www.deadharddrive.com

Tof · Deadharddrive regular Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 16

I'm going to start withe same reference before to start :

MDL: WD2500JB-00REA0
DATE: 08 OCT 2006
DCM: HSBANTJAAN
LBA: 488397168
FIRMWARE: 2061-701292-C00 AE
PCB: 2060-701292-002 REV A

Here the beginning of the story, my neighbor came to me yesterday, telling me his WD external drive is clicking and he would like to recover the files on it.

Well, I had the same issue with a scorpio (I took the HD of the box got a SATA PCI card and put it into my PC, and everything was fine), so my first thought is : the USB PCB adapter is fried. The symptons seems the same.

So I go other his house, tried the Hard drive in USB mode unmounted, yep, it clicks.
So I disassemble the hard-drive out of the case, put into his PC to check it out.
The system is slow, the Bios didn't reckon the drive at all, the PC didn't boot.
I unplugged the DVD-RW burner and put the WD2500 instead on the secondary cable. Nah!! nothing, but the OS loaded.

Now, I'm thinking, this is dead, we can say bye bye to the datas. And drive drive can be destroyed.

I check the PCB, well, there is oxidation around the screws, so... My first guess is the oxidation is where the PCB needs his ground, it might not be working at all because of it.

I decide to not stop at this point, I unscrew the PCB, to clean thing up with some steel-wool and then I saw a burning mark, on the foam right where the Smooth L6293 1.3 is.

My first thought was well, I need to replace this part, do some search also about the model of hard drive, and from my reading someone had the same issue, replaced the PCB, stink the U12 chip on his SATA PCB( a totally different model... tho), and it seems to have worked for him.

So well, I decided to find a PCB, and do the swap, btw, the same PCB is coming with the same from a WD800DD. Regardless on the HD specs, thinking U12 is going to do the trick.

Well, yesterday I worked on getting U12 out of the WD2500JB, and!! Geez, one pin is out of the chip.

So, I don't know what to do beside, checking every place on the web where I can find a HD with the same PCB, same Firmware, and same Heads (fallowing the DCM).

I don't really need the iod to find it, I got the SATA PCI card that can also read ATA (basic 5-10$ PCI card but straight forward), so I will use it, it doesn't use the Bios, I need to recover the files, put it in an another, that's all Smile

I think the trick could work.

And I'm going to order a close HD now, since, I guess, there is no way I can use the U12 swap trick.

I got hope Very Happy

RussWinters · Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:55 pm Post subject:

What method did you use to remove the U12 chip... If a pin has been broken off of the chip then things are not looking good. The U12 chip is 100% vital to being able to recovery ANYTHING from the drive. It contains adaptive data that is unique to the drive (like a fingerprint)

It is possible it could already be damaged from the K.O.d Smooth chip, but usually it is intact.

At this point if the U12 chip is damaged the only chance of recovering anything will be to send it to a pro; the price will now be increased dramatically because of the damaged (possibly 100% destroyed) U12 chip.

Expect 4 figure quotes for this.

If the data is of little importance; then you will need to try to repair the u12 chip, once you have done that you will need to find a matching PCB for the repaired u12 chip to be soldered on to. If you are a novice at soldering, take it to someone who isn't because this soldering is not for novices.

To match the PCB correctly there is a sticker on the connector of the PCB. it will look something like:

2061-xxxx-xxxx-xxx REV A or something like that.

This needs to match. It should also look physically identical to the original (sometimes it may be colored differently, but not typically with WD)

Once you have soldered the repaired U12 on to the new PCB, it should be ready to go on to the HDD; at this point the drive should work, if it does not, then the U12 chip was damaged severely when the pin broke, or it was already dead from the voltage damage. At this point the only possible way to recover the data is to create a new ROM on a working U12 chip from a new PCB. This consists of trying multiple PCB that are as identical as you can get (100% is usually necessary) and hope the adaptive information on that U12 is close enough to work. If this doesn't work then you must have a machine that can access the ROM, and edit the adaptives and you will proceed with guessing and checking adaptive; which is not logical sense there are countless possibilities.

Tof · Deadharddrive regular Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 16

Thank you!

Confused

Well, now, this is scary.

I'm sure I can forget about U12 and SMT electronic, I usually solder/unsolder on analog device with non SMT component. I didn't use the hot air method. Just bread and Iron. I tried first on the Smooth L6283 1.3, because I have already ordered part to replace it.

The main chip is a 88i6540-LFH1, btw.

Anyway, I'm not going to go to a Recovery Pro for this.

I also own a dirt cheap SATA/PATA controller card, just cost me 5-10$ on ebay, it is far from being a advanced card like a PC3K PCI or anything like this. But this thing doesn't allow me to boot from harddrives with it like a standard setup, in other word, the Operating System has to reckon the hard drive.

I also have an old version of Easy Recovery that can recovered deleted files. If this can scan the hard drive A to Z, I think it would be nice.

I just want to recover the files. I really can't afford Pro Recovery, but as a Tech (but well, this is not what I work on, I just do desktop support at level II, generally, we call Manufacturer or Level III Tech, to replace, wipe out, but I have never been in a recovery case as advance as this one)
I will be happy to know how. I really wouldn't mind to reuse the board from a "donor" and put it back into the donor after this is done.

Do I have at least 50-75% to success ?

I'm still going to try to get PCB, at least matching, and I will keep posting my story Wink

P.S : Sorry for my English.

RussWinters · Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 3:29 pm Post subject:

If the original U12 chip is in good order, then your success rate is dependant on your ability to desolder/solder the chip on to the new matching board. That should be all there is to it in this case.

But if the U12 chip is damaged that is when things get complicated.

Tof · Deadharddrive regular Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 16

U12 got missing legs Laughing

I can't use it. That's not really funny, but well, I found a very close HD to the one that fried.
I have to wait until it comes.

I saw on a website images to burn into the U12.

MDL#: WD2500JB-00REA0, 00REA0 seems to be the firmware version.
DCM#: HSBANTJAAN. The 5 last ones seems to be important if we need matching heads.
The infos come from there : http://www.harddrive-repair.com/hard-drive-parts.html I might get lucky, I don't know yet...

And images for firmware come from there... http://www.harddrive-repair.com/western-digital.html
I have no clue on to burn it to the firmware. And there is obviously the missing element, that U12 contains.

Maybe I should stop, what do you think ?

harddrivespecialist · Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 8:26 pm Post subject:

I would try to read original ROM and write it to a new board and attempt recovery.
If its not possible to read original Rom, next step is to rebuild it, but this very time consuming process, which makes it very expensive.

If you will match a microcode of your original ROM by getting a new drive, you should buy a lottery ticket and you should win it.

Good luck anyways. Wink

_________________
www.datarecoveryne.com

Tof · Deadharddrive regular Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 16

Winning the lottery also fix any issue Very Happy

I see. Well, I feel lucky since my neighbor came to me on St Patrick's day to present me his Hard drive issue.
All thinking done, If I would have been lucky, the controller chip would have been fine, and just taking off the HD from the shell and out it into the PC would have been enough.

Otherwise, I guess I have to learn microprogramming/microcoding 8O or find the required tool which I could use at work also, it is more interesting than "fixing" Outlook.

HD Doctor isn't that bad to get, I guess I'm on this story for months to come.

I'm going to look out for some microcoding engineer and some data sheet for the ship, I will post it there, I mean, it would be useful one day.

Thanks for everything, I will keep posting the story.

Maybe in one year or so, I would know more about this.

RussWinters · Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 9:11 pm Post subject:

This recovery isn't impossible, but the tools to perform the recovery are expensive (were talking over 10k USD)

And even with the tools; it will be infinitely time consuming.

Also, those firmware images are not what goes on the U12; the firmware is located on the platters; the ROM hold the head-map, and other adaptive data; some which is also available in the firmware. On WD if your ROM isn't working then you aren't going to be able to access the firmware; they are different entities that are tied together.

Also, most of the information from that website is incorrect; while the author is on the "right track" most of the information given is incorrect. The secondary code after the model has nothing to do with the firmware (maybe some of it does, but not all of it) Also, the 5th and 6th characters in the DCM are the only ones that matter for HSA replacement. And even then it has been said that success has been made with different DCM.

Tof · Deadharddrive regular Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 16

Wow!! now this makes sens.

So it is totally impossible...

Well, I'm going to have new HD soon. Laughing

well, I don't mind my 160GB was full and it was a scorpio for laptop, that I can use to upgrade a laptop.

I'm going to look for the data sheet of U12, tho, in case what is broke wasn't really in happens sometimes with OPA, but I got doubt.

ATMEL62..
25F1024ANSU27

RussWinters · Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 9:32 pm Post subject:

If the u12 chip itself looks unharmed; you may be able to repair the pins or make new ones, and make some sort of makeshift repair, that would be a better path then trying to create a new rom from scratch.

Tof · Deadharddrive regular Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 16

Russ, but considering the size of this chip Shocked

Well, I got the datasheet, I lost more than the ground there : http://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/view/103098/ATMEL/AT25F1024AN-10SU-2.7.html
or http://www.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/pdf/103098/ATMEL/AT25F1024AN-10SU-2.7.html

My dead pin seems to be vital...

1 & 5 are out Sad

Tof · Deadharddrive regular Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 16

Alright... So if I understand a part of it is on the SA (Platters), my question ? pin 1 disable the EPROM, any chances to work with a disable EPROM, it seems WD got copy of the ROM on the hard drive?

It might be wrong. But I know I need PC3000-UDMA.

P.S : Edit : I read PC3000 can recreate the headmap... I guess I had to invest in serious stuff!

Tof · Deadharddrive regular Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 16

This is way too expensive, tho Laughing

RussWinters · Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 6:17 pm Post subject:

You are on the right track though =)

Maybe you can understand why data recovery costs so much, hehe.

Expensive tools -> years of experience (no school to go to for training, maybe a seminar here or there to give you a boost, but seminar cost at least $1500 themselves.) -> And of course, time consuming.

Tof · Deadharddrive regular Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 16

But it is an awesome way to go, being pro, must be nice, It seems like it is not popular, but it seems great, just like Asset Management. Laughing

Well, I got my WD800BB today (nothing matching)... I tried the PCB swap (for the sport/try/practice).

One chip is totally different for the WD2500JB board. But, here is what happened, and I knew this was going to be not ok.

So I put the drive as a Slave into IDE cable one. The Bios did't reckon it. And it gave me something like this : hd1 failure.
I plugged it into my SATA/IDE controller, Windows booted but it totally froze after a while.

The WD800BB is going to be used for Ubuntu Laughing