WD10EARS undetected - temporarily fixed with unusual method [ Edited ]

[Generall]

Hello everyone,

It so happened that my WD10EARS ( still under warranty ) went undetected in the BIOS. I was annoyed as it's been hardly 6 months since I bought it and was used with extreme care. Anyways I started to search for it's warranty papers and soon found out that they had been lost. I was really angry at myself for being so clumsy and stupid.

Then I started doing tricks with the drive by putting it under the sun for a day and then in the deep freezer. None of these worked.

Then, just by chance, it so happened that I thought I have nothing to lose as it's going to go to a repairman soon, I'll just try another trick by pushing hard on it's PCB. I touched my hand with metal (to minimize ESD) and then applied some pressure on the back of the hard disk where the PCB is. I did this evenly across all of the PCB and also that 4-wire-thing which goes to the middle of the drive. After that I wanted to give it a try and voila, it was detected and booted up okay with everything intact.

Now the thing is, that this only works for about a week or so and then the drive goes undetected again and I have to do this trick again to get it fixed.

[DanZee]

Yeah, sounds like you have a break in either the board or the wiring. Pressing on it temporarily lines up the wires or circuitry or connectors and then over time it separates again. Definitely copy all the data off your old drive onto a new drive. You don't need any papers to send the drive back to WD. Just follow this link to send it back and get a new one mailed out to you. https://westerndigital.secure.force.com/?lang=en

[fzabkar · Accepted solution]

Other than dry solder joints or similar problems, there may be oxidisation on the preamp contacts on the other side of the PCB. I believe this is a consequence of materials changes mandated by RoHS.

If you remove the board you will see a 20-pin preamp/VCM connector on the HDA. Use a soft white pencil eraser to gently clean the corresponding contacts on the PCB.

Look for something like these:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/WD5000BEVT_Preamp_VCM.jpg
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/WD200BB-Preamp.jpg

[Generall]

*UPDATE* :

Thanks for the useful replies.

This method no longer works. Now in search of a Torx Screwdriver.

[DavidSucesso]

did you do a backup of the data when the drive started to work again?

[Generall]

*UPDATE 2*

Cleaned the pre-amp as told by 'fzabkar' and it's working again now with all data intact.

Going to back it all up now.

I have done this too :  http://www.ngohq.com/news/19805-critical-design-flaw-found-in-wd-caviar-green-hdds.html 

[Generall]

This is getting really annoying as after 1 week of normal operation, the cleaning procedure has to be done again as it again goes undetected after suffering I/O errors while in Windows.

[Generall]

*UPDATE 3*

Even after cleaning it with rubber THOROUGHLY, nothing is being detected now. It seems that the board has to be replaced. It sure was a mistake buying this drive, and I would recommend everyone to look for reliable alternatives such as Hitachi or Seagate.

[Generall]

*UPDATE 4*

After leaving the controller card in a bucket of water + washing soda for 2 or more days, cleaning it with an old toothbrush, washing it with normal water, then drying it under the sun, it is working again. Such a nuisance.

[DennyD]

Could it be that the simple act of removing the drive, moving it around, and replacing it is the temporary fix? Might sound strange, but I have a theory that a drive that I worked on is that way. VERY similar conditions and solutions tried with somewhat similar results. In my case, it worked for a few minutes to a very few hours, rather than a week. My goal was only to extract the information onto a replacement drive so it took me a couple of weeks to get most of it done.

Since EVERYTHING that I tried SOMETIMES worked and sometimes didn't, I theorized that the physical movement that happened while I was trying to fix this and that was the real cause of the temporary fix. I tested that theory and it did seem to be correct. Since everything was so random, I can't conclusively say anything, but it sure seems to be correct.

I did replace the board with another from a known good drive and that did not affect the situation even a little bit. That eliminated the board from the list of possible causes.

Try it, you have nothing to lose.

As far as other brands being more reliable...I do a lot of computer repair work and I have found no other brand that is more reliable. Over many years, I have seen bad runs with every brand. I have also seen bad individual units with every brand. If I could find one that was more reliable, I would switch to it, but I have not seen any that are better. The same applies, to an extent, with different models of a given brand. I hoped the black edition would be better, but I have not found it to be enough better that I'm happy. ALL HARD DRIVES FAIL, it is not a matter of if, but of when.

Sorry to ask this, but why would you even try to keep using that drive when it has proven itself to be unreliable? That's none of my business, but I'm curious.