I was expecting this to be useful, thinking it'd have a usable laptop hard drive inside but instead, this madman is deconstructing hard drives for kicks and keeping their hearts as trophies. Great find
Sorry to be offtopic but does anyone know a tool to log back into an instagram account?? I was stupid forgot my account password. I appreciate any tips you can offer me!
WD is total crap. I noticed when you're writing data on them in high temps, above 46 °C, the data reads can turn into bad sectors waiting for reallocation. Never seen something like that on Seagates counterpart.
Unfortunately I can't remember the exact size (that teardown was over two years ago), but I was using small TX (Torx) bits (size T6 according to some comments below).
I have a passport to drive that inlet wires are messed up cannot plug it into. Can I take the computer board from one passport and put it on to the other and have it work the way it did.
Unfortunately not. You'll have two "transplant" a chip from the old board to the new one. See for example ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-J9VLllXV6vE.html (and no, I've never done that myself).
they called dc because its speed depends on the DC voltage thats feeding to the esc higher voltage higher speed most esc are only H-bridge but for 3 coils insted of 2 coils. some advansed esc are more like a frequency converter but the input voltage is still relevant. BLDC rated in KV thats mean not kilovolt it is rotation per volts. the esc does not set a fixed frequency thats not going to work it uses a variable frequency pulsmodulation and getting his feedback for the rotation from the voltage injection in the unused coils during the rotation other bldc motor thats must be more presize have halsensors for the feedback. thats why it called DC. its still a DC motor and driver but with the benefits from a 3 phase motor and more presize
That was Interesting, Thank you. If you had put everything back (And not broken the heads or other stuff) what are the chances it will still read something? Could be some nice experiment.
You're welcome! Quite a while ago (decades?) a friend of mine disassembled and reassembled a 5.25'' HDD. The spindle was stuck and he unstuck it ;-) And it worked! Not a single defect file! I don't think you would get that lucky with today's data densities. A single speck of dust might ruin one of the heads or at least several blocks worth of data. But it might be a interesting experiment indeed: gloves, some HEPA filtered air stream over the whole desk ...
@@robertssmorgasbord Exactly my Thoughts. The Higher Densities will pose a problem, But I will await your video. I have subscribed to your channel. Please keep bringing such Interesting Experiments !
@@ZenInnovations If I get my hands on a working 2.5'' HDD that's for other reasons (e.g. capacity below 1TB) unusable I might actually try that - no promises though. For now I have to finish my laboratory water bath and some other projects ;-)
I remember when the platters where 12 inch wide ... and we had to manually put them in the player. Well ... I've seen one on a heavy industry equipment ... here's how it worked and why the command to mount a disk in Unix is "mount"! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-H-uFzBDQQjw.html
Yeah, those were the times ... loading a stack of platters into some Nixdorf host - who remembers those I wonder? Or some years later working with Hewlett-Packard 12'' hard disks the size of a small fridges which had to be vacuumed twice a year.
Not really, because it has an USB interface. Of course you could put it into your PC and connect it to an internal USB port, but that would result in severe performance penalties compared to a SATA disk.
Thanks you for pointing that out, I totally missed that. If I still had the controller boards I could look deeper into that ... but they're long gone into the trash :-(
I'm sorry, but for privacy reasons I don't give out my email address. Besides, I just take defect HDs I come across apart, I don't repair/support them ;-) As of now I'm not a professional RU-vidr, this is just a hobby for me. Thank you for your understanding!
I have 1TB and all my drivers,OS, games and movies etc are inside which I can't access it due to the fatal hardware device error that is showing. How to resolve the problems.
Hi Robert, I have the exact same 2TB WD USB HDD as shown at 2:57 (WD20NMVW) and I opened it after seeing your informative video. The first time the platters started spinning up but the head actuator arm did not move. I gently pushed the arm towards the disks and it started moving. BUT the actuator arm moved half-way across the platters a few times and then went back... and the disks powered down and stopped even though the power was still plugged in... NOW there's a disk spin-sound (every time I power it on) and there are a few clicking sounds before it powers off. What could be wrong? Any assistance would help me recover a LOT of HQ video files stored on the HDD.
Hi DeeJay, first a disclaimer: I'm not a hard disk repair specialist - I'm just taking them apart. That said, there could be any number of failures here: Some mechanical damage to head actuator, some damage to the spindle motor (drawing to much current, therefore it spins down), the controller itself is damaged, etc. Your best bet would be using a hard disk recover service (e.g. www.securedatarecovery.com ), but those are pretty expensive.
@@robertssmorgasbord Thank you so much Robert... I think I'll give the pro data recovery option a wack. I can always decline if the quote is beyond what I lost. My only peeve is that I DON'T have screenshots of the file-structure and the videos that were on it (as I usually do). I have time, and I have the bandwidth to download it ALL over again, but I just don't know exactly what I lost. :-(
@@deejay5493 You're welcome! This kind of data loss must be hitting hard. Fortunately I myself had never to experience that. But then, I'm quite paranoid when it comes to backups. The C: (boot) drives of all my computers are backed up daily to a NAS, the NAS is backed up daily to an external drive, and now and then I swap that external drive with another one, which is stored at another house. For backing up my large data drive with the RU-vid video material and such I alternate between two external drives, one always being stored at another house. Paranoid, I now :-) I guess what I'm saying is that maybe you might wanna consider making copies of your videos on two external drives in the future. Regards Robert
@@deejay5493 Actually if there are more than 1 platters then they are synced & aligned from manufacturer. If u slightly tamper the position then it is not gonna work anymore. Look at 5:40 of given link ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KHJ_Dn-h4CE.html Also head is not touched by hand & each head out of 4 heads(in this 2tb hdd case)must be carefully removed maintaining gap between upper & lower magnetic part. Coz head must be aligned certain level above platters. There is special plastic tool to remove head. Important is platter alignment + head perfect position makes hard disks working smoothly. If head position tampered or, platters mis-aligned then u will get clicking sounds only, nothing else. If head touch platter surface then platters will be scratched & damaged permanently
Hey Robert. I have this exact my passport drive and have broken heads (looks exactly like the one you pulled out on this vid). Do you know where I can find this part or where to get donor drives where I can salvage the head ? Like I said it’s exactly the same as this and it has 8 heads. Thanks for the video !
Hi JayF, sorry to disappoint you, but besides buying a new/used drive or having somebody who could donate one to you I don't know of any sources for spare heads 😞 That's one of the reasons data recovery services charge you big bucks. They keep all kinds of new drives on stock as part donors.
What could have made dents on the side of the metal casing of the HDD? I just received a Toshiba Enterprise HDD and these dents (maybe a harsher seam?) are worrying me. It also has marks that look like something like a geared wheel has brushed the sides. I don't know if I should return it
@@robertssmorgasbord I actually looked in Internet, happens that most contemporary drives have such a rough seam. Maybe something about the production process has changed.The dents (or seam?) look just like this drive, on the left side: bhphotovideo.com/images/images2500x2500/seagate_st3000vx004_3_tb_video_surveillance_1144275.jpg
WD My Passport provides backup and data recovery software as well as 256-bit AES Encryption, while WD Elements has no security features. .... > Hi, I was trying to figure out what the form factor of the hdd is, it is thicker than the standard 2.5", is there a name for it? I also have a faulty WD Passport/elements 4tb and bought a doner drive and tried to replace the head (The little reader slider broke) but i think I screwed that up as well not having the proper environment and equipment. I also think i messed up the platter order and top/bottom sides .... Would you consider even having a look at such a case? If someone were to offer to send it all to you to try to get it going again? Any kind of quote for such a job (Considering the head of the doner is still ok and doesnt need another) ... [EDIT] The doner drive was working fine, I plugged it in, full storage available, blank drive. I wanted to get data from the damaged drive and instead of removing and replacing the platters i removed and replaced the head So head from new drive went into old instead of platters from old going into new... but yeah i made a mess of it.
I'm sorry, but I'm actually not in the business of repairing HDDs, respectively, data recovery from defect HDDs 🙁 In fact, I have never repaired a HDD in my life. I'm just a guy who likes to tear down a broken HDD from time to time 😅 But if you need a quote from some professionals, simply google for "data recovery". I know www.ontrack.com is offering such services. However, I never used them, so I cannot attest to their quality or if their prices are reasonable.
Just have one of dead drive WD My Passport which sniffed my backup data away. I was wondering if its possible to use the enclosure case for 2.5 SSD? I am not sure if the WD My Passport enclosure uses 2.5 Inch 7mm-9.5mm SATA for HDD/SSD. Any ideas?
Nope, you can't use the WD 2.5'' enclosures for any other drives, because the WD 2.5'' drives inside those enclosures have the USB controller integrated. Thus there is no SATA to USB converter in those enclosures (and no space for one).
Can't remember the exact size, but I was using small TX (Torx) bits (size T6 according to some comments below). The screwdriver set is a Lux-Tools (30 bits, number 585 395). It was (I'm not sure if it's still available) a quite cheap set - around 15€.
if i have two exact same external hdd's from wd elements 5tb. can i swap the motherboard to test if i can get my data back? because one of them broke and it says i have to fortmat my hdd before i can use it but there is important data on it. so i might swap the motherboard yk
Nope, I don't think so. Even if you swap identical boards between identical drives you have to "transplant" a chip (containing BIOS, bad sector list etc.). See ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lSz7RwPwuos.html
I'm sorry, but I can't, because I don't have one of the thicker models. And since RU-vid is just a hobby for me, I won't buy one just to turn it down. Hope you understand.
why? i have problems with it too but i wonder why u have. my problem is that sectors acting slow weird, defective and the drive is sometimes super slow
How do you think which is commonly have to be more reliable: Seagate external hdds with SATA interface or WD external hdds with soldered USB port? I spent 2 weeks already searching over internet,still don't know which i should choose. I wanna use the drive to store large video files, which i going to edit in Adobe Premiere.Can you give a tip?
When it comes to the reliability of external USB drives, Seagate as well as WD had some quality issues over time. One year WDs were dying like flies, another year Seagates. So, if you're looking for the most resilient solution I would recommend the following (disclaimer - that's my personal opinion based on my personal experience): 1. Buy a good quality external USB HDD case and put a normal internal SATA HDD (preferably Fujitsu - I'm a fanboy) into it. 2. BUY A SECOND PAIR OF THAT COMBO AND MAKE BACKUPS OF YOUR DATA ON THAT! I had far too many comments on my external HDD teardown videos asking how to recover data from a / repair a defect one.
Hi nice video. How do you test the PCB with a multimeter? Like if you want to know they are working properly by checking for voltage/resistance/continuity which components do you test exactly? Thanks!
First, thanks for the praise! To be honest, checking/repairing one of those boards is far beyond my skill level, so I can't really be of any help here. Sorry! But yes, you start with a multimeter, but in the end you'll need an oscilloscope with a high enough bandwidth.
@@robertssmorgasbord you're welcome thanks hey no worries I'll do more research and dig deeper till I find out how to test them. I think it involves getting the exact datasheet of the ICs which will show all the pins on each one and their voltages too. Thanks to your video I now know the identity of those chips on the PCB. Much appreciated. 🙏🏻
It's interesting to see these drives. They're codenamed Shrek LT, and are essentially a 15 mm version of the contemporary Firebird and FBLite families which were commmonplace inside laptops and smaller external hard drives.
Thanks for the info! I'm not that much into the development history and details of those hard drives, so that's quite interesting. Anyway, as long as a hard drive is not shingled I'm happy 😉
@@robertssmorgasbord They're sadly discontinued, so you'll need to think more about which 2 TB drives to get one. You'll need the P/N of the external drive to know.
@@TheDragonFire123 Ah, that's a bummer. Especially because nowadays I usually buy 4 TB external drives - those RU-vid videos take up a lot of space. But thanks anyway!
Good question. Several things come to my mind: A) The USB port can't provide enough power, so after a while it simply switches off. B) You have some extremely aggressive power saving options configured, so it spins down after a short while. C) The there is a problem with the drivers. And of course D) the drive is defect. Try connecting it to other USB ports on the same computer and to another computer.
@@sagar1216 If you're talking about the actual metal housing containing the platters, then yes, absolutely. There is a reason these things are assembled in cleanrooms. A single spec of dust can potentially ruin these things. Anyway, just taking the HDD out of it's plastic USB enclosure won't hurt at all.
You're right, I really should get some new bits for those small screws :-) But admit it, sometimes it feels good to take the brute force approach, doesn't it ;-)
@@ronixdash123 Well, shingling (SMR) offers higher capacity per platter but at lower speeds, specifically writing speed. So if you're mostly reading from a disk you might not even notice that it's shingled. But if you're writing a lot to a disk you'll notice serious performance penalties compared to perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) disks.
If I remember right I was using small TX (Torx) bits. The screwdriver set is a Lux-Tools (30 bits, number 585 395). It was (I'm not sure if it's still available) a quite cheap set - around 15€.
@@robertssmorgasbord Well i have a passport Studio for mac, but my cable doesn't connect, so I thought of disassembling it and connecting with external SATA to USB, but that won't work right? :D
@@STICKERGODDESS_ No, unfortunately that won't work. Other manufacturers put standard SATA disks with a little SATA-to-USB adapter into their external HDDs cases. Not so WD: They have specialized USB controller boards on the disks they put into their external HDD products (the 2.5" ones, don't know about the 3.5" disks). That saves a few mm in case size (and a few cent in cost). But you can't use those disks as SATA HDDs 😞
@@legominimovieproductions Great idea😁 Why haven't i thought about that😂 No, seriously, in some application they do use magnets to remove metal particles. I remember seeing a video about aircraft engines. There were magnetic traps to catch metal particles in the engine and/or gearbox oil. P.S.: like your Lego movies 😉
@@robertssmorgasbord no. The 6 copper teeth. Reminds me of what I would see (kind of) in laptops attached to a sata adapter. I'm wondering if they could lead to another possible way to get data off the drive.
@@MarvelousMarvinB Unfortunately these are undocumented and WD removed the related discussion board (it's still available in the Wayback Machine web.archive.org/web/20150508061603/community.wdc.com/t5/WD-Portable-Drives/Connect-by-non-USB/td-p/93926 ). Anyway, these pins are for testing purposes during production and don't provide a SATA or any other interface for that matter. However, some people were able to access SATA on some versions of external WD drives: www.datarecoverytools.co.uk/2010/05/05/how-to-connect-and-recover-usb-only-western-digital-drives-with-hd-doctor-suite/
I don't think anybody has ever tried to repair a defect head in a modern hard disk. Usually the whole head assembly is replaced with a working one from a donor drive.
Well, in my experience, WD, like most other HDD vendors, goes through phases. For some years their HDDs of a certain series are quite good. Then, suddenly, for a number of years the HDDs of that series are just s... . That cycle repeats until that series of HDDs goes out of production.
