WD2500BMVV 2.5" drive- not spinning 1

[AP81]

Hi guys,

A friend asked me to take a look at her portable WD HDD which isn't working.

Apparently it had been working intermittently over the last couple of months, until recently stopped working altogether. The power LED comes on, but there is no life. The drive does not power up- i.e it doesn't spin. I think it is dead.

Tried a new cable, but didn't have any luck. I opened up the housing thinking I could just plug it into my PC via a SATA cable to test it. To my surprise the micro USB connector is built into the drive. This is very annoying.

It may well be dead, however I can't see any way that I can test it. Any ideas? She has a heap of photos on it from a world trip, and I would hate to see them lost forever.

Not sure if I am game enough to transplant the platters into another drive, but I think that is the only other option apart from getting it repaired by western digital...which would be the smarter option.

Any ideas on where to go from here? I can take some pics of the drive if needed to give you a better idea.

Thanks!

 

[flyboytim]

Here is the warning - too late!
A drive that operates intermittently usually has a short future - back up now. Already some or all data may be lost.

However, there are a couple of desperate measures to avoid paying $$$ to a data recovery firm.

Put the drive into the freezer (in a sealed bag, with some absorbent tissues) and deep-freeze ovenight. This has the effect of making all the parts contract, but due to the different construction materials, some contract more than others. It may free stuck surfaces.

Remove from freezer, keep in sealed bag to prevent moisture condensing onto drive. Hold the drive at the edges through the packaging, and do several sharp rotations in clockwise and anticlockwise directions. This has the effect of spinning the outside of the drive, and hopefully, the inertia will keep the platters inside moving, freeing them if frozen, or stuck to the drive heads, which can happen if the magnetic coating of the platter has lifted and caused a frictional brake between platter and head. Allow to warm to room temperature ~ 1 hour, remove from packaging and reattach drive and attempt to operate.

Another, slghtly more violent method is to slap the face of the drive with one hand whilst holding it in the other, turn the drive over and repeat. The shock may dislodge stuck heads. Do the twisting thing described above. Reconnect and turn on.

If the drive starts spinning, run a full thorough scandisk first and fix errors - this will prevent repeated attempts to read from damaged portions of the drive, which can cause further damage, and then attempt to read and copy any data still available.

Expect data loss and there are no guarantees that any of this will work.

http://www.fxxxingcomputers.co.uk

 

[goombawaho]

However, there are a couple of desperate measures to avoid paying $$$ to a data recovery firm."

The freezer trick is NOT recommended (nor is slapping the drive) at all if you have any intention of sending the drive out for data recovery. If the pictures are that important, don't fool with it. Unplug the drive, leave it alone and get a quote on recovery.

Then and only then, if the price is too high to go forward with recovery, do whatever you like to the drive.

This freezer myth might work 1 out of 100 times and maybe just by coincidence, but it's equal parts voodoo and blind hope.

 

[satrow]

The freezer trick can and does work - but only in a very few, specific cases and some of them are for defective controller board/component problems, where allowing it to reach room temperature before reconnecting the drive would disallow any recovery. It's only advised to attempt this if you're not prepared to pay for data recovery.

Probably a 30% chance that it's just the fixed adapter that's broken; if the data is valuable, a board/adapter swap from a new/working drive may be worth trying?

 

[goombawaho]

The freezer trick can and does work - but only in a very few, specific cases...."

So why would anyone ever try this or recommend this (given low percentage of success) IF there was a possibility that the data was important enough to send out for professional recovery. I'm all about conservatism when it comes to data. Freezing the drive/slapping the drive - not conservative at all. Risky.

So, as a first step - NEVER!!! As a last resort before slamming the drive on the concrete because you're not going to pay for recovery - WHY NOT give it a shot.

 

[BadBigBen]

to throw my two cents worth into the fray...

the Freezer trick used to work with the old RLL and MFM drives, if it does these days, who knows I sure am never gonna try it...

slapping, or letting it hit the floor, did too, until the manufacturers moved from metal platters to ceramic platters... so these days you might end up with shards instead...

now to the OP:

take the drive out of its enclosure, hook it up to a PC, if it gets detected and spins up... RECOVER the data ASAP...

if it does not spin up, then use it as a coaster for your beer or your friends beer, unless you desperately need the data on the drive, then PAY a DataRecovery expert, e.g. Ontrack...



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[AP81]

Thanks guys.

Was quoted AUD$990 to fix it, so I'll have to buy another drive and attempt a transplant. I'll change over the micro USB interface first to see if that works, if it doesn't, then I have no choice other than performing the surgery.

 

[goombawaho]

To BadBigBen:

1. Thanks for backing me up on the freezing and slapping (at least I think you did).

The OP had said - "To my surprise the micro USB connector is built into the drive. This is very annoying."

I don't know what that means - "micro USB". Perhaps the OP is not understanding the type of connection inside the enclosure. I didn't see the insides of the drive so I don't know. But I thought there was only one kind of SATA connection (same on 2.5" and 3.5") and two types of PATA connections (2.5" and 3.5") plus there are 1.8" drives, which I'm pretty sure it's not.

So, maybe we need to work on the angle of getting the drive connected to another PC some more. A picture would really help of the drive pulled from the enclosure.

 

[satrow]

There is no usable SATA connection on the later revisions of this drive, it's been replaced by a fixed micro USB (like on many cameras, etc.) as part of the controller board. There's an image at

http://blog.wisefaq.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/WesternDigitalMyPassportDriveUSBInterface.jpg

also more discussion/pictures at

http://blog.wisefaq.com/2009/12/08/how-to-open-the-western-digital-my-passport-drive/

 

[BadBigBen]

Goom, yes and just generalizing my experience...

Satrow, thanks for the update on the USB connector, that is news to me...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[vacunita]

Its the 4th time I encounter the usb controller board. More and more of the external drives are replacing the regular SATA PCB with a direct USB, Mini USB or even Micro USB port PCB.

The easiest, and non-destructive thing to do is find a regular Sata drive that matches the problem one, and swap the PCB boards. Part, model and revision numbers should match for best results.

I've had success 2 out of the 3 times I've encountered these.

The Third time, I'm sure the failure was due to an internal problem with the drive.

Hopefully that will let the OP determine whether the drive is salvageable by conventional means or if it will require a Data recovery Expert.

----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Behind the Web, Tips and Tricks for Web Development.

http://behindtheweb.blogspot.com/

 

[AP81]

Trying to source an identical drive...hopefully replacing the Micro USB controller will fix the problem.

Thanks for everyone's help!

 

[goombawaho]

Wow - news to me too (that funky connector). Ha - more to worry about now.