Storage Hard Drive problem, not sure if broken or something malicious is going on.

Alright, sounds good. I'll call them tomorrow and let you know what happens. Thanks a lot.

 

The paragon boot tool supports exploring the partition and transferring files from the hd to a folder on the usb boot stick. As mentioned before trying to explore the hd via an os running on another hd is not as good, even in safe mode.

 

The platters aren't been shown, essentially all the diagnostics are seeing the HDD's cache and control interface, but nothing past that. Since the drive made no audible failure sound, I suspect a rogue control interface.

 

I got a reply today from their support department, saying this:

So I guess I'm going to have to send it somewhere in the UK. Should I go with a recommended partner or is there someone that you guys recommend? I am not particularly fussed about RMAing the hard drive, I can just buy a new one, that's not really an issue at all.

I have noticed that the price of Data Recovery is scandalous, so I'd even consider sending it to an enthusiast that wouldn't mind attempting it, as I don't really have anything to lose except data I can't access as it is anyway. If that meant buying another WD5000AAKS and having them swap the logic board or whatever, I would be fine with that. And if not people from around here, do you know any communities that would contain the sort of person that would be willing to do that?

Thanks for all the help so far.

 

Swapping logic boards is easy, all you generally need is a torx screwdriver and a spare logic board.

I've done this transplant back in the hitachi deathstar days, probably close to 20 or so times.

Just remember to identify a zif sockets orientation and don't bork the cables and you'll be just fine.

Trust in yourself, you can do it, for glory!

 

Usually I wouldn't be too fussed about trying it myself, but I'd much prefer to not lose my data if I can help it. Are logic boards product specific, manufacturer specific, universal, or dependent on the brand? I really know the bare minimum about hard drives, to be honest.

 

The data is on the platters, so it's not going anywhere unless you fry it or cause a head crash...

But, yes you need a 1:1 replacement board - you can't mix and match unless it's a rebadged drive as the motors and head connections can differ, firmware can say it has 3 platters instead of 2 etc.

You might get lucky and source a logic board from fleabay on it's own or get another disk altogether.

I managed without any knowledge before hand as a hail-mary attempt to recover my colleges pc's data - I completely hamfisted it, stripped heads and had to drill out a screw.

It worked in the end though, they can be quite forgiving

 

Alright, I'll look into eBaying one. Thanks.

 

Bought everything ready, just gotta wait until it arrives. I'll let you guys know what happens! Hopefully it's the same revision, my HD is from 09 Nov 2007 and the one I bought is from July 2007 so holding out hope that this will work.

 

Ok, got my Torx screwdriver today and the Hard Drive came the other day so I tried swapping the logic boards. I tested the "new" HDD and it recognises fine, but if I swap the logic boards, the broken one still doesn't work and neither does the new one with the other logic board. Could this mean incompatibility between boards, or something else?

Here are the barcodes of the logic boards. They do differ slightly.

Broken:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22278546/Misc/20130802_194130.jpg

Working:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22278546/Misc/20130802_194154.jpg