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Western Digital WD5000AAJS Hard Drive Recovery

Western Digital WD5000AAJS hard drive recovery usually entails repairing the heads. Like many drives the WD5000 has a parking mechanism that is meant to protect the platters so the heads don’t impact upon them. This doesn’t help if the heads fail during normal usage.

Read Write Heads Caught in Orange Keeper or Park Area

The park area is allocated for the read write heads of a hard drive to remain stationary in transit, in the off or sleep position so the heads do not make physical contact with the platter or media surface

In many cases due to slight warping of the platters rotation,  the armatures read write heads flying height above the platters surface will slightly increase or decreases in size…  resulting in an incorrect alignment when being brought back to the park position.

The Result

FIG 1:  The read write heads have bent after being forced off the platters with the wrong alignment

FIG 2: Upon restarting the bent read write heads now scrape the surface of the platter causing data loss

FIG 3:  You can see now see how badly the heads have been damaged when removed

FIG 4:  This shows the worn condition of the orange keeper from when the read write heads jammed

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6 Responses to “Western Digital WD5000AAJS Hard Drive Recovery”

  1. Eliza February 14, 2010 9:36 pm #

    I have an old computer that does not recognize now the maxter hard drive. When I turn the computer it gives this message: “verifying DMI Pool Data”. Later on shows: “Disk Boot Failure, Insert System Disk and press Enter”. I put the start up disk windows 98. Then, I get the message: “Windows 98 has detected that drive C doe not contain a valid FAT or FAT 32 partition…I originally had windows 95 and I upgraded to windows ME. I need the computer to recognize the hard drive and after that to reinstall the operating sytem–Windows ME. I appreciate all the help given to this matter. I tested the hard drive in another computer and it is working. I’lI appreciate all your suggestions. Thank you.

  2. Dave February 22, 2010 7:29 pm #

    If your system BIOS does not recognize the drive then you have a mechanical failure with the hard drive and it may need to be sent out to a professional. However, if your BIOS does recognize the drive but is unable to boot to the device you should then clone the drive to make sure you do not lose data. You can clone the drive in DOS using tools like Speed Clone. When the drive has been cloned you can then try to repair the partition or simply recover the data.

  3. randy ames March 24, 2010 7:34 pm #

    i would like to know if a virus of any kind would mnake a hard drive not be found
    when i try to start my computer any help would great thank you randy

  4. O. Lamoree June 29, 2010 10:04 am #

    A MyBook drive removed from enclosure. Yet another WD5000AAJS fiasco! In my case, when plugged in, the drive starts up, spins, and with ear to case, SOMETIMES I can hear the heads moving, but mostly just spins up for about 8 seconds, and then shuts down. Sometimes I can hear it accelerate like mashing on the gas pedal, three or four times, then it shuts down. BUT…. Using the external power supply and USB adapter, AND with it plugged into a USB port, it will CONTINUE to spin, and I hear what may be head movement “effort” followed by a short beep about every second. No clicking. It does not register in My Computer nor in Disk Management. Running Vista HP SP2. I could never afford data recovery service$ so am I about to pop off the top and learn more about what’s inside? Thanks.

    • Jacqui Best August 2, 2010 10:54 am #

      O. Lamoree,

      If the data on there is important Iwould not advise popping of the top of the hard drive it will be unrecoverable at that point. As far as what you can do to get your data, if the machine is not seeing the drive at all then you are right it needs to see a clean room. You can always set the drive aside it wont get any worse just sitting.

  5. Vegar August 22, 2010 7:56 am #

    Hi, I’m having trouble with an WD5000AAJS. It started jerking in the windows explorer, and 24 hours later it was completly dead. I guess there’s a good chance that what’s described in this article might be the issue with my disc.

    The article does not however say how to fix the problem 🙂

    If this is really is the problem, is it possible for an amateur to fix it? Any ideas on what else it can be? I have 50k photos (both private and job photos) on the drive, but professional recovery in norway costs about USD $6000, so it would be really nice to have it done myself 😉

    Thanks

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