DESPERATE!! Need HDD!!
 

I have 65GB worth of family vids and pics, along with a crapload of music, and car stuff. It's on a hard drive that just took a shit. The motor went out of it. It's a Western Digital 80GB, P/N WD800JB. It is a 7200rpm, 8MB cache drive. I don't mind if your drive has bad platters, but the motor needs to be good. Crashed heads are fine...so long as the motor and control board is good. My platter is fine, as are the heads. There is a lot of stuff on there that I NEED to save/retrieve.

Please...can ANYBODY help?

I’m not sure you understand the complexities of a hard drive, its not like a car, its not user serviceable, all you will get is a drive that has less hope of recovery then it has now. if the info is truly important, find a local hard drive recovery outfit, bewared it will be expensive, out here on the west coast, I charge $50 to $100 per hour for data recovery, and they usually take 5 to 20 hours to complete. Sorry for your loss, but professional help is what you need. Good luck finding someone out where you are.

I've had a few apart. I know that if I can get the same drive, all I'll need to do is swap platters. I'm not worried about dust, I've got an airtight enclosure.

If you're looking for a stepper motor to rob from another drive, can you find one on e-bay?

good luck

another reason why all my pics get uploaded to KodakPhotoGallery as well as reside on my own drives. I can "buy" all my pics back on CD at the upload resolution for about $200 and that's many GB of photos.

good luck again....

Call up western digital and see what they have to say. At the very least that might be a spot to get another drive just like it for the parts. if that dosnt work i think there are data recovery places you can pay to get the stuff off dead drives.

I got a 200 gb seagate sata harddrive available for a price :D

I'm betting it isn't the motor's fault. Motor control on those drives is done by a closed feedback loop among the motor, controller, and platter calibration data. Don't jump inside until you rule out safer alternatives.

Not to say you can't thoroughly forkle the bits with the lid closed.

So...what are you saying, cyrnel? I had just replaced the power supply, and went to fire it up, and it smoked (literally) from the motor area. Of course, it hasn't spun under its own power since.

That sounds bad. If you saw it cook the motor's external power connections then all bets are off. It may be beyond garage repairs.

You've probably been through it already but I'd first check the power source. Could provide a clue as to how badly things were affected. Was that rail overloaded? Was something shorted? There could also be damaged traces or ribbon and you could end up with a similar or worse problem if you don't catch everything.

If you do start swapping parts stick with identical revisions. Some models let you get away with more than others.

Spending more time now on research will improve your chances. Keep asking and searching. I haven't had to fix any modern caviars but you can bet plenty of people have. Lots of those things out there.

The only other thing I can offer is to suggest you experiment on donor drives. Better to get a feel for the parts on a cadaver than a patient. The first couple repairs are dicey.

Good luck!

I hear ya. I have a line on a known good, but used drive of the same part number. Thankfully, they are cheap. This drive NEW goes for like $45. This is the first WD drive I've lost. Should have been more faithful on DVD backups. Dammit. I have a couple of dead HDD's to fart around with. I'll do that. Thanks for that advice.