WD Elements 1023 WDBABV5000ABK - Where to start?

Linnuz

New member
Hello!
First of all sorry if I have a bad English.
I have some little experience recovering data. The most extreme recovery I made was a logic board replacement on a WD 3.5" desktop HDD.

I have an external WD Elements WDBABV5000ABK-00 500Gb that suddenly stopped working. It's my backups drive.
Symptoms:
When plugged in it spins up, and makes what it sounds like a few heads movement. No ticking or strange noise. Led blinks twice and then stays on. After e few minutes it goes on standby mode.
Windows (I can work on Linux if needed) shows the drive as not initialized. In removable hardware list it shows as "Elements 1023" but without any volume or drive letter.
I can't read SMART parameters, smartmontools with -d sat,12:

C:\Program Files\smartmontools\bin>smartctl -d sat,12 -T permissive -a /dev/sdc
smartctl 6.5 2016-05-07 r4318 [x86_64-w64-mingw32-win7-sp1] (sf-6.5-1)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, ***.smartmontools.org

Read Device Identity failed: scsi error unknown error (unexpected sense key)

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model: [No Information Found]
Serial Number: [No Information Found]
Firmware Version: [No Information Found]
Device is: Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is: [No Information Found]
Local Time is: Mon Oct 01 19:52:38 2018 HA
SMART support is: Ambiguous - ATA IDENTIFY DEVICE words 82-83 don't show if SMAR
T supported.
SMART support is: Ambiguous - ATA IDENTIFY DEVICE words 85-87 don't show if SMAR
T is enabled.
A mandatory SMART command failed: exiting. To continue, add one or more '-T perm
issive' options.

Utilities cant read from drive.
Testdisk shows read errors. I think in every sector it tries to read.

How can I start diagnosing the problem? Does it look like a logic failure?
I really need my data but recovery labs are not an option for me. It's not affordable for an end user in Argentina.
I would really appreciate any advice.
Thank you!
 

pclab

Moderator
Hi

Without proper tools it's not easy to diagnose...
Do you ear the drive spin down or is it always spinning?
I can give you a contact of a guy in Argentina that will not charge you hard (I think ehehhehe)
 

Linnuz

New member
Hello.
Sorry for the delay, I didn't have email notifications on.
Thank you for your help.
When I plug the usb cable, the drive spins up. I can hear some short movement with led blinking twice, it sounds like a normal movement. It's not a loud click like I've heard on failing drives. Then led stays on and drive keeps spinning without any other sound.
After some minutes, the drive spins down and led starts blinking like it always did in standby mode.
I couldn't find a way of waking it up in windows.
I have a Lubuntu live usb stick. I'll try to see what happens under Linux.

I've asked two labs here and they are expensive.
But I can try asking your contact.
Thanks!
 

pclab

Moderator
If the drives spins down maybe some head is bad, or you can have a slow error problem.
Proper diagnostic is needed..

Where are you located?
 

pclab

Moderator
Linnuz":pq7rex0p said:
[post]11909[/post] I'm in Cordoba city, ZIP 5000.

I'm in Portugal. Not very far and doable with shipping company (MRW for instance).
 

Linnuz

New member
Hey, sorry for the delay.
jol is right, I'm in Cordoba Argentina, my bad.
I guess my only choice if I don't want to loose all my files is to take the drive to a lab.
I'm pretty sure it's a logic failure.
I've been reading about PCB replacement (I've done it before on 2.5 drives), but the firmware issue can make it a real waste of money.
I'll have to look for an affordable recovery service if it even exists... lol
Thank you for your help!


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