HD problem on WD7500AAKS (750GB WD) : iregular power random

[Michael REMY]

hi !

while i was working (office activity so not very HD work/copy) on my computer, i have a strange freeze problem : my browser (where i worked) was frozen . It was the hard drive where the mozilla cache was.
After a short moment i quickly understood my whole hard drive will go failure !
and i heard strange noise : run and switch off motor/head/power.

now my HD does not run at windows boot... (i'm crying my heart of 750GB of personal data !!)

i got back the HD off the case and now i'm trying it with USB access using usb-sata cable connector.

When i switch on the HD, it's running a very short time (5s), but the OS (win7 x64) did not have enought time to rightly discover it (and all its partition) because the drive always switchs off on first USB drive detection !

then i unplug and replug the HD and the drive can very hardly (random i guess) been recognize by windows. Only one time i success to see again my partition/files list but not enought time to copy the files.

what should i do know ?

do you think if i access it with linux live CD, the HD may work better (enough time for a backup) ? Maybe linux will check/boot/discover the USB drive more quickly than windows does ? Maybe the HD mecanical system is less solicited under linux ?

thanks for help (sorry for my expression, i'm not born english)

my hard drive is :
brand : western digital
model : WD7500AAKS-00RBA0
DATE : 04 jul 2007 (so almost 4 years)
DCM : HBRNNA2ABB
SN : WCAPT0126312

[deanjo]

hi !

while i was working (office activity so not very HD work/copy) on my computer, i have a strange freeze problem : my browser (where i worked) was frozen . It was the hard drive where the mozilla cache was.
After a short moment i quickly understood my whole hard drive will go failure !
and i heard strange noise : run and switch off motor/head/power.

now my HD does not run at windows boot... (i'm crying my heart of 750GB of personal data !!)

i got back the HD off the case and now i'm trying it with USB access using usb-sata cable connector.

When i switch on the HD, it's running a very short time (5s), but the OS (win7 x64) did not have enought time to rightly discover it (and all its partition) because the drive always switchs off on first USB drive detection !

then i unplug and replug the HD and the drive can very hardly (random i guess) been recognize by windows. Only one time i success to see again my partition/files list but not enought time to copy the files.

what should i do know ?

do you think if i access it with linux live CD, the HD may work better (enough time for a backup) ? Maybe linux will check/boot/discover the USB drive more quickly than windows does ? Maybe the HD mecanical system is less solicited under linux ?

thanks for help (sorry for my expression, i'm not born english)

my hard drive is :
brand : western digital
model : WD7500AAKS-00RBA0
DATE : 04 jul 2007 (so almost 4 years)
DCM : HBRNNA2ABB
SN : WCAPT0126312

Hate to break it to ya but when your drive is power cycling you will have extremely little chance of being able to recover data from the drive no matter what the OS is. If the data is crucial to you then you should look at a data recovery service. This is why you should never depend on a single device for any data that you deem as important and cannot be replaced.

[Michael REMY]

hi,

thank for your advices.

some says that i could buy the exactly same disk-model and just replace the controler card/borad. what do you think about this idea?


Mike

[kbios]

hi,

thank for your advices.

some says that i could buy the exactly same disk-model and just replace the controller card/board. what do you think about this idea?


Mike

This will work if it's only a controller problem (still I would ask an expert to do it). If it is a mechanical problem, the only possibility is to extract the disk from its case and manually read data from it. Specialized labs usually ask for about €1000 for that.

[Kano]

Replacing the hd logic board is really easy. Did that with a hd which defective board, only a few screws needed to fix that. But the mentioned problem is most likely a head crash. It is very unlikely that you can fix that yourself. When the first problem is that the bios does not see the hd at all it can be the board, in my case some parts of it got busted and you could smell it I got a 2nd hand hd of the same kind and replaced the logic board, basically the board is the same for a whole series, the hd size does not matter.

[Michael REMY]

but i thought head crash happens only in case of big move or displacement during transport, not when it 's fixed in case and in idle mode.

[Michael REMY]

well,

guess what...i'm back with pretty good news :

1 - Four hours after my last post, i burnt a ISO live CD of linux (kubuntu 11.04 x86, KDE because very look like Win7 for no-gnome user !)
2 - i boot on the live CD (my fail drive is out and switch of, and no link USB yet)
3 - once linux is full CD-loaded into memory, i run the explorer (its pretty name is Dolphin, no more Konqueror like at my work on my old machine)
4 - i plug the HD on power (i remind you my HD is now a external usb because bring it out quickly of the case since the first failure)
5 - i wait the power look stable (like about 10s to be sure it will not suddenly auto-random switch off itself)
6 - then i connect the usb link to my case
7 - then...miracle...god is an opensource savior !
8 - linux autodetech my usb harddrive quickly (i'm pretty stomached because it did that at least x4 faster than Win7 usb detection and most wonderful of that : no more need to do the dish-mount thing in console with hand, last KDE release does that auto and quickly ! God must really be an opensource melting of strange things)
9 - now i can see the file structure, and begin to browse it, open subfolder (here i got a big fear because once i click on one file, linux try to read it instantly to make a preview thing, or catch details on the install. Why can't it just read the fXXXking mdr & fat to just display the file listing...well more fear that bad thing )
10 - then tadaaaaa, i can copy and paste elsewhere my folder (even ot the need to install ntfs writer, it runs/can wxrite on ntfs at start ! damn, my old-work must be very old....)
11 - i was able to copy/paste my precious data for about 20 minutes then.......the power supply was off again before my entire backup !!! damn it Opensource linux god is not a full savior, just an enticing people!)
12 - i decided to unplug and replug, redo the whole procedure, step by step .... but it won't run anymore ...not bad at all because i successed to backup around 70% of my very important work (most part of the rest was on a old bakcup of 1 month dated)

It could be the end of my story but....no !

13 - i came back under windows
14 - i redo the exact same procedure...
15 - and it ran again !!!!! Yeah !!!! god can be an opensoure thing at all ! it was just a question of time, hazard (principle of heretism, eclipse act...etc..)
16 - quickly i gone on my backup.............then about 5-10min later the hard drive switched off random again.... (i guess satan does exist in all case )
17 - i went to bed and told myself it must be tired like me !
It was really like something was heat, become hot (but no strange small at all, my nose is very good in that).
18 - now, during the morning (7 hours after last success windows boot), the hard drive rans again 20 minutes (same procedure), and i finished my backup.
and the drive shut down again, power supply is sleeping again....

Now, i'm waiting the opening of the IT-shop to quickly buy a new disk because i'm stressing of haveing my whole life on only on support.
Oh, by the way, the hard drive was not placed "à plat" (in french), guess i can translate by "not lay down", but it was stood up and the front connector panel was on the high (to the up).
Last time i checked the random power shutdown, i had notice it had better chances to run when the disk was in stand up position...strange behavior...strange failure for a not-mobile hard drive maybe it depends on the number of heads/platters (four in my case i think)

Thanks for all you message and help, and advice.
Even if God is not opensource, it still have improve linux since my last installation at my work ! Glory to Kubuntu (i know people hate KDE, not me..., Joke, kidding..)

[crazycheese]

hi !
i'm crying my heart of 750GB of personal data !!)

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital Caviar Blue Serial ATA family
Device Model:     WDC WD5000AAKS-22A7B0
Serial Number:    WD-WMASY1577761
Firmware Version: 01.03B01
User Capacity:    500,107,862,016 bytes

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital Caviar Blue Serial ATA family
Device Model:     WDC WD5000AAKS-22TMA0
Serial Number:    WD-WCAPW3802922
Firmware Version: 12.01C01
User Capacity:    500,107,862,016 bytes

man smartctl, man dd, man rsync and buy paars of 'em for backups.
Cheers.

[crazycheese]

KDE because very look like Win7

Its winblows 7 looking like KDE4, not vice versa.

3 - once linux is full CD-loaded into memory, i run the explorer (its pretty name is Dolphin, no more Konqueror like at my work on my old machine)

Dolphin is NOT exploder! Exlpoder is microcrap exploder winblows only. Dolphin and KDE work everywhere, where Qt works.

Now go back to your proprietary winblows, untill it explodes again. Gosh.