Wiz or other Hard Drive expertise needed . . .

The machines we love to hate

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Russ Wever
Posts: 2673
Joined: 16 Dec 1998 1:01 am
Location: Kansas City

Wiz or other Hard Drive expertise needed . . .

Post by Russ Wever »

I've had an external hard drive fail.

It will 'power up' in the sense that I hear the drive turning if I hold
it to my ear and by holding it in my hand, can sense the gyroscopic
force, but the two different laptops and two different desktops that
I use it with will no longer recognize it.

Before, it ran as quietly as a typical drive: I use it in a rather quiet
setting and it did not make any scraping, clicking or other sounds
indicative of pending failure.

It worked fine until one time I plugged it in and though it spun, it
wouldn't be recognized, so I am thinking that the trouble might
be within the PC Board that is mounted on the drive.

I have opened the case, removed the hard drive and used a
USB Adapter Kit, which allowed me to bypass the additional small PC
Board that is in the case (and allows it to be powered 'externally by
a wallwart), but still it doesn't read.

What I'm wondering is, is anyone here familiar with finding
replacement PC Boards for a particular drive?

I don't know whether it's best to try the manufacturer or look for a 'salvaged'
one on ebay or elsewhere online.

And when looking for a replacement, exactly which 'specs' are critical: On the
drive label, in addition to manufacturer, model and serial number, there are specs
such as WWNN, DCM, DCX, R/N, and I don't know if these are critical to match up.

I've posted some pics below, if that helps.

Any answers and/or advice is appreciated. All of this is in Windows OS.
Thanks,
~Russ

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Jack Stoner
Posts: 22136
Joined: 3 Dec 1999 1:01 am
Location: Kansas City, MO

Post by Jack Stoner »

Russ, the hard drive is one complete unit. The drives have (usually) a five year warranty. Contact WD about warranty repair/replacement.

As you have disassembled some of it, that may have voided the warranty. There can be internal problems and not one of the logic boards.
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Pete Nicholls
Posts: 575
Joined: 6 Jun 2012 2:59 pm
Location: Macon, Georgia, USA

Post by Pete Nicholls »

I have found that most of the time the problem is the interface board in the external drive, and not the drive itself. When you tried to slave that drive in another computer, the BIOS may not be set properly to recognized the drive. I wouldn't give up on it until you are totally confident that you have taken all the right steps for the drive to be recognized by the BIOS.
You can buy an external drive docking station which will bypass these technical issues. For the price, it is a bargain!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IKC ... UTF8&psc=1
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