one and swapped the PCBs. With the new PCB the drive behaves normally; powers up fine, spins normally, no weird sounds or clicks or anything, but is still not recognized, either by the BIOS or the operating system.

So, I am asking for advice. I don’t really care about the drive, I only intend to extract the data from it. Googling around I concluded that the drive is not recognized because the BIOS chip needs to be swapped too. Unfortunately, this drive doesn’t store it’s BIOS on a chip, as I figured, so no BIOS swapping is possible. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Another solution I found was to replace the TVS diodes on the dead board. I tested the resistance on the diodes that usually short out (D3, D4, R64, R67). I would appreciate some opinions on this one too.

The dead board looks completely normal except for some black (burnt?) traces, of which I am posting some photos.

Everyone, thank you very much in advance for your time, I really appreciate any help.

Details:

Dead board:

2060-701477-002 REV A

(Sticker No.: 2061-701477-900 AD  XT 4V10 U63T 8 0001160  8 161)

came from a WD5000AAKS-00YGA0

 

Replacement board:

2060-701477-002 REV A

(Sticker No.: 2061-701477-900 AD  XT 4V10 F1F5 5 0003170   8 173)

came from a WD5000AAKS-00YGA0 as well

 

Resistance tests:

D3: out of range

D4: out of range

R64: 0.04 ohms

R67: 0.04 ohms

 

Dead board photos:

http://imageshack.us/a/img845/2263/img20130509170953.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img89/9093/img20130509170921.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img341/7638/img20130509170916.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img441/1967/img20130509170854.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img24/6056/img20130509170850.jpg

2

Hello,

Western Digital does not replace or recommends replacing the circuit boards for our hard drives. Replacing the circuit board on a hard drive is not a recommended method for recovering data or drive functions as this will void the warranty on the hard drive. For every hard drive model that Western Digital manufacturers, there are many firmware changes that would make it very difficult to find a circuit board with the same firmware of the defective drive. If you attempt to install a circuit board with a different firmware than the original, this may damage the hard drive further.

Please see the link below for information on how to recover the data.

http://support.wdc.com/recovery/index.asp?wdc_lang=en

3

You might like to repost your question to The HDD Oracle:
http://malthus.zapto.org/index.php

There are several data recovery professionals who might be willing to help you with your DIY efforts.

4

This PCB doesn’t have the seperate BIOS. This PCB’s BIOS is integrated on the Main Controller IC. You should exchange the Main Controller IC to let the HDD be recognized. Move the Main Controller IC(the biggest chip on the board) is a complex job which need you have certain techique. Some electronics repair shop can do it.

5

Data recovery professionals will rarely need to transfer an MCU from one PCB to another. The WD5000AAKS is a “ROYL” model. These drives often store backup copies of the flash memory in a hidden System Area (SA) on the platters. The professionals simply install the replacement board and then access the SA using their diagnostic software. The “ROM” is then rebuilt and reprogrammed with a single click of the mouse. For this “data recovery” service, the user will be charged anything up to US$2000.

The following article shows how this is done using SalvationData’s HD Doctor.

Fix Identification Problem caused by Corruption of ATA Overlay module or ROM content:
http://web.archive.org/web/20091001164752/http://www.salvationdata.com/blog/fix-identification-problem-caused-by-corruption-of-ata-overlay-module-or-rom-content/