How to recover a failed PVR Western Digital WD1600AVBB hard drive.
I have a failed western digital WD1600AVBB-63SYA0 hard drive in my Vision 4400PVR. I was using my PVR as normal when one day it froze without responding for about half an hour. After pulling off the power and restarting I was no longer able to browse my hard drive. For testing purpose I plugged my hard drive on to my desktop computer to identify it on BIOS setup but the BIOS sometimes doesn’t recognize my drive and when it does it gives strange model name as WD1604-44 which is incorrect.
Windows are unable to boot when the drive is connected. It powers on perfectly and spins without any unusual sound. I have doubts that my hard drive is facing some physical issues. I have no backup of my programs stored in it and every single program is very important for me.
Yes you are correct about the fact that your failed Western Digital WD1600AVBB hard drive is facing some physical problems. It seems like there is a PCB issue corrupting the connectivity of your hard drive. If it is an IDE drive, have a careful look at the pins of the IDE connector if they are bend or not as this might create bad contacts. Or else a PCB replacement of same model and family might be required to solve the problem.
There might also be some other hard drive parts failure which can only be recognized by a data recovery expert after physical examination. If you are not a technical person then you should avoid performing any further procedures on your failed WD Hard drive as this may cause more severe damages on to it and chances of data recovery will be reduced. Data recovery process should always be performed in a professional lab with clean room facility. Search for the best data recovery companies in your city and let them physically examine your hard drive. They’ll surely get your critical data back.