StreamLine
Technical User
I've got a problem with a Western Digital 120GB EIDE HD. The specific model is WD1200BB-53CAA0. The drive is not a boot drive and contains two logical partitions--one NTFS and the other FAT32. (I created the FAT32 using Partition Magic 8 from the original single NTFS volume).
This drive was configured as a slave on the secondary IDE channel. The primary was an Hitachi Travelstar laptop drive connected to the IDE cable with a 44 to 40 pin EIDE adapter card. I inadvertantly misaligned the primary's pins causing a short ciruit which "flashed" the slave drive's onboard circuit/controller card. Consequentlly, the computer's BIOS can no longer recognize the Western Digital drive's correct model number (it's all garbled). However, the BIOS does still correctly indicate the drive's metrics, i.e. LBA capacity, buffer to host data transfer rate, etc.. Windows explorer now sees the drive as single raw volume that needs to be formatted. This is probably due to the fact it can't resolve the drives interleaving without the correct model number.
I've tried swapping controller cards with an identical circuit board layout and chipset from a WD1200BB-00CAA1 and a WD1200BB-00DAA1 drive,respectively. This didn't work, however, because their firmware revisions are different from the WD1200BB-53CAA0 drive. I've successfully swapped cards between two WD1200BB-00CAA1 drives and confirmed that this approach will work between drives with same six character descriptor. I need to replace the the defective drive's onboard controller card with an identical card from another WD1200BB-53CAA0 drive. The 53CAA0 character string is the precise descriptor for the WD manufacturer lot number and firmware revision for the proper onboard controller card.
Unfortunately, Western Digital doesn't repair it's hard drives, doesn't sell controller cards and can't/won't reveal the the six character descriptor for a WD1200BB drive that it sells directly to consumers, in advance of your purchase. I've also not been successfull in locating any retailer on the internet or at my local computer shops that is selling this specific model drive (new or used) with the firmware revision that I need. A Google search indicates this particuliar model drive was previously used in both Compaq Pressario 6000 and Gateway Profile 4 Series desktops. Neither of these companies carries this drive any longer in its parts inventories.
These drives are out there somwhere, but locating one is turning out to be a real problem. The alternative of "professional data recovery" is not an option for me because of the extraordinary expense. If anyone can help me in this regard, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks.
WD1200BB-53CAA0 Hard Drive Specifications:
Component Hard drive
Size
120 GB
Manufacturer
Western Digital
Manufacturer Model numbers
WD1200BB-53CAA0
Formatted capacity
120,034 MB
Number of disks
3
Physical heads
6
Average track density
54,500 TPI
Bytes per sector
512
Error correction
18 bytes OTF33 byte with firmware assist
Error-rate uncorrectable
<1 in 10 14 bits read
Average seek read
8.9 ms average
Track-to-track seek
2.0 ms average
Average latency
4.2 ms (nominal)
Rotational speed
7,200 RPM (nominal)
Buffer to host data transfer rate
100 MBps (Mode 5 Ultra ATA)
66.6 MBps (Mode 4 Ultra ATA)
33.3 MBps (Mode 2 Ultra ATA)
16.6 MBps (Mode 4 PIO)
16.6 MBps (Mode 2 multi-word DMA)
Buffer size
2 MB
Spindle start time
9.0s average (3-platter)
MTBF
500,000 POH
Dimensions (H × L × W)
26.1 × 147 × 101.6
Power requirements
Spinup (peak): 17.0 W
Read/write: 8.0 W
Seek: 14.0 W
Optional features
Ultra ATA 100
This drive was configured as a slave on the secondary IDE channel. The primary was an Hitachi Travelstar laptop drive connected to the IDE cable with a 44 to 40 pin EIDE adapter card. I inadvertantly misaligned the primary's pins causing a short ciruit which "flashed" the slave drive's onboard circuit/controller card. Consequentlly, the computer's BIOS can no longer recognize the Western Digital drive's correct model number (it's all garbled). However, the BIOS does still correctly indicate the drive's metrics, i.e. LBA capacity, buffer to host data transfer rate, etc.. Windows explorer now sees the drive as single raw volume that needs to be formatted. This is probably due to the fact it can't resolve the drives interleaving without the correct model number.
I've tried swapping controller cards with an identical circuit board layout and chipset from a WD1200BB-00CAA1 and a WD1200BB-00DAA1 drive,respectively. This didn't work, however, because their firmware revisions are different from the WD1200BB-53CAA0 drive. I've successfully swapped cards between two WD1200BB-00CAA1 drives and confirmed that this approach will work between drives with same six character descriptor. I need to replace the the defective drive's onboard controller card with an identical card from another WD1200BB-53CAA0 drive. The 53CAA0 character string is the precise descriptor for the WD manufacturer lot number and firmware revision for the proper onboard controller card.
Unfortunately, Western Digital doesn't repair it's hard drives, doesn't sell controller cards and can't/won't reveal the the six character descriptor for a WD1200BB drive that it sells directly to consumers, in advance of your purchase. I've also not been successfull in locating any retailer on the internet or at my local computer shops that is selling this specific model drive (new or used) with the firmware revision that I need. A Google search indicates this particuliar model drive was previously used in both Compaq Pressario 6000 and Gateway Profile 4 Series desktops. Neither of these companies carries this drive any longer in its parts inventories.
These drives are out there somwhere, but locating one is turning out to be a real problem. The alternative of "professional data recovery" is not an option for me because of the extraordinary expense. If anyone can help me in this regard, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks.
WD1200BB-53CAA0 Hard Drive Specifications:
Component Hard drive
Size
120 GB
Manufacturer
Western Digital
Manufacturer Model numbers
WD1200BB-53CAA0
Formatted capacity
120,034 MB
Number of disks
3
Physical heads
6
Average track density
54,500 TPI
Bytes per sector
512
Error correction
18 bytes OTF33 byte with firmware assist
Error-rate uncorrectable
<1 in 10 14 bits read
Average seek read
8.9 ms average
Track-to-track seek
2.0 ms average
Average latency
4.2 ms (nominal)
Rotational speed
7,200 RPM (nominal)
Buffer to host data transfer rate
100 MBps (Mode 5 Ultra ATA)
66.6 MBps (Mode 4 Ultra ATA)
33.3 MBps (Mode 2 Ultra ATA)
16.6 MBps (Mode 4 PIO)
16.6 MBps (Mode 2 multi-word DMA)
Buffer size
2 MB
Spindle start time
9.0s average (3-platter)
MTBF
500,000 POH
Dimensions (H × L × W)
26.1 × 147 × 101.6
Power requirements
Spinup (peak): 17.0 W
Read/write: 8.0 W
Seek: 14.0 W
Optional features
Ultra ATA 100