Robert,

the part of the firmware I'm talking about is stored on the hard disk 
platter in special reserved sectors, so it's not a matter of 
electronics. I guess there are only few people on the planet who have 
the means to rewrite those sectors.

Best regards,
Andre

Robert L Cochran schrieb:
> Yes, I get the same results whether the drive is jumpered for cable 
> select, master, or there is no jumper at all (that defaults the drive to 
> cable select, doesn't it, and yes I'm using an 80 conductor cable.)
> 
> I did one more thing, I put the hard drive in my freezer for a while and 
> then took it out and connected it. Same results at hand -- the test 
> machine's BIOS warns that no hard drive is detected and for the primary 
> IDE master drive it displays the text 'WD204BB'.
> 
> So you think I need to replace the firmware on the drive? Is that a 
> costly operation? I do have a small electronics lab here and might be 
> able to attempt that. I don't think my friend can afford the services of 
> Kroll or Ontrack.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Bob
> 
> 
> Andre Tertling wrote:
>> Did you check the master/slave jumpers? WD drives have three different 
>> settings, one for single drive, one for master with slave present and 
>> one for slave drive. The wrong ID string leads me to the assumption 
>> that the part of the firmware that's being loaded from the platter 
>> during startup is broken. This can't be fixed by mere mortals. 
>> Companies like Kroll/Ontrack and others can rescue your data (given 
>> that the hard disk didn't shredder your data but just its firmware) 
>> but I doubt that there is anyone else who could put a new firmware 
>> onto your hard disk. But do try google though :)
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Andre
>>
>>
>> Robert L Cochran schrieb:
>>> I did indeed get two WD200BB-75DEA0 hard drives from an Ebay seller. 
>>> After Googling for photos on how to replace the existing circuit 
>>> board with a donor board and going out to Home Depot to buy a Torx 
>>> screwdriver set in various sizes (I needed a T-8 size), I swapped in 
>>> board #1 and plugged the hard drive into my test machine. The test 
>>> machine, though, didn't detect ANY IDE devices, including the DVD 
>>> drive. I spent too much time on that before moving to a second test 
>>> machine. The BIOS on that machine paused for a long, long time and 
>>> then issued a message stating it couldn't detect a hard drive, press 
>>> F1 to continue. I did and I saw the following text listed for the 
>>> primary IDE master: WD204BB
>>>
>>> I then removed the "patient" drive (the one I'm trying to rescue) and 
>>> plugged in the second of the donor drives to see if it can be 
>>> detected by the BIOS. This time there was no lengthy pause from the 
>>> BIOS during POST and I saw the following text listed for the primary 
>>> IDE master: WD200BB-75DEA0 which is what I would expect to see of a 
>>> "live" Western Digital drive.
>>>
>>> I swapped in the circuit board of the second donor drive with the 
>>> "patient" and got the same result: the text "WD204BB" displays as the 
>>> primary master drive in the BIOS screen, and I get a BIOS warning 
>>> that no hard drive is detected.
>>>
>>> Finally, I reinstalled the donor circuit board to the first donor 
>>> drive and test it to make sure it is detected in BIOS. It is detected 
>>> with the string WD200BB-75DEA0 as expected. Yes, lesson learned -- 
>>> test the donor drives first before swapping boards.
>>>
>>> So it looks like circuit board replacement won't fix the hard drive 
>>> of interest to me. Is there some other hardware I can replace such as 
>>> the drive motor? Is this an operation requiring special tools and 
>>> great skill?
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> Bob Cochran
>>>
>>> Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
>>>
>>>
>>> Matt Smollinger wrote:
>>>> Yeah the WD200BB is sufficient. That 75DEA0 match is nice but not 
>>>> required.
>>>> I wanna say that's firmware rev or board rev. Its probably also 
>>>> possible to
>>>> get a WD200JB board to work, but I wouldn't try it. JB is their special
>>>> edition series with extra cache, but since this is a recovery 
>>>> operation for
>>>> one, and two you don't know if it will really work, I'd try very 
>>>> hard to
>>>> match exact models.
>>>>
>>>> Matt Smollinger
>>>> Application Engineer for Convergence Tech.
>>>> AdvancedAV ATG
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  
>>>>> From: Robert L Cochran <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>>>> Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 19:25:05 -0400
>>>>> To: Matt Smollinger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>>>> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, 'g4u-help' <[email protected]>
>>>>> Subject: Re: [g4u-help] Rescue Older Western Digital WD200 (20 Gb)
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks Matt and Brian. I'm looking into this really seriously. I 
>>>>> notice
>>>>> that on this Western Digital drive, there is a printed box on the 
>>>>> label
>>>>> with the model number (WD200BB-75DEA0), a date (25 Aug 2002) and a DCM
>>>>> code (HSBHNA2AA). Does the replacement circuit board have to come 
>>>>> from a
>>>>> drive matching on all 3 of these things, or is a match on model number
>>>>> only sufficient?
>>>>>
>>>>> Do I need to match on the drive parameters as well (there is an LBA
>>>>> string printed on the label too as in "LBA 39062500"?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Bob Cochran
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Matt Smollinger wrote:
>>>>>   
>>>>>> I've done similar to what Brian recommended with good success. If 
>>>>>> the motor
>>>>>> is burnt out though, you may be out of luck, but buying used 
>>>>>> drives and
>>>>>> swapping the whole electronics board works great. Just make sure 
>>>>>> the models
>>>>>> match.
>>>>>> Matt Smollinger
>>>>>> Application Engineer for Convergence Tech.
>>>>>> AdvancedAV ATG
>>>>>> (m)610-304-1204
>>>>>> (o)610-431-6174
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>       
>>>>>>> From: Brian Lawrence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>>>>>> Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>>>>>> Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2007 21:32:09 -0500
>>>>>>> To: 'g4u-help' <[email protected]>
>>>>>>> Subject: Re: [g4u-help] Rescue Older Western Digital WD200 (20 Gb)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> 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
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>         
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>   
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