Hello.
Year and a half I am in possession of hard disk WD6401AALS. A few days ago, during normal operation, the computer crashed. After reboot, the BIOS does not recognize the disc. You can hear that the plates are spinning and the electronics are no traces of burning. I would add that a few weeks ago I had the same situation, except that after several actuations of the situation returned to normal. Has anyone encountered this kind of situation? Is there any chance of recovery (eg by replacing the printed circuit board with a smooth drive)?
The disk is still under warranty, but I fear that, after putting it in for repair, the data stored on it are lost.
Please help.
Any ideas?
Maybe you should try contacting WD’s Technical Support about this. You can do so either by phone or email.
To Contact WD for Technical Support
http://support.wdc.com/contact/index.asp?lang=en
ISTM that the drive is unable to read the firmware zone on the platters. You could try to remove any oxidation from the 20-pin preamp pads on the underside of the PCB. Use a soft white pencil eraser, and don’t be too vigorous.
Yesterday, after dozens of trials starts, the drive suddenly revived. It happened after a few strokes with your finger, but the disk does not revived immediately after that, but only after next several attempts to start. The device worked half an hour, and just as suddenly revived, so was silent. Fortunately, it allowed me to rip the most valuable data. Tomorrow, the hard drive goes in for repair.
