Hard Drive Makes Clicking Noise After Replacing Logic Board

[Shabam]

So it all started when the hard drive would not even power on. So I bought the same hard drive (same exact model) and replaced the logic board on the old hard drive. Now the hard drive powers on but makes a clicking noise as if its trying to read the hard drive. IS THERE ANY WAY TO RECOVER THE DATA?

 

[WyomingKnott]

Are the contents of the drive important enough to you to pay a lab thousands of dollars to recover them?

Board-swapping hasn't worked well since they started putting chips that are calibrated to the specific drive on the boards. In theory, if you can identify which chip that is, you can swap it with the one on the new board, but I have never had success with this.

 

[palladin9479]

Board swapping is a big no-go. Each drive is calibrated and low-level formatted at the factory, those settings and physical sector locations are stored inside the logic board and are specific to each magnetic platter.

Only way to get your data back is to send it to a clean-room lab and have them reassemble the data off the platters. Very expensive.

 

[jpidata]

It won't work, even u get a PCB board from exact same model, they have their own firmware. If u really need your data back, send it to a professional data recovery company.

www.ontrack.com
www.timdatarecovery.com

 

[Shabam]

That's really annoying. Well I guess I will just forget about the files.. I am never buying a Western Digital HD ever again..

 

[Shabam]

Best answer selected by Shabam.

 

[fzabkar]

Can you let us in on your secret, ie which model do you have?

What did you do, if anything, to kill your drive?

Are there any burnt components on the PCB, for example the TVS diodes (D4 and D3)? If so, then there is often a very easy, no-cost, DIY fix.

Otherwise, if you really need to replace the PCB, and if you have a recent model WD drive, then you will need to transfer the 8-pin serial flash memory chip at location U12 from patient to donor. This chip stores unique, drive specific "adaptive" information. Some board suppliers include a firmware transfer or ROM transfer service for US$10 - $20. Otherwise, if you are not adept at soldering, your local TV/AV repair shop should be able to do it for you.

If you are unlucky and U12 is not populated, then this means that the adaptive data are internal to the Marvell MCU (big "M"). Reading these data requires specialised software tools. Otherwise the MCU can be transferred to the donor, but this in turn requires an smt rework station and some skill.

In short, no clean room is needed.

 

[Shabam]

Well I unplugged it and plugged it onto a new MoBo. Then the hard drive stopped spinning. I thought it might be the power supply so I put it back into the original MoBo/power supply and it didn't work. I was having some issues with it prior. So I figured swapping the board on the hard drive with an exact board from a new hard drive would fix the problem. Unfortunately it just started the clicking on the hard drive.

 

[WyomingKnott]

fzabkar: Interesting information. I'm tempted to buy a pair of drives from different stores and try it, just to see it work.

Shabam: Build yourself a backup plan. Buy hardware for it. I use bare drives in a neat bay from Kingwin that doesn't require trays for the removable drives. If you don't want to think about it, buy a NAS device and set up your main machine to back up to it regularly.

Do a complete backup of your OS, so that if your OS drive fails you don't spend days re-installing and re-configuring software.

It's time consuming, but the next failure will just be a minor inconvenience.


(A story: Back when they first invented "laptop" PCs with an internal drive and folding screen, my wife saw me putting floppy after floppy into my new machine while I was doing a backup. "How can you do that," she asked. Months later, the machine failed. Realizing that all my work was on a now-failed drive, she asked "How can you work with computers if that can happen?" The two questions answered each other.)

 

[Shabam]

Can you let us in on your secret, ie which model do you have?

What did you do, if anything, to kill your drive?

Are there any burnt components on the PCB, for example the TVS diodes (D4 and D3)? If so, then there is often a very easy, no-cost, DIY fix.

Otherwise, if you really need to replace the PCB, and if you have a recent model WD drive, then you will need to transfer the 8-pin serial flash memory chip at location U12 from patient to donor. This chip stores unique, drive specific "adaptive" information. Some board suppliers include a firmware transfer or ROM transfer service for US$10 - $20. Otherwise, if you are not adept at soldering, your local TV/AV repair shop should be able to do it for you.

If you are unlucky and U12 is not populated, then this means that the adaptive data are internal to the Marvell MCU (big "M"). Reading these data requires specialised software tools. Otherwise the MCU can be transferred to the donor, but this in turn requires an smt rework station and some skill.

In short, no clean room is needed.

Oh and sorry.. I have the "WD2500JS-60NCB1".

 

[Shabam]

So basically I will either need to get this U12 chip transferred over from my old board, or get some software to put the firmware on the HD?

 

[fzabkar]

This supplier offers a replacement board, including U12 transfer, for US$70:
http://www.hdd-parts.com/20091010.html

Otherwise, if you are adept at soldering, you can transfer the chip yourself:
http://www.c2coffer.com/data/pic/20110606/source_img/_S_1307332701336.jpg

Alternatively, your local TV/AV repair shop should be able to do it for you.