This is quite an interesting problem..

[Ricky54326]

Hey guys. Merry christmas

So I got this MyBook Essential back in august. And just last night it fell over, splitting in two. I went down to best buy and the warranty was voided since it cannot open. So I opened the thing up and there was the internal hard drive in there (obviously) and I take it out, thinking i can put this inside my PC and it will work fine.
So, I plug it in my PC, it loads up, reads smoothly, la la la. I copy some stuff on there, and everything works fine. All of a sudden, I reboot and the hard drive doesn't read. At all. The BIOS, instead of saying IDE Hard Drive: WD5000AJB (The model) it says IDE Hard Drive: and stays at that, for about 5 minutes. After that, it says Primary hard disk error. I've tried everything from everywhere so far to fix this. I need the data on there it's a 500GB hard disk with about 250GB irreplaceable, and the other 150 hard to find. I'm not about to pay 1250$ to have it professionally recovered. Hell, I would even pry the thing open myself instead of that. I was just wondering if anyone had this problem and knows how to help me.
Ive tried EVERY IDE cable i have and power cord into the hard drive, still no luck. I'm guessing the PCB board of the card must be messed up
Anyways, here are my specs

2GB US Modular ColdFusion DDR2 PC6400 Dual Channel
GeForce 8600GT PNY PCI-e
AMD 64 x2 4400+
MSI K9N4 SLI-F motherboard
Tested OS: Vista Ultimate x64, Vista Ultimate x86, XP Pro x64, XP Pro x86
Current: XP Pro x86, but tested with all of those, Same problem.
Current Harddrive: WD 80GB (not sure of model, it's black though.)


Thanks guys for reading and I hope someone can help me. I don't plan on buying a new hard drive, as I just spent all my money on other parts.
Thanks again and merry christmas to all.
-Ricky

 

[technik_84]

Did you add the hard replacing the primary one? Or you added it as a slave?

*edit: please learn to be more concise with the quote feature*

 

[Samstoned]

try in another machine
if it fell over the few times you got data you where lucking the drop could have caused a read head damage and from your description it must have been hit hard to open it up like that,I've taken a lot of these apart it's tuff
could be something as simple as the circuit board cables came loose
they are mylar cables on some HDD's some just have contacts

 

[Po`Girl]

Hi,

Assuming you connected that drive as "slave",and your primary as "master",

and your still getting that error,then another alternative might be to buy an

IDE/USB adapter ($20 ?) and connect the drive to the USB,

That would rule out configuration issues,as the problem.

 

[Ricky54326]

I tried slave w/ the other one and master by itself. No luck.
I've tried it in my friend's pc, same probem
I can't get that adapter so no dice on that. And i'm scared to rip the thing open even though it might be my only alternative. What would I look for if I open it? I've never done such a thing with a hard disk before, only other things. And does the so-called "freezer trick" work?

Thanks again for replies, i'll keep looking here. I really need help with this so thanks again.
-Ricky

 

[Po`Girl]

Things are beginning to look expensive. :dead:

I tried the freezer trick once,and it didn`t work.

It all depends exactly what is broken.

If it`s it`s the PCB,then you may be able to fix it.

Otherwise, I found a drive recovery service HERE with a,£249($550 ?) flat rate (no fix,no fee).

That one is based in Ireland.There must be similarly "cheap" services stateside.

 

[Ricky54326]

i'll try the freezer trick I suppose. And the files i have aren't worth 550$
if this doesn't work i suppose i'll take the thing apart, and could you tell me what i should look for if i take it apart? Thanks.

 

[link590o]

freezing the hard drive makes the disc crack or fracture. people do that to ipods when they want to replace their hard drive in the ipod. they get a new disc, freeze the ipod, open it up and take out the pieces and seat the new one.

i have no idea what you hope to accomplish by freezing your hard drives. i think its a really bad idea.

 

[Po`Girl]

Take a look at this thread HERE for info about the PCB option, also, HERE.

Don`t try opening the main part of the drive,as there wiil be nothing you can fix.

 

[Samstoned]

I had a couple of laptop drives that the laptop had been dropped .sometimes a sharp wack can unjam the heads.
in most cases I used my clean box to remove cover and unlock head
if you do this without clean room enviro the drive will not last 2min
again damage could be the circuit board
you don't have to open the hard drive to get to that

 

[Ricky54326]

I had a couple of laptop drives that the laptop had been dropped .sometimes a sharp wack can unjam the heads.
in most cases I used my clean box to remove cover and unlock head
if you do this without clean room enviro the drive will not last 2min
again damage could be the circuit board
you don't have to open the hard drive to get to that

I'll try the whack. If it works, I swear I will laugh out loud.

 

[Ricky54326]

Ommg

Oh my god. I did the freezer trick, and it actually worked. For about 5 minutes of working for 30 minutes in the freezer, my hard drive actually worked, but before i tried accessing the files i made sure it still worked and it did not anymore. I'm trying more time in the freezer, to see if my hard drive will work.

 

[Ricky54326]

Ommg

Oh my god. I did the freezer trick, and it actually worked. For about 5 minutes of working for 30 minutes in the freezer, my hard drive actually worked, but before i tried accessing the files i made sure it still worked and it did not anymore. I'm trying more time in the freezer, to see if my hard drive will work.

 

[mica3speedy]

wow, good luck. Hopefully you can get what you need off of it.