I received a quote request from a client who had been into a local computer repair shop with a failed Western Digital EasyStore external hard drive. Inside the hard drive was a WD20SMZW 2.5″ 2TB hard drive. This particular model has a USB port built into the printed circuit board, instead of a standard SATA connector.
The client told me they brought the drive into the repair shop because it stopped working suddenly. They said there was a sound like a beep coming from the drive, but that the computer would not recognize it at all. The shop they brought it to attempted to run software-based data recovery tools on the drive, but they couldn’t get it to scan the drive at all.
The repair shop told them to try us, as we have been successful in recovering data from other drives they were not able to successfully recover in the past. We work with a lot of shops that offer our services to their clients. We have a few referral programs available, so if you are a shop looking for a data recovery company to send drives to, please contact me!
This particular client was local to my area, so I swung by their office to pick up the drive in person. The client told me the most important info on the drive was business data like specs and customer lists. Small business hard drive recoveries are one of my specialties! I enjoy working with other small businesses to get their important data back.
Diagnosing the Easystore WD20SMZW
The first step was to take the drive apart and check the heads in my cleanroom environment. Immediately I saw that the heads were stuck on the platters instead of sitting in the parked position as they should be. I was able to use a special tool to lift the heads off the platters and move them over to their proper position, but the top head was damaged and should not be used again.
Because the top head was damaged, I told the client this would be a Lab tier recovery, as I needed to swap out the head stack completely. These are the most expensive types of recoveries we offer, but our price is very affordable compared to our competitors. We normally come in between $1000 and $2000 less than other companies that quote for a Lab recovery tier.
You can view our affordable data recovery tiers on our pricing page. Keep in mind most drives fall in the first two levels, but even if the worst-case scenario has happened, you are still looking at spending thousands less with us than you would with the big companies.
Head swap procedure
The client approved and was pleased that the price was less than he was worried he might have to spend. I ordered the replacement head stack that was needed and waited for it to arrive.
Once the replacement heads arrived I completed the installation and everything went very smoothly. While I was replacing the heads, I also swapped the printed circuit board with the USB port built-in with a standard SATA board that is compatible with this model. Having these unlocked SATA ports in stock helps a lot with getting the turnaround time down.
Connecting the drive to my PC-3000 allowed me to test the replacement heads and get the drive configured for the next process, cloning.
Cloning the WD20SMZW EasyStore
In this case, the cloning of the bad drive to a good drive went great! It only took a couple of passes to get 100% of the sectors imaged to the good drive.
Once the imaging was done, I continued to recover the files using one of my favorite data recovery programs UFS Explorer Pro. All the file names and folder structure came back without any trouble, and I moved all the data to the new drive the customer wanted all the data put on.
Beeping Western Digital Easystore WD20SMZW Recovery Service
If you have a beeping drive that is holding important information, and you need to get the data off the drive, please contact me! You can fill out my quick quote form, or you can start the process of sending your drive in for recovery by filling out my recovery form.
I look forward to helping you get your important files off your Beeping Western Digital Easystore WD20SMZW, or any drive you need service on.
Thanks for reading!
Drive info: 2TB Western Digital Blue, MDL: WD20SMZW-11YFCS0, WWN: 50014EE608D38195, Product of Malaysia, Date: 21 JUL 2018, DCM: HBNT2BN, DCX: EY0FF66CU, EasyStore external drive, P/N: WDBKUZ0020BBK – UB, 0419B R/N: D8B, HDCTMA
About Author
