Dead HDD controller board?

[AnitaPeterson]

Hi there,

I'm hoping people with more experience will be able to help.

I have a Western Digital HDD which seems to have died... one moment it was working, the next thing I kbow it's not seen in the system anymore.

I tried putting it in an external enclosure, it's not seen - if I turn it on, Windows will "beep", but the drive will not appear in "My Computer"

If I connect it inside a machine, it's not seen - and it's not seen if connected to a Promise card.

I looked at the PCB, and it seems yellow-ish in the area where them main chip should be.

Although I'm not sure if there's a burnt smell or not.

Is the controller board dead?

If so, can I buy another HDD and try swapping the boards? Do you think Western Digital can help?

 

[alzan]

Depending on the age of the drive, WD might replace it; I've never had to RMA a drive so I can't say for sure.

Depending on how cheaply you can get the exact model of your drive, it would be worth it to swap the PCB and see if that will resurrect your drive.

There are other free/shareware utilities that might be able to resurrect the drive, but they generally only work if the drive is seen by the BIOS.

alzan

 

[AnitaPeterson]

it's not seen in BIOS... that's the point.

And it's out of warranty