WDCaviar SE16 DEAD :((

Portable Drives My Passport
1

Info:

Model and WD P/N: WD10EACS-00ZJB0

Date: 17 OCT 2007

DCM: HARCHV2ABB

S/N: [Deleted]

WWN: 50014EE2AB4D2C9D

Driver Parameters: LBA 1953525168

1.0TB

One day I was using it all fine, then after 30 to 60 mins I “tried again” to access back to my folder and it said something like I did not have access and should ask the administrator.

The device was running, the power button was on with the blue color ring turned on. Then wanted to reboot it and held the power button down for a few seconds and it wasn’t shutting down. Left it on for some mins (don’t remember how long but less than 30mins) went back to the device and it wouldn’t shut down, I had to disconnect the cable to shut it down.

Waited few minutes (like 5 more or less) powered it on, and left it there.

Well… It never got back on working properly, the blue ring won’t turn on anymore and I heard the hard drive doing some funny noises :smileyvery-happy: I knew this all couldn’t be good signal.

So I’m wondering if there’s something I can do, like maybe connect it through SATA cables to my PC as a “slave” hdd?

I haven’t powered and won’t power it, I’m scared to lose the data in it.

Plus the reason for the hdd to be broken I’d say is because of the heat here. It’s very warm. (incase this can tell you something hehe) apart from being very old and being powered on 365 days a year since late 2007.

Don’t think these pictures will do much but incase they are needed, here they are.

1 [Deleted]

2 http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w374/Helenaa90/ea0acfbd.jpg

3 http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w374/Helenaa90/54b95d47.jpg

4 http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w374/Helenaa90/1326005b.jpg

5 http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w374/Helenaa90/acebbf53.jpg

6 http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w374/Helenaa90/ee22ab41.jpg

7 http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w374/Helenaa90/356ff400.jpg

8 http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w374/Helenaa90/40b3da3e.jpg

9 http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w374/Helenaa90/329b0f50.jpg

I don’t know what to do, what should I do?

2

I don’t know if this is the right section in this board to post this kind of thread, forgive me if it is not and if possible tell me where to do so >_<

3

Your WD10EACS drive is a “Tornado”. If you hear (or heard) the “calibration sound” ( http://k002.kiwi6.com/hotlink/tqsa4623k4/Memo.m4a),,) then you could have a board problem.

See http://forum.hddguru.com/wd5000aaks-00tma0-damaged-t19077.html

If the component side of your drive’s PCB looks like this …

http://pcb-hdd.com/images/WD10EACS-00ZJB0%202060-701474-002%20REV%20A%20PCB.JPG

… then be aware that the 88i8745-TFJ1 Marvell MCU chip (big “M” logo) often fails in a way that mimics bad heads or bad media.

The solution in this case is not as simple as a straight board swap. This is because the Marvell MCU contains unique, drive specific calibration data that needs to be transferred to the replacement board. Most data recovery professionals will charge you a hefty price for this. However, the following PCB supplier offers a free PCB adaptation service:

http://www.donordrives.com/services

If a replacement board doesn’t fix your HDD, then the problem will most likely be an internal one, in which case you will need professional data recovery. When shopping for quotes, I would suggest that your cost ceiling should be US$800 plus parts. That is the fixed price quoted by the following company:

http://myharddrivedied.com

The proprietor is Scott Moulton who is arguably the best known person in the DR business (I have no relationship with him or his company).

Of course I’m assuming that connecting your drive directly to a SATA port on your motherboard did not work for you.

4

I didn’t connect it through SATA because I’m afraid of losing data. (should I do it? answer to this please. what you think would be better? trying to connect it SATA and then decide depending on what happens send it to some proffessional and charge a hefty price? or send it directly?)

I read that there are drives with encryption and incase my hdd data have been encrypted I wouldn’t be able to read any of the data. (but I don’t know if mine is. I read that the drive was from 2008 and mine is from 2007)

And the noise I heard when turning on the drive it was a repetitive noise very very similar to the one you posted.

5

@Helena1990, now you’re putting me on the spot.

I have to confess that I have no love, and very little respect, for the data recovery profession. Therefore my opinions, for what they’re worth, are biased.

You unfortunately appear to have entrusted your entire digital life to a spinning disc, so only you can decide what risks your are prepared to take. If you read that HDD Guru thread, you will note that all the “gurus”, except for “Alexii”, had wrongly diagnosed that the OP’s drive had an [expensive] internal problem, even after hearing the sound sample. In fact, one of the professionals (who is accredited by WD) claimed that the OP’s particular circumstances were a first for him.

If you are not prepared to take any risk at all, however minor, and if cost is no object, then I would suggest that you take your drive to Kroll Ontrack. They are the recognised leader in the data recovery business.

If I was in your position, and since your drive’s noise matches the HDD Guru sound sample, I would take a chance on a board swap, but you will need to send it away to someone who will transfer the original firmware to the replacement board. I recommend donordrives.com because they will do this for free. In stark contrast, there is a thread at HDD Guru where the professionals quoted US$2000 for the same service.

The problem may in fact turn out to be an internal one, but you won’t know until you try. One thing you need to be aware of is that powering up a crashed drive will only risk more damage. By “crashed” drive, I mean one where the heads have gouged the platters after serious head-to-disc contact. A head crash introduces still another consideration, and that is that there are not too many data recovery labs (apart from Kroll Ontrack) that are competent enough to recover any data under these circumstances.

Edit: You might like to ask donordrives.com if they would be willing to test your original PCB, even if you need to purchase a replacement board from them.

6

After reading your last post I decided to do this since you said I might like to get PCB (then the disk inside should be okay, and that’s what I wanted to make sure of)

Alright I connected the HDD through the SATA cables to my PC and the BIOS recognised the WD HDD.

Booted up windows and well… the HDD didn’t show up in “my computer”

I listened the hard drive for like 2 minutes, since the computer start till I the moment I shut down the computer to take the HDD back into the WD case. (since I couldn’t see the HDD in my computer)

And well, the noises were the same as always this WD HDD have been doing when it wasn’t reading or writing data when it was working correctly (obviously it makes some noises,  the spinning and some other like reading but minimum unlike before with the WD PCB which was an infinite loop of clicking, 3 clicks then 5seconds and repeat) so my guess is the heads and disks are okay. it must be the PCB as you been telling.

I’m thinking of sending the PCB and the HDD to www.recoverylabs.com . Mostly because I’m Spanish and I can communicate with them much better. I will tell them about all this, the symptoms and all to make sure they can make such thing (swap PCB or replacement of some chips or firmware replacement or what ever that could be)

What do you think about this move? thanks for your support, really appreciated <3