Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

I need help with fixing my HDD(WD25000AAJS)

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    I need help with fixing my HDD(WD25000AAJS)

    I'm trying to fix a dead hard drive (WD2500AAJS) that won't spin up.
    I checked the PCB for shorts and i couldn't find any also the board doesn't have any physical damage. So i suspected that maybe the motor is dead.
    I bought another drive with the same model number and identical PCB to perform a platter swap. I couldn't swap the bios/firmware because it's incorporated in the IC.
    I moved the plater and PCB from my old drive to the new one but the drive still won't spin up.
    At this point, I'm pretty sure that the old PCB is not working properly.
    I checked the voltages across the board of both PCB's and they are identical.
    I suspect that maybe the spindle controller is bad but I'm not sure.

    Any help, please..

    https://imgur.com/a/LCVtunK#9Dastmj

    #2
    Re: I need help with fixing my HDD(WD25000AAJS)

    First, if you didnt yet, clean both pcb and then clean well the contacts on the J1 "connector" pads on both pcb, they look some dirty and maybe you think its not that serious, but i revived a pair of HDD cleaning those contacts, may worth a try. A pen eraser does it nicely, try to make them as shiny as possible.

    Good luck

    Comment


      #3
      Re: I need help with fixing my HDD(WD25000AAJS)

      I did clean the pads on both connectors(right image). Also I cleaned entire board with isopropyl. I the meantime a made some progress. The diode on D2 is not getting -5v on start. On positive end is getting 0.04v and drops to 0 after 1-2sek. With jumper on PM2 I didn't measured any voltage

      Q1= 3.9v/5v/3.3v
      L1= 1.2v
      L2= 2.5v
      Last edited by mirdza; 03-27-2022, 04:47 PM.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: I need help with fixing my HDD(WD25000AAJS)

        I would not spend my time trying to fix a hard drive. Even you can't change the control board, as they contain some keys to decrypt the data from the hard drive, so if you change the cotrol board, you have to change also this keys, they might be in an eprom, or in an custom chip. Hopeless w/o the necessary tools available only in factories.

        From my experience I'd never buy again Seagate nor Western Digital HDD's. They all fail after 3-5 years, or earlier, sometime even are DOA (Dead on Arrival). The only HDD's where I have good experience are the Hitachi line (HGST HUH721212...), I have several of them in my NAS working 24/24, and they work, and work, and work ....
        I believe now they have been bought also by WD, but the line is still available.

        When buying new drive I can recommend to study this site:

        https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backb...tats-for-2021/

        They do quaterly real drive failure statistics in a big data centre and publish them, so these recommendation is reliable, not this marketing bla bla available everywhere. Since I buy now only drives with good statistics published by them, I have never had any failure with a drive.
        Last edited by DynaxSC; 03-28-2022, 04:00 PM.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: I need help with fixing my HDD(WD25000AAJS)

          At this point am at reprograming the donors PCB with the patient ROM. . One awesome guy helped me at tomsHARDWARE, fzabkar. I am just hoping a will save my data. I don't care about the drives.

          I use Hitachi as well. I read the failure statistic also. You are completely right.

          Comment


            #6
            Re: I need help with fixing my HDD(WD25000AAJS)

            That's fantastic, hopefully your're lucky and this is only the board.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: I need help with fixing my HDD(WD25000AAJS)

              We are in a similar boat...trying to do data recovery of some couple's wedding photos. Seagate is the drive vendor and their local tech 'gurus' gave up. We have a ticking sound.

              From this early review - you will need the SAME controller board & SAME revision as found on your defective drive.

              If the drive is not spinning, you could have ball bearing faults which Louis' team (youtube) stated that hot air may cause the spindle to start up again but is not initially recommended.

              Review the full details of the label on your drive.

              You DO NEED the bios off the original controller board -> transfer to the donor drive board (they are $5 USD on Aliexpress). I can post the links upon demand. Our boards are in transit.

              For mechanical faults, you will need a donor drive with close to the serial # that is on your non-working drive. There is a vendor in the USA (DONOR DRIVES.COM ?) that has a chart on how to source the donor drives. Next, you need to remove the platters off the old drive WITHOUT shifting them. This can be difficult and some use scotch tape for the process. Personally, we are about to buy a platter removal kit from Aliexpress but still in chats each night with the factory.

              To keep the drive heads from sticking together, you will need a head comb tool = nylon special comb to keep the heads separated. Aliexpress stores sell these.

              The vendor on Aliexpress noted data recovery s/w and that is where we are at as of today. More will be posted as we continue to learn.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: I need help with fixing my HDD(WD25000AAJS)

                Well... Let me tell you this.

                If this is your first time doing this I strongly suggest that you don't. Speaking from my experience...

                I did all you sad. My drive has only one platter so i thought that this will be an easy job. I didn't have to move the heads at all, they were on the ramp. The motor was spinning freely. In my case, i had a defective board. The MCU was not communicating with the spindle controller(motor driver chip) so i had to reprogram the donor board with my patient ROM.
                I have identical drives with identical PCB's.
                And i did all that, swapped the platter, i reprogrammed the new PCB a then i found out that every drive is UNIQUE (physically). In every drive, the head stack is calibrated relative to the platter.(I'm talking about nanometers) And that calibration is in the ROM(bios). So by moving a platter in a new drive and by reprogramming that new drive board with ROM from the old board, you are also copying that calibration data. So u end up with the drive that is not calibrated and is not able to read the data from the platter. This happened to me and now i have to return the platter to my old drive (exposing it twice to contaminations)
                There are some exceptions. Some drives have sensors and other methods to "recalibrate" themselves so platter swap works sometimes but not every time. You have to be very careful.

                So my advice to you would be to try to fix the old board or reprogram the new board but do not open the drive if you don't have to.
                If fixing the board doesn't help maybe you can try and open the drive to see if you can "unstuck" the motor or the heads but swapping the plater is VERY risky.
                Last edited by mirdza; 03-29-2022, 04:56 PM.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: I need help with fixing my HDD(WD25000AAJS)

                  Read this article:
                  https://hddscan.com/doc/HDD_Tracks_and_Zones.html

                  The heads have unique parameters that are stored in special tables (adaptive table). And adaptives are stored in special area on the platter called SA(system area).

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: I need help with fixing my HDD(WD25000AAJS)

                    Wow. Many thanks for the feedback.

                    We did open the drive to see if the heads were camped onto the platters and they were not. The platters spin freely which we can feel when the lid is on with the gyro effect, yet there is the occasional ticking sound. The drive is not being detected by the host - it did so once or twice a while ago.

                    The Seagate branch did not open the drive and just returned as a cannot fix drive.

                    We will wait for the controller boards to arrive and transplant the bios onto it to test again.

                    The friction fit contacts on the original controller board were corroded. We did clean them up but perhaps still an issue.

                    Offshore vendors claim that PC3000 or some similar tools are required for a high degree of success.

                    Is this the $7k-$12k USD tool from Russia ?? That is out of our budget.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: I need help with fixing my HDD(WD25000AAJS)

                      I am not 100% sure but in your case this can be three things. Damaged heads, damaged platters or firmware error. You can try to reprogram the new board with fw from the old board but if the culprit is in the fw i don't know how you can fix it.
                      I used wdmarvel for ROM reprogramming. I dont know if it works with Seagate drives. Sorry...
                      You dont need special tools for this.

                      Read this it might help:
                      http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=1127
                      Last edited by mirdza; 03-30-2022, 04:44 PM.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: I need help with fixing my HDD(WD25000AAJS)

                        once had one that was ticking .nothing to lose i tapped it and it spun up so i copied it sharpish . not saying to try that as it can make it worse .

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: I need help with fixing my HDD(WD25000AAJS)

                          Originally posted by mirdza View Post
                          One awesome guy helped me at tomsHARDWARE, fzabkar.
                          Who is on this forum also:
                          https://www.badcaps.net/forum/member.php?u=10663
                          better to keep quiet and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt

                          Comment

                          Working...
                          X