www.deadharddrive.com

[zwober]

So, hi. new to the forum and not supprising (im guessing) ive got a few questions.

im sitting here with a WD200BB-harddrive that decided to go stand by the wall and get shot at. (not.. literary) lets just say that its not functioning properly, and im attempting to ressurect that data on it.

what i have to replace it with is the same type of disk, made 4 months earlier. from what i can see, everything of importance seems to match, as in model, drive parameters, first 5 digits in the S/N, and ofc size.

What that dosent match, is the DCM, and the question is how much that matters. They both start with a "D", but that could mean anything to my knowledge.

first and foremost im going to change the PCM to see what that does, if i am forced to replace the magnetic arms, ill ask a friend whom has done it before.

since i know youre going to ask, (well, i hope atleast) the fault of the disk is this:
it dosent come up as a unit, you can clearly hear it boot and then it turns itself off, and on again. hoepfully that would mean that it´s the PCM that´s busted and not anhything mechanical.. seeing as that is a bit harder operation.

also, im curious as to how important a real "clean" room is when changing both the mechanical parts, but ofc, the "simple" PCM-parts.
i am full aware of the dangers of static electricity, but.. can one get away with a dust-free enviorment and getting naked while wearing a ball-and-chain made from surgical steel ?

anyho, any answers would be much appriciated.
_________________
// pebkac-solutions since way back.

[sunnydreamspace]

hi,
got crash head? model and DCM
_________________
provide Hard drive PCB,entire drive/ Data Recovery service.... big HDD resource. talk to me immediately! sunnydreamspace@hotmail.com
skype: sunnydreamspace

[zwober]

[sunnydreamspace]

hi,
chat with messenger
_________________
provide Hard drive PCB,entire drive/ Data Recovery service.... big HDD resource. talk to me immediately! sunnydreamspace@hotmail.com
skype: sunnydreamspace

[zwober]

[zwober]

update:
ive switched the PCB and it didint work, ergo. im guessing its the damned mecanics that´s faulty. shame really, the switching was easy enough.

will consult friend for closest clean-room.
_________________
// pebkac-solutions since way back.

[zwober]

update 02:
just plugged in the donor-hdd to see if that was still working. it gave me a little scare, since it didint go online imediatly, but it came around and seems to function fine now. i did notice something during assembly tho, it seems the PCB from the donor and the original disks differ, apparantly one is made from AMP and the other one is called.. something-or-other-but-not-amp..
im guessing that would make a diffrence. a bit odd tho, seeing as they are only 3 months apart from the make-date.

im going to be needing a new donor-drive i guess.
_________________
// pebkac-solutions since way back.

[KrazyKong]

zwober, your experiences with a donor drive sound very similar to what I've gone through.

I had a drive die on me 2.5 years back. Over the course of these 2.5 years I've bought 3x drives off ebay all of the same model, but differing in the manufacture date. The first two made the drive spin back up again which was at least something from my completely dead unit, but it would then spin down click, spin up click, spin down etc.

My third drive was not only the same model, but also the same manufacture date and also had the exact same version of firmware. So win win win. After I swapped the pcb, the hard drive fired up perfectly, I copied all the data off and did the victory dance.

Thus in your situation, I think you need another or more donor drives. Obviously try and get one as close to your original as possible manufacture date wise I mean. One of my drives was only 2 months newer than my dead drive but that didn't help me any as it didn't work.

Thus patience and persistence and as long as mechanical side of things with your drive is ok, you'll get it going eventually.

[sunnydreamspace]

[zwober]

[sunnydreamspace]