I've had very good success with purchasing used drives online as well as from ebay to fix similar problems. In many cases the problem is the circuit board and swaping it works fine. Generally there are only 4-5 torxhead screws to remove and the surface contacts between the board and the drive should match up even if if the used drive you buy has a slightly different board revision or has a different firmware version installed. A quick search on ebay found this sale showing a used WD200 drive for $0.01 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140159259848. This would be a whole lot cheaper than having a data recovery company extract the data for you. If it doesn't work, you're only out a few bucks.
Brian -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Robert L Cochran Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2007 8:21 PM To: g4u-help Subject: [g4u-help] Rescue Older Western Digital WD200 (20 Gb) A friend's Western Digital WD200 drive crashed. The system BIOS does not see the drive. This means software won't see the drive either. It is like the drive motor has burned out or perhaps a voltage regulator has gone. My question is, does this type of drive failure indicate a possible bad circuit board part? Are there parts on the drive I might try replacing just to see if I can bring the drive to life just long enough to get the data off it? I have a small lab here and I'm able to solder surface mount and/or through-hole parts as needed. If a consensus emerges that this is a practical idea to try...my next question is can I get replacement circuit board components from the drive manufacturer? If not the manufacturer, what is a good alternate source? Mouser? Digi-Key? Thanks Bob Cochran Greenbelt, Maryland, USA ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/ _______________________________________________ g4u-help mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/g4u-help ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/ _______________________________________________ g4u-help mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/g4u-help
