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Western Digital hard drive with model number WD200BB-60CVB0 will not boot. This drive has very important data on it, and it is currently inaccessible. It is an Enhanced IDE Hard Drive. After plugging in power, the drive starts up and immediately the head moves to the middle of the platter. It then starts to beep fast. I will attach a video of the sound. After carefully moving the head to the outside of the platter and starting the drive, the head moves back to the center and beeps.

Hard Drive Image Sorry for the blurry image

Hard Drive Audio

I just want to clarify that the hard drive is not actually spinning at all. It just moves the head to the center of the platter and beeps.

Does anyone know what is happening??

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  • It's not a "header", but a R/W head assembly. If the platters are not spinning, then check the +12VDC supply. If the platters don't spin, then the data is unreadable.
    – sawdust
    Commented Oct 31, 2019 at 3:45
  • OK thank you for letting me know about the head assembly. I am currently checking the 12VDC supply.
    – WhiteFire356
    Commented Oct 31, 2019 at 3:52
  • @sawdust I just tested the 12V wire and it is working. Do you want me to add a video of the hard drive running while open so you can see what is happening?
    – WhiteFire356
    Commented Oct 31, 2019 at 4:00
  • The typical HDD requires the platters to be spinning properly before the R/W head assembly is commanded to move. That ensures that there will be an air bearing for the heads to fly on without scraping the platter surfaces. The first seek by the HDD would be a recalibration operation to locate cylinder zero. If the platters don't spin when there's +12VDC applied and you have opened up the enclosure, then consider the spindle motor and the entire HDD are kaput.
    – sawdust
    Commented Oct 31, 2019 at 4:59

1 Answer 1

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Your HDD is dead.

As usual in this case, the answer is:

Restore your important data from backup.

I suppose you don't have one (otherwise you probably wouldn't be asking this question), so the second answer is:

Contact professionals and pay them to recover your data.

Don't try to open the drive yourself. Even the tension on screws matters. If any screw is not screwed with correct force, the disk won't work and you're risking further damage. Don't try "magic restoration tricks" like freezing the drive etc. that you can find on the internet. You have important data on that drive, you don't want to risk damaging it. Find a trusted data recovery service and let them handle it.

Also, start making backups. Follow the 3-2-1 rule: 3 copies of data, using 2 kinds of media, including 1 in remote location.

Judging by drive's size it's about 15-20 years old. It's a miracle that it survived for so long.

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