My Western Digital 500GB HD is Being a punk

Sethward · 06-23-2009, 07:37 PM

Hello there,
I was wondering if anyone knew how to help me.

I have some pretty important information on my hard drive I bought last year and in the process of cleaning it out I accidentally deleted some hidden files that I imagine were not suppose to be deleted...

My computer will now not even recognize it as a valid drive. It will not show up in My Computer, Devise Management, Computer Management/Disc Management nor the Western digital freeware that I downloaded (Data Lifeguard Tools, WinDLG). It is not recognized in Acronis Disc Editor, nor Active@ Partition Recovery Enterprise.

I have also tried retrieving the deleted hidden folder with the program PC Inspector File Recovery, and DiscInternals Uneraser... with no luck.

The drive still acts like it is fine for I can hear it spinning and when I boot it is partially there.
When scanning hard drives it says: IDE Channel2 Slave - S_ATA2 -

part of the information is missing because my other drive that is fine says:
IDE Channel2 Master - S_ATA1 - WDC WD800JD-0

When I enter BIOS the same message

Channel2 Master [S_ATA1 - WDC WD800JD-0]
Channel2 Slave [S_ATA2]

Can anyone help me with this disastrous predicament? I am in dire need of a genius computer technician!!!!

**raptor_pa** · 06-23-2009, 08:25 PM

Sounds like the drive has suffered a firmware failure. It could also be heads or preamp, but normally unidentified or improper identification indicates firmware. What is the make and model of the drive that is missing?

Sethward · 06-23-2009, 11:51 PM

Thanks for the reply!

The Make is Western Digital WD5000AAKS
a WD Caviar SE16
MDL : WD5000AAKS - 65TMA0
Date : 27 April 2007
DCM : HANCHV2CAB

Is there a way I can retrieve the data?

**raptor_pa** · 06-24-2009, 05:28 AM

Th exact cuase is hard to pin down without actually having the drive on the bench to diagnose. If the drive is not recognized in BIOS then there is no software that is going to be able to access it. Verify your cabling is all tight on bothe the drive and motherboard side. Avoid trying to randomly fix the drive, as continued use could cause more damage to the surface if it is heads. Use it only as needed to attempt to recover till you know can isolate the problem a bit better.
1) Does the drive spinup when powered? You should feel or hear the platter spin up to speed
2) Does it make any clicking, tapping grinding noise if it does spin up?
This model family doesn't have a particularly bad reputation, but a lot of the failures seem to be related to firmware here. A Circuit Board swap MIGHT be effective, if an close enough match for a donor is found. If we get to that point I'll post a list of the drive information that must be matched.

Sethward · 06-24-2009, 04:37 PM

Ok Thanks.

The drive does spinup when powered but it does not make any clicking tapping grinding noise when powered on.

**raptor_pa** · 06-24-2009, 04:52 PM

Well it looks like the SATA ports are already set to IDE mode. Can you try the drive in another machine and see if it is found by the BIOS?

Sethward · 06-24-2009, 07:31 PM

Yes I tried it in a different Vista computer and it has the same recognition in BIOS...It cuts off after [S_ATA2]

MhzManiac · 07-26-2009, 01:06 AM

My WD500 I picked up at Frys in Vegas (while on vacation) is doing the same darn thing.
The bios sees something is there, but is unable to read the header. I did not see it was a return when I picked it up, thought it was just on sale. Now I will have to ship it back and waste the savings on shipping.

My backup WD320 works just fine when plugged in the same slot.

I updated my Asus board bios tonight to the May 09 bios juist in case, no help!

06-23-2009, 07:37 PM	#1 (permalink)
Sethward Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 4 OS: Vista	My Western Digital 500GB HD is Being a punk Hello there, I was wondering if anyone knew how to help me. I have some pretty important information on my hard drive I bought last year and in the process of cleaning it out I accidentally deleted some hidden files that I imagine were not suppose to be deleted... My computer will now not even recognize it as a valid drive. It will not show up in My Computer, Devise Management, Computer Management/Disc Management nor the Western digital freeware that I downloaded (Data Lifeguard Tools, WinDLG). It is not recognized in Acronis Disc Editor, nor Active@ Partition Recovery Enterprise. I have also tried retrieving the deleted hidden folder with the program PC Inspector File Recovery, and DiscInternals Uneraser... with no luck. The drive still acts like it is fine for I can hear it spinning and when I boot it is partially there. When scanning hard drives it says: IDE Channel2 Slave - S_ATA2 - part of the information is missing because my other drive that is fine says: IDE Channel2 Master - S_ATA1 - WDC WD800JD-0 When I enter BIOS the same message Channel2 Master [S_ATA1 - WDC WD800JD-0] Channel2 Slave [S_ATA2] Can anyone help me with this disastrous predicament? I am in dire need of a genius computer technician!!!!

06-23-2009, 08:25 PM	#2 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 4,872 OS: XP	Re: My Western Digital 500GB HD is Being a punk Sounds like the drive has suffered a firmware failure. It could also be heads or preamp, but normally unidentified or improper identification indicates firmware. What is the make and model of the drive that is missing? __________________

06-23-2009, 11:51 PM	#3 (permalink)
Sethward Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 4 OS: Vista	Re: My Western Digital 500GB HD is Being a punk Thanks for the reply! The Make is Western Digital WD5000AAKS a WD Caviar SE16 MDL : WD5000AAKS - 65TMA0 Date : 27 April 2007 DCM : HANCHV2CAB Is there a way I can retrieve the data?

06-24-2009, 05:28 AM	#4 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 4,872 OS: XP	Re: My Western Digital 500GB HD is Being a punk Th exact cuase is hard to pin down without actually having the drive on the bench to diagnose. If the drive is not recognized in BIOS then there is no software that is going to be able to access it. Verify your cabling is all tight on bothe the drive and motherboard side. Avoid trying to randomly fix the drive, as continued use could cause more damage to the surface if it is heads. Use it only as needed to attempt to recover till you know can isolate the problem a bit better. 1) Does the drive spinup when powered? You should feel or hear the platter spin up to speed 2) Does it make any clicking, tapping grinding noise if it does spin up? This model family doesn't have a particularly bad reputation, but a lot of the failures seem to be related to firmware here. A Circuit Board swap MIGHT be effective, if an close enough match for a donor is found. If we get to that point I'll post a list of the drive information that must be matched. __________________

06-24-2009, 04:37 PM	#5 (permalink)
Sethward Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 4 OS: Vista	Re: My Western Digital 500GB HD is Being a punk Ok Thanks. The drive does spinup when powered but it does not make any clicking tapping grinding noise when powered on.

06-24-2009, 04:52 PM	#6 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 4,872 OS: XP	Re: My Western Digital 500GB HD is Being a punk Well it looks like the SATA ports are already set to IDE mode. Can you try the drive in another machine and see if it is found by the BIOS? __________________

06-24-2009, 07:31 PM	#7 (permalink)
Sethward Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 4 OS: Vista	Re: My Western Digital 500GB HD is Being a punk Yes I tried it in a different Vista computer and it has the same recognition in BIOS...It cuts off after [S_ATA2]

07-26-2009, 01:06 AM	#8 (permalink)
MhzManiac Registered User Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: USA Posts: 77 OS: Vista Home Premium	Re: My Western Digital 500GB HD is Being a punk My WD500 I picked up at Frys in Vegas (while on vacation) is doing the same darn thing. The bios sees something is there, but is unable to read the header. I did not see it was a return when I picked it up, thought it was just on sale. Now I will have to ship it back and waste the savings on shipping. My backup WD320 works just fine when plugged in the same slot. I updated my Asus board bios tonight to the May 09 bios juist in case, no help! __________________ Asus P5N-D, Intel C2D E6750 @3.4Gig, 2G RAM 2T @ 860Mhz 5-4-4-14, WD300g SataII Raid (0) , video E9600 GT's x2 -SLI , 2 Gig Ready Boost, ePower Tiger 550w, Antec 900 Black Tower Last edited by MhzManiac; 07-26-2009 at 01:10 AM.