WD20EARX firmware lockup

[sajunky]

Friend of mine received quote R5500 for this drive. It appears to be locked up firmware. Drive starts with no strange noises, reports properly, including SMART, but giving no access to user sectors.
details here: http://forum.hddguru.com/firmware-locked-t25410.html

Is this quote fair? I will not try to fix it by myself (like translator regeneration) before getting answer from people I could trust.

 

[P3wP3w]

I am not sure if Southbit can assist you with this, but give him a shout.

 

[D4N]

PM Southbit

 

[kayvee]

Sensitive bunch over there, I see that earned you a ban

Yeah like they said, call southbit.

 

[sajunky]

Doing it right now. My concern is, even if firmware is repaired simple way and will bring user data back, it might still need hardware imager and drive is expected to deteriorate during attempts. Not my data and not me to decide, as all depends how much the owner need data back and how much is willing to pay. As I said, it is for a friend, I don't take money for it.

Sensitive bunch over there, I see that earned you a ban

Yeah, I was banned when talking about fridge method is not a myth, not that I do support such methods, just wrote a right things.

 

[SouthBit]

This is 99% a bad head, not a translator problem. Get them often, drive comes ready, will ID, but ABR ERR when trying to access any LBA. Bad head which doesn't allow microcode to initialise properly. A head test with proper equipment will confirm, but I would bet all my money on that.

Our price would be R3,700.00