WD Passport all sectors in H0 timeout but H0 working?

[datahaze]

I've got a puzzling case. It's a 1TB WD Passport drive, I swapped SATA board & ROM and am able to read with all heads except one (H0) in data extractor/sector edit. All reading modes fail with this head. But when I am in utility and do Service Area -> Head test, H0 appears to be working just fine, indeed I am able to read all copies of the SA. All modules check green.

How can I get H0 working in data extractor? Is the SA head test test wrong and H0 really is dead?

 

[Sam]

Sounds like bad H0 or media damage. I've had cases where a head can read the service area but not data area. Also, heads test runs on locations near/in the service area, not the data area.

If it was my case I'd inspect H0 slider under microscope to confirm whether you've got media damage then try a new head stack.

 

[lcoughey]

Just change the heads and get on with it.

 

[datahaze]

Thanks for the advice, perhaps it is media damage or truly head failure. Just an odd set of symptoms.

 

[lcoughey]

Thanks for the advice, perhaps it is media damage or truly head failure. Just an odd set of symptoms.

When it comes to head testing, the test within the WD utility is unreliable, as you now see. ACE actually added a head test within DE when you click the drop-down of the headmap icon on the right of a task. This test is more like DeepSpar's test where each head reads an evenly distributed number of sectors from beginning to the end of the drive. This way, if it is media damage, the head will read some sectors, where if the head doesn't read any sectors, it seems reasonable that it is the head that has failed.

 

[datahaze]

Thanks for the advice, perhaps it is media damage or truly head failure. Just an odd set of symptoms.

When it comes to head testing, the test within the WD utility is unreliable, as you now see. ACE actually added a head test within DE when you click the drop-down of the headmap icon on the right of a task. This test is more like DeepSpar's test where each head reads an evenly distributed number of sectors from beginning to the end of the drive. This way, if it is media damage, the head will read some sectors, where if the head doesn't read any sectors, it seems reasonable that it is the head that has failed.

Aah interesting I didn't know that. That's certainly a useful feature. Thanks friend!