WD Hdd Heads Swap Donor

[andy88]

Hi, my external hdd: WD My Passport 1TB, suddenly stoped working. I send for diagnostic and they said that is problem with heads. Could you tell me what donor should I need to search? And in what numbers should I need to look?

Hdd model: WD10TMVW-11ZSMS4
DCM: HHOT2HBB
Date: 02 Sep 2012

Thanks!

 

[Jared]

I already replied to this on HDDGuru, but here's my response again:

Do you have a clean room, head combs, ESD equipment, PC-3000 to check preamp revision and possibly tweak firmware settings after the replacement to stabilize the drive? How about a hardware drive imaging too to safely read around the damaged areas caused by the failure?

Finding a donor is easy enough for this model, but us telling you how to match it is only setting you up to fail and drastically complicate the situation. Once you do DIY on the route you're on, you're probably going to foil all hope of ever getting the data back. If you think you'll just open it up with a screwdriver, swap a part, plug it into your USB dock and copy the files you are sadly mistaken.

 

[andy88]

Yeah thanks for reply, but as I got many responses that I can make more damage. I would like to get donor myself but to give it to service. So they could charge less. Can you tell me which model should I need to search and what numbers should I need to look for?

 

[pclab]

How much are they charging you for total recovery and parts?

 

[andy88]

It is very different by countries, for me it is big price for swap, thats why I am asking to find donor, so will be cheaper their service.

 

[lcoughey]

Why aren't you asking them? If they aren't willing to provide you with the necessary details to source a donor, they aren't likely to want to work with a donor supplied by you.

 

[Jared]

Alright, here's the details you need to match for it to work:

1. HDD Family. If you reference this page you can see what HDD codes are from which family: identify-wd-marvel-families-by-code-after-the-dash-t636.html You'll notice that yours is Helios family because it has "ZSMS" in the model, so you need to get another Helios family drive. It does not need to be the same model or even a USB based drive. I always use SATA drives to replace heads in USB drives so I'd typically be using something like a WD10TPVT-00U4RT1 to replace the heads.
2. DCM Code. The letters T2 must be present.
3. Date - Should be within 3-4 months (the closer the better)
4. Country of manufacture - should be the same
5. Headmap - yours is a 1Tb which is the largest capacity of the Helios family, so you'll want to be sure you get another 1Tb drive so you have all heads present.
6. Preamp vendor and version should match - unfortunately you won't be able to check this without professional data recovery equipment so you'll have to hope you get lucky and get one that's the same