Dead / Dying WD....

[scottatwittenberg]

My friend's little brother sent me a few e-mails talking about a dying hard drive that they want to get info off of... I will just post what he wrote:

Hello,

Pictures above are of the hard drive in question. It began to push daisies when during a screensaver, the inside of the computer started clicking on and off as if retrying to retrieve information. Once I moved the mouse, a screen came up showing me there was a problem with the hard drive. I immediately turned it off to let it cool for tomorrow. However, my mother insited upon sending as E-Mail and did not heed my warnings. When she restarted the computer, it began just fine with the occasional click. The computer reached the desktop, and I started to close background programs to allow the computer to run faster. I also opened ITunes where it loaded completely with its library intact so I could disconnect my IPod. When we opened American Online, the clicking worstened, and the computer slowed. Once again, the familiar blue screen of death returned. The next day, tried again to see if it would have fixed itself. These times, the computer did not load past the desktop. Later it did not load past Windows XP startup. Now, it will not go past the BIOS since it is not even recognized (Though sometimes it was recognized, but when it was, the computer still did not surpass Windows XP startup).

Afterwards all this trouble, I started to research possible reasons and solutions for my hard drive problems. I discovered that most Western Digital hard drives, my hard drive, will break down due to a short circuit in the logic board. Now I have found a Logic board of the same model on EBay Stores (http://cgi.ebay.com/Western-Digital...ryZ99249QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem). However, it has slight differentiations in component colors and identification numbers. Still, all the components share the same locations and suggest to serve the same purposes. Do you think what I have found so far to be reasonable? What else do you suggest to do? Any thoughts?

P.S. Here are its specifications so you will not have to find them in the pictures.

Producer: Western Digital
Make: WD Caviar - Enhanced IDE Hard Drive; 60.0 GB
Drive Parameters: LBA 117187500
Origin: Malaysia
Model: WD600BB-75CAA0
Date: 15 FEB 2003
DCM: HSFHNA2CH

DS/N MY - 00X439 - 12555 - 32F - 0761
Rev A00
MIC E-H011-01-3900

Logic Board Bar Code: 2061-001092-300 K XW 140Q JD13A 0004330 3334

 

[scottatwittenberg]

is the foam being burned around where it contacted the chips on the logic board a common thing? or was this drive overheating?

do you think that a logic board off of any WD600BB could work? or does it need to be a WD600BB-75CAA0

i have found the exact model but they are overpriced because they are marketed as dell replacements.. but the basic model can be had much more readily..

i am referring to buying the whole working drive here since they want $50 for the logic boards...