how to take a western digital 40gb hard drive apart to fix it its model is WMAD14651914?

Question

please help i need to take it apart to fix it thanks

Answer 1

It is clicking when it is turned on? If so, you probably cannot fix it. But, if you still want to take it apart, there are hex screws on the top that you need to take out...there are probably some under the label too.

If you want to try and fix it, you must take the drive apart in a "clean room." There has to be absolutely NO dust or anything in the air.

Answer 2

DON'T TAKE THE DRIVE APART.
Just don't.

I did a Google search for WMAD14651914 with no results, and a similar search on www.wdc.com (West.Digital's site), also with no results. So, ...

So far, we're all assuming this is referencing the hard drive itself ... question - is this an external drive? or, your primary drive in the computer?

If it's an external, perhaps there's a problem with the drive case (a pinched wire or bent pin on the drive connector) that could prevent the drive from functioning.

If this is a primary drive, and is making little clicking noises when powered, here's a little-known tech trick:

Take the drive out of the computer and place it in your freezer for a couple of hours (while you go to the store to get a new drive - while you're there, buy some imaging software to make a full back-up image of the drive, should this trick work).

Metal expands and contracts with heat and cold - if the read heads are just barely touching the discs inside the drive, getting the drive very cold may contract the metal enough to allow full booting from your original drive when you put it back into your computer. Work quickly and, assuming that the drive wants to boot up, capture a full image of the drive (makes a file holding ALL the data - O/S, files, settings, etc.).
If you have either a CD burner, or better yet, a DVD burner & discs (the ideal would be a secondary drive installed in your computer), select a location to which you can send the image file.
Install the new drive and re-image the new drive with the file you just captured, from wherever it is you stored it. You now have a new drive that is the identical twin of the dying/dead one, but without the physical problems.

I have good results from Norton Ghost 9 & 10, but prefer Acronis True Image. Even if I'm off-base in this diagnosis, having some image / back-up software is almost critical these days. So if you come up against worst-case scenario where you have to get the fresh drive, format it, partition it - make one called "Data" or "Image/Day One"-, install the O/S and all your programs, etc. [that might take several hours], why not capture an image of all that work so that you can restore in a handfull of minutes what took so long to build up.

If you try the freezer trick, I hope it works for you - it has saved lots of data for me, and many many many hours of tedium.

Answer 3

In some cases the PC board (controller) on the Hard drive itself will fry,causing the disk not to spin up. This is usually caused by a severe Voltage surge thru the Power supply in the PC itself or from an outside source,like lightning.

Since you already have a model number for that HD,all you need to do is find a replacement board. If you look at the bottom of the drive you will see it as plain as day. It's where your Power and IDE cable plug into and is held in with 4-6 small screws. If you can find another HD thats the same model number all you need to do is switch PC boards..no sodering is involved and since you are not exposing the disks itself you dont have to put it in a Vacuum.

There are pins in the HD that line up with connection points on the PC board,so when you screw in a replacement it connects on its own.

After replacing the PC board the disk should spin up and problem solved!

You can find HD PC boards on Ebay too for older HDs!

Hope this helps!

Answer 4

why would you want to take it apart? to see what the insides look like?

Answer 5

if you take it apart it's history.
they are assembled in a vacuum state as not to get dust or other foreign objects into them. and air will oxidize it instantly!
Avatarxz

Answer 6

just buy a new one. You cant fix it.