Helios WD10TMVW-11ZSMS0 sabotage

[michael chiklis]

Hi and Merry Xmas to everyone.

I've helios WD10TMVW-11ZSMS0 which can read well surfaces on all 6 heads but in large zones they can't read well (black squares and slow reading) on heads 2-3-4-5.
I already did the slow issue fix and edited ID to stop reallocation and other stuff but it behavies the same.
Head 0-1 read all surface very good, only few bad sectors on head 1.

Customer told me that he brought the drive to a DR company before giving it to me, the company told him that all data where recoverable but he declined quote due to very high cost.

I suspect that fw modules where altereted by that company so anyone other could be able to rescue properly data.
In your opinion, which modules could be altered to make read surface on heads 2-3-4-5 slow and with a lot of unreadable sectors on large zones?

 

[michael chiklis]

P.S.
this is the drive which has SPT 1100 (strange)
post15289.html#p15289

I don't know if this SPT is normal or if is a mrt bug or the company has altered it somehow.

 

[Freddy]

Hi Michael,

this is Fred from Switzerland

My first thought was that they put another head assy inside with slow reading heads :roll:
Did you check this? I had cases were they put damaged or broken heads inside.
Sometimes that date from the HA is not fitting together with yours drives pcb date.
I meant if you have a 2010 produced drive and HA is from 2011

Btw I took one of my WD10TMVW-11ZSMS0 for comparison.
Mine was produced 24th of Sept 2010; USB Board 771737 changed it to 771692.
Both PC-3000 and MRT brought a SPT of 1108.
ROM Version close to yours 000200A compared to yr 0002008A.
If you want to send me yr mods then I could have a look at them.
Maybe we can find out what these "nice" guys did.
best regards
Freddy

 

[michael chiklis]

Hi Freddy,
thank you for the answer and i wish you a good new year.

This drive was never opened, the cover label is perfect.
Mmy suspicion is that they have changed something at rom adaptives level or on the service area, certainly not at the hardware level.
This drive has bad surface, this is sure because sometimes i can hear scratch noises when heads read some sectors between LBA 940.000.000 - 1.100.000.000 but after few seconds it continues to read without any scratch noises, however very slowly and with a lot of unreadable sectors all over the surface (exept for surface 0 and 1 which have been both completely cloned 3 weeks ago).
This drive is under cloning since 3 weeks now, heads are still all alive. This make me think that all those bad sectors everywhere on surface 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 are not real bads (exept for those between 940.000.000 - 1.100.000.000 and maybe few more).

 

[Freddy]

Hi Michael,
i wish you a good new year too.
Many cases and not so difficult like this
When is your drive produced (manufacturer date)?
I have different drives in my spare parts stock.
Maybe you remember the article from ACE in their blog "Head Stack adaptive (microjog) transfer on WD drives".
If you want to send me yr. 47 mod from ROM and I compare it if we are too much away from the preferred differences from my headstacks especially Hds 2-3-4-5.
best regards
Freddy

 

[michael chiklis]

Hi,
it was manufactured in 01 SEP 2010
DCM code: HBMTJBBB

This is mod 47
View attachment 47.bin

 

[lcoughey]

I'm looking through my Helios resources and they have two different SPT numbers - 1364 & 1372. As you are using MRT, I'd be more inclined that it is just another glitch. As the drive is reading sectors, it doesn't matter.

As for the read issues, I'd be more inclined to say that the heads are weak.

 

[michael chiklis]

Yes, at this point i can agree with you Luke.

 

[Freddy]

Hi Michael,

WD10TMVW-11ZSMS5 produced 20.aug 2011 has 1372.
Sept 2010 produced like ours have anothers SA SPT =>FW:WD10TMVW-11ZSMS0 = 1108
as I wrote it in my first post confirmed on PC-3000 too if someone says that MRT has a bug.
It does'nt. :roll:
I have a look at mod 47.

 

[michael chiklis]

I never seen a drive with such amount of bad sectors on which heads are still alive after more than 1 month cloning (24h).
I check sometimes heads if they get more weak in meanwhile by doing a short scanning on healthy portion of surface, they still read fast on those areas, so heads don't seem to suffer all those bad sectors.
Very strange, i've the feal that something is wrong on fw.