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Data Recovery Case Study #10 (WD My Book WD500KS-00MNB0)

by | May 4, 2015 | Data Recovery Case Studies | 0 comments

WD My Book External

WD My Book External

In this data recovery case study we’ll be working on a Western Digital hard drive model WD500KS-00MNB0 pulled from a My Book external enclosure.  Hard drive has failed read/write heads and require clean room work.

Initial Hard Drive Information

Model: Western Digital WD500KS-00MNB0 (Pulled from My Book external)

DCM: HCACAJAA
Date: 29 AUG 2006
Size: 500Gb
Country: MalaysiaDrive spins up, does not click but shows as unrecognized to computer when USB connected.

Data Recovery Diagnostic Phase

Drive connected to PC-3000 and powered on.  Reaches ready state, but in Kernel mode.
Backup of service area, ROM, and service tracks made.  Attempted to set max LBA and hotstart drive (unsuccessfuly)
Contacts on donor PCB noticed to be extremely charred.  Contacts cleaned (no effect)
Donor PCB pulled from stock and ROM programmed with donor ROM code. (no effect)
Attempted to change headmap in ROM to determine which heads have failed (still only has access in kernel mode – seems to be a Zeus family issue).
Compatible smart hotswap donor not available in stock, order one for stock to load tracks onto PCB.
Customer quoted $700 labor cost plus ~$100 for donor parts (approved)

WD My Book Data Recovery

Order donor hard drive for read write head replacement.  (arrived approximately 1 week later)
Read/write heads replaced in clean room environment.  (operation completed successfully)
Hard drive ID’s correctly and is able to read sectors.  One read/write head is still very slow (possibly due to media damage).
Slow head is disabled and remaining heads complete imaging within 24 hours.
Remaining head is re-enabled and imaging repeated.  After three passes of varying intensity 99.7% of sectors are read successfully and copied to temporary clone.
Customer purchased 1Tb Toshiba external from us for $85
Data copy completed.
Total billed to customer: $700 (recovery charge) + 89.76 (donor parts) + $85 (new Toshiba external)

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