WD Elements 2tb external disc failed

Belenus

Hi, my less then 3 years old and little used WD Elements 2tb 2.5 inch external disc has failed. I use it to store about 1.6tb of data. Fortunately I have three other copies of my data so I haven't lost any of that.

I have had a few external discs fail before and in all those cases it was the SATA plug in controller/interface that failed so I was able to use another controller/interface and carry on using the disc.

I opened up the WD caddy and found that it doesn't use a standard SATA disc with a plug in controller/interface. It appears to be an integrated unit as in the picture. The presumably proprietary interface is on that green circuit board.

That circuit board is attached with 5 screws and is easily removable.

Does anyone know where I might be able to get another circuit board reasonably inexpensively to see if that brings the disc back to life?

A new disc will only cost about £50 to £60 so I would not risk more than about £15 on a new board which might be wasted money.

Perhaps I might see if I can buy an identical second hand WD unit and try swapping the boards over.

Thanks

[Deleted User]

I do admire your approach to fix rather than replace!

You can get the parts but probably isn't looking economical - about 25 Euro's plus shipping which I think will end up about 40 Euro's - can't seem to source the part in the UK but if you look harder than I did you might be able to.

https://hdd-parts.eu/product/pcb-controller-board-2060-800067-001-wd20smzw-59yfcs1-festplatten-elektronik/

Another complication is the calibration specific to the hard disk in that is stored in the firmware on the controller will need to be transferred over by de-soldering the old firmware chip and re-soldering on to the new donor board.

https://tierradatarecovery.co.uk/swapping-pcbs

Then of course you have the risk of the drive being the problem and you will be out of pocket.

Second hand ones for donor parts doesn't sound economical either, you might as well just replace with a second hand, you might get lucky and get a "used once" for £36 like this one that sold recently on eBay which would be better than your broken one in terms of disk life and the complications of the repair process.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353579769155?hash=item5252ff1d43:g:5wgAAOSwN~Vg9BOh

Good to hear you have 3 backups and it didn't end in tears!

Belenus

Thanks for your comments and advice. I would clearly be wasting time and money so I will just buy a new disk.

Regarding backups, music is a passion of mine and over the years I have accumulated over 3,600 mostly irreplaceable music videos and I have converted over 1,300 CDs to FLAC. That is a total of about 1.4 TBs so I always make sure I have very comprehensive multiple backups.

Thanks again.

arrallas

A quick Google seems to indicate the drive might have a 3 year warranty. Well worth checking. 

Laz123

Some manufacturers replace drives that haven't lasted for long for free. I'd expect a drive to last for at least six years or more - mine have.

I assume you've tried error checking.

Rodders53

arrallas said:

A quick Google seems to indicate the drive might have a 3 year warranty. 

S.No, it expired 28 Dec 2020 - but the drive seems not to have been registered with WD so purchase date/receipt may say different?
https://support-en.wd.com/app/warrantystatus

Belenus

Laz123 said:

Some manufacturers replace drives that haven't lasted for long for free. I'd expect a drive to last for at least six years or more - mine have.

I assume you've tried error checking.

I can't even get Windows10 to see or recognise the disc so there is no way I can error check it.

If I attach it to a USB port and attempt to get File Explorer or Manage to see it it semi crashes the laptop and I have to use Task Manager to close FE and recover.

Belenus

Rodders53 said:

arrallas said:

A quick Google seems to indicate the drive might have a 3 year warranty. 

S.No, it expired 28 Dec 2020 - but the drive seems not to have been registered with WD so purchase date/receipt may say different?
https://support-en.wd.com/app/warrantystatus

I bought it on eBay 18 months ago from a seller in Northern Ireland so I don't have a purchase receipt. It was in the original unopened packaging and had clearly never been opened and used. I didn't register it with WD.

I may contact WD and see if they will do a good will replacement. Otherwise I will just accept the loss.

I have bought a new Seagate 2tb external disc for £49 on Amazon to replace it. As I posted above I have a lot of irreplaceable data so I like to have at least 4 copies of my music.

Thanks everyone for your contributions.