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WD Green stopped working

P

Panmaster

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 31, 2013
Messages
228
The WD Green 3Tb HTPC storage drive containing 2/3rd of my video library has stopped working. :(

It spins up, gets detected in the BIOS but Windows won't POST with it plugged in.
It pauses at the load screen while making a quiet click noise.

I ran a health check on it quite recently which revealed nothing. It had < 1500 hours and the cycle counts were no where near the 300k limit.

The PCB / logic board doesn't look too healthy as some traces look tarnished and areas around the screws look oxidised.

What are the odds of running boot utilities or the freezer-trick to recover data?

Is it worth heating it in the oven @ 200C ?

Is it possible to repair the PCB? :confused:
 
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You can probably swap the PCB for one off the same model of drive.


I would try it on different SATA ports. Or I would try a linux live cd to see if I can get SMART data from it.

I would also try plugging it in after boot up, just make sure you have hotswap enabled in the BIOS.

The freezer trick will probably destroy your drive and the data it contains.
 
staticlag said:
You can probably swap the PCB for one off the same model of drive.


I would try it on different SATA ports. Or I would try a linux live cd to see if I can get SMART data from it.

I would also try plugging it in after boot up, just make sure you have hotswap enabled in the BIOS.

The freezer trick will probably destroy your drive and the data it contains.
Click to expand...

I'll defrost it carefully to avoid any moisture. :eek:


What about removing the PCB and heating that separately in the oven if the other things don't pan out as a last resort?
 
It's not showing up in explorer using hot swapping. Disk Management pauses indefinitely. :(
edit: I tried hitting it quite hard.
edit: It now shows up as "Local disk G:". Opening it hangs explorer.

WD Data LifeGuard showed SMART Status as PASS. Total space / free space isn't reported.
It stops responding if I run a diagnostic or check properties
 
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Well, at this point, if you really need the data off of it, you can try the data recovery services.

The only thing to really try next is to buy an identical PCB off an identical drive (must be exact same) and try and swap that but there are no guarantees that that will work.

But yeah dude it's not looking good.
 
Fwiw the freezer trick is a terrible idea and proven over and over again to not be successful. You will damage more data regardless of how slow you defrost it.
 
People say the freezer trick doesn't work, but I used it twice last month and it worked perfectly both times.

Is it really just coincidence?

I was given a drive by my cousin and another drive by my co-worker. No matter what I tried I could not get them to detect in the OS. Booting with them connected led to hanging on boot and hot-plugging them led to no filesystem detected by the OS.

Stuck them in the freezer overnight, took them out and plugged them in immediately while they were "frozen", no defrosting or anything. Both drives worked perfectly immediately and I was able to copy hundreds of GB off each.

I can't actually prove that the freezer made them work, it could have been a coincidence for both droves. But I can confirm the freezer did not just ruin the drives.

Do you think the drives would have just started working if I kept trying to unplug and replug them a few more times? I tried about 10 times before throwing them in the freezer. I don't know though, it worked twice for me so I'm inclined to continue doing it as well as recommending people do it. I'm 2 for 2 with the freezer haha.
 
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I've put it back in the freezer. :D

I should have known it was failing as I've had problems copying data to it since day one. Since it was intermittent maybe there's a small chance it'll work again long enough to at least get some of the data. The data isn't valuable but rebuilding my video library would be such a pain.
 
I mean yeah I still say that the freezer can work. But I would still only use it as a last resort knowing that you are tossing the drive and data if it doesn't work.
 
SirMaster said:
I mean yeah I still say that the freezer can work. But I would still only use it as a last resort knowing that you are tossing the drive and data if it doesn't work.
Click to expand...

It's still not working. I whacked it firmly against my knee and it seems slightly different. It spins up normally when opening explorer so it's trying to read but can't quite make it.
Yes it's showing the drive properties now so it's *nearly* working.
I'll put it back in the freezer and give it another go later.
edit: It's working! :)
Copying files now...
 
staticlag said:
Well, at this point, if you really need the data off of it, you can try the data recovery services.

The only thing to really try next is to buy an identical PCB off an identical drive (must be exact same) and try and swap that but there are no guarantees that that will work.

But yeah dude it's not looking good.
Click to expand...

All this.
 
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