Western digital DH failure

[John]

Hello,

I have 2 Western Digital hard drive CAVIAR WD400BB.
Since today I cannot start the pc, if I try to plug them on another PC
motherboard, the PC doesn't boot.
It seems that there's some power problem in the HD (maybe in the circuit
board).

Any idea of how to solve this?
I plan to replace the drives, but my main problem is to recover the datas
stored on them.

Can I buy a used HD (on Ebay for instance) of the same model, and swap the
circuit board (from the one just bought with my old one)?

Thanks for your precious help.

John

 

[Rod Speed]

I have 2 Western Digital hard drive CAVIAR WD400BB.
Since today I cannot start the pc, if I try to plug them on another PC
motherboard, the PC doesn't boot.

Does the drive actually spin up ?

It seems that there's some power problem in the HD (maybe in the circuit
board).

Quite likely if it doesnt even spin up.

Any idea of how to solve this?

Depends on whether it spins up or not.

I plan to replace the drives, but my main problem is to recover the datas
stored on them.

If it doesnt even spin up, the prospects arent
real good if you want to do that yourself.

Can I buy a used HD (on Ebay for instance) of the same model, and
swap the circuit board (from the one just bought with my old one)?

Sometimes, but often that doesnt work,
even with two identical brand new drives.

Professional recovery will be able to get the data back, but it isnt cheap.
http://www.retrodata.co.uk/

 

[John]

Thanks for your reply Rod,

in fact if I plug only the HD with the system, windows try to start but it
complains about power problem and reboot.
if I plug the HD on another pc where a main HD is already plugged it refuses
to boot (like if there's no power).
If I plug only the faulty HD it start and give the same Windows error
message and reboot.

Professional recovery will be able to get the data back, but it isnt
cheap.
http://www.retrodata.co.uk/

yes but the datas are important for me but I'm not able to pay 2.000$ for
recovery, I can only buy 2 others 40Gb HD...

John

 

[Rod Speed]

Thanks for your reply Rod,

in fact if I plug only the HD with the system, windows try to start but it
complains about power problem

Want to spell that out in more detail ? Exactly what does it say ?

and reboot.

Thats normal with a serious problem.

if I plug the HD on another pc where a main HD is already plugged it refuses
to boot (like if there's no power).

Maybe the drive is shutting down the power supply on that system.

If I plug only the faulty HD it start and give the same Windows error message
and reboot.

yes but the datas are important for me but I'm not able to pay 2.000$ for
recovery, I can only buy 2 others 40Gb HD...

OK, but the chances arent good with a board swap with that drive.

I have in fact seen someone say that they couldnt even get a board
swap to work with two identical brand new drives with that model.