The drive:
WD 500 GB My Book external
WD P/N: WD5000AKS-00TMA0
WD Caviar SE16
Symptoms:
The drive failed to be recognized when plugged in via USB. The green light (ring) on the external enclosure simply flashed on and off. The drive made no noise (I couldn’t hear it click or attempt to spin up). The light on the power supply also flashed green. Thinking it may have been a bad power cable, I opened up the enclosure and tried a SATA to USB kit I had lying around (uses a separate power cable that plugs straight into the HDD), but got the same symptoms, complete with flashing green light on the new power cable.
Some googling led me to this thread:
http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Book-for-PC/please-help-i-need-a-logic-board/m-p/12670
Which sounds quite a bit like my problem. However, I’m having a bit of trouble identifying the relevant components on my logic board. Here are a few pictures of it:
I’m thinking that the 2 TVS diodes are in the 2nd picture (it’s a bit blurry). D3 and D4? I tried testing them with a multimeter set at 200 ohms. For the smaller one on the right (D3), I’m getting a readout of “1” which I think means I need to adjust my range. For the fatter one on the left (D4) I got around 3.5.
I don’t care at all about this drive living or dying, I just want to save the data if I can. If anyone can help me identify any components that I need to check or replace/remove, that would be very appreciated.
