WD Spyglass WD40NDZW-11BCSS0 PCB: 2060-810035. No spin-up.

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Skyclad

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Jan 16, 2026, 5:33:20 AMJan 16
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Hi,
as subject the drive does not spin up at all (including motor ohmic measurements)

The original USB PCB from the patient drive was installed on a known-good donor drive from the same Spyglass family → the donor spins up correctly.

A known-good USB PCB (2060-810035) from the donor drive was installed on the patient HDA → identical behavior as original PCB (no spin-up).

I haven't done the conversion from USB to SATA yet.
Honestly, this is the first time something like this has ever happened to me with a Spyglass.

Thanks

RecuperoDati299

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Jan 16, 2026, 5:40:13 AMJan 16
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You have a dead heads stack

check the heads under optical microscope with very good light illumination

if the heads are straight and sliders surfaces are PERFECTLY glossy, replace heads

otherwise replace heads at your own risk

Kind regards

Roberto G.
CTO
https://www.RecuperoDati299euro.it

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Claude Barras

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Jan 16, 2026, 5:42:50 AMJan 16
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He's saying the motor does not spin. Woth Bad heads, it would spin and stop



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RecuperoDati299

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Jan 16, 2026, 6:12:59 AMJan 16
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The test Is simultaneous

When you remove the heads for inspection under microscope, you can see the piezoelectric plates (often cracked on these drives) and certain are causing weird shortcircuits

But in the same context you install dummy good COMPATIBE (family) heads and power on the drive

if it doesn't move, the coils of the spindle may be in short (never seen before, but sooner or later it may happen)

Desert Data Recovery

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Jan 16, 2026, 8:58:30 AMJan 16
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Its not a short curcuit as such. The firmware tests the resistance of the piezo heads and if it doesn't pass the test it will/may not spin. 


RecuperoDati299

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Jan 16, 2026, 9:19:07 AMJan 16
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Exactly what I said :-)

broken heads

the definitive test is as in the previous message
- check bad heads 
- take the occasion for plugging good and COMPATIBLE FAMILY heads and check if spins up, but stop it immediately right after (because you'll do this in clean air with cover open: rough instant test)

if it spins you have the confirmation 

if is doesn't, the spindle is gone (never seen)

before to use the donor heads, check carefully the patient's ones under stereoscopic microscope with super light 

otherwise use them at your own risk

pbzcbf...@gmail.com

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Jan 16, 2026, 10:07:51 AMJan 16
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A cracked piezo transducer would result in an open circuit, not short circuit.

Here are various oscillograms for a Maxtor DiamondMaxPlus9 160GB HDD with a bad spindle motor:

pbzcbf...@gmail.com

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Jan 16, 2026, 10:10:15 AMJan 16
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Could one modify the head map in the ROM to switch off various heads to confirm that it is a head issue?

RecuperoDati299

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Jan 16, 2026, 10:29:39 AMJan 16
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With our experience with Spyglasses 

you can't do much in ROM

All the platters must be good and all the heads must pass the initial test

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Desert Data Recovery

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Jan 16, 2026, 10:40:05 AMJan 16
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Agree you cannot with bad heads. But there are two ways with bad platters. Here is one. Many DR labs, including us, have also created their own methods.

pbzcbf...@gmail.com

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Jan 16, 2026, 10:48:32 AMJan 16
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$500 for this tip?

WD SMR Scratched HDD Data Recovery Tip-ROM Head Map Editing (video):


This mob is mercenary. It's the same crowd that sells tools such as "elastic band pro".

If all you need is to edit the head map in ROM, I can do show you how.

Desert Data Recovery

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Jan 16, 2026, 10:54:11 AMJan 16
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LOL. You got that right. 


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RecuperoDati299

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Jan 16, 2026, 10:57:14 AMJan 16
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This is an interesting experiment to do

If you can show how to edit head map in ROM , please show the edit

Thank you 

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pbzcbf...@gmail.com

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Jan 16, 2026, 10:59:05 AMJan 16
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Can you upload a ROM dump?

RecuperoDati299

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Jan 16, 2026, 11:11:48 AMJan 16
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pbzcbf...@gmail.com

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Jan 16, 2026, 11:27:06 AMJan 16
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Module 0x0A head maps

Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F

00000000  52 4F 59 4C 04 80 1E 00 0A 00 01 00 FD 3D 64 6B  ROYL............
00000010  30 30 30 32 30 30 30 30 03 11 16 00 00 00 30 0D  00020000........
00000020  04 0A 0A 00 00 05 7C 57 7C 32 5A 45 43 45 4D 37  ......|W|2ZECEM7
00000030  00 00 00 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 00 80 F6 FF 03
                                                    ^^^^^
00000040  FF 03 00 00 00 00 4E 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
          ^^^^^


ROM analysis

Analysing WD50NPZZ-00A9JT0-ROM_00-0AA_00-0BA_03-7B.bin ...

Searching for LDSCs and verifying PCMBlocks ...

LDSC   LDSC    Att   PCMBlock          RAM         size      PCMBlk CS
Start  ID CS        Start -  End     address     RAM / ROM    Exp/Act
-----  -- --   --   -----   -----   --------   ------ -----  ---------
    0  5A EA   04     180 -  22A7      55688     2124  2124  000CEC35 000CEC35 OK (not digitally signed)
   20  01 BB   11    22A8 -  64E8   30080000 c   5798  4240    D4   D4   OK
   40  02 4B   0C    64E9 -  68F1   24000000      408   408    47   47   OK
   60  03 C2   40    68F2 -  C5DE   FFE00200     5CEC  5CEC    55   55   OK
   80  04 A9   01    C5DF -  D0F3   382D4800 c    D54   B14    6F   6F   OK
   A0  05 9C   01    D0F4 - 121A0          0 c   66C0  50AC    0A   0A   OK
   C0  06 A2   01   121A1 - 125BD      15F94 c    4EC   41C    99   99   OK
   E0  07 BA   03   125BE - 15046      402E0 c   3698  2A88    2D   2D   OK
  100  08 7B   03   15047 - 15403   602D6800 c    9A8   3BC    18   18   OK
  120  09 C1   01   15404 - 2E64C   383CA400 c  21AC0 19248    02   02   OK
  140  0A 6C   01   2E64D - 51DBD   38008230 c  30930 23770    76   76   OK
  160  0B 56   00   51DBE - 52C0F   FFF60000      E51   E51    59   59   OK

LDSC   = PM Loader Config String (32 bytes)
ID     = ID byte of LDSC (byte #0)
CS     = Checksum byte or word
Att    = Attributes
PCMBlk = Program Code Memory Block
Exp    = Expected checksum for PCMBLock
Act    = Actual checksum for PCMBLock
c      = compressed PCMBlock
size   = size of decompressed (in RAM) and compressed (in ROM) PCMBlock in bytes


ROYL directory module 0x000B found at 0x7F9DE

Active directory flag = 0x01

Identifying SA regions ...

Reg#    Reg size     Reg loc
----  ----------  ----------
0x00  0x00062196  0x00000000
0x01  0x00062196  0x000C8400
0x02  0x00062196  0x00190800
0x03  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x04  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x05  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x06  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x07  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x08  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x09  0x00000000  0x00000000

Verifying ROYL modules ...

 ID          Size (bytes)         Address    Checksum
 dir   hdr        dir       hdr
----  ----   --------  --------   --------   --------
0001  N/A    00008000  N/A        00000000             N/A
000A  OK     0000004E  00000200   0007E000   00000000  OK
000B  OK     0000014D  00000200   0007F9DE   00000000  OK
020B  OK     0000014D  00000200   0007D9DE   00000000  OK
0030  OK     00000400  OK         0007B000   00000020  BAD
0047  FFFF   00000B18  01FFFE00   0007E682   FFFFFD3A  BAD
000D  OK     00000108  00000200   0007E04E   00000000  OK
004F  OK     0000052C  00000600   0007E156   00000000  OK
0181  OK     00000C00  OK         0007B400   00000000  OK
01A2  OK     0000007E  00000200   0007F19A   00000000  OK
01B6  OK     0000069E  00000800   0007F218   00000000  OK
01B0  OK     00000128  00000200   0007F8B6   00000000  OK

ROYL directory module 0x020B found at 0x7D9DE

Active directory flag = 0x02

Identifying SA regions ...

Reg#    Reg size     Reg loc
----  ----------  ----------
0x00  0x000C4B84  0x00000000
0x01  0x000C4B84  0x000C5A48

Verifying ROYL modules ...

 ID          Size (bytes)         Address    Checksum
 dir   hdr        dir       hdr
----  ----   --------  --------   --------   --------
0001  N/A    00008000  N/A        000C391A             N/A
000A  OK     0000004E  00000200   0007C000   00000000  OK
000B  OK     0000014D  00000200   0007F9DE   00000000  OK
020B  OK     0000014D  00000200   0007D9DE   00000000  OK
0181  OK     00000C00  OK         0007B400   00000000  OK
0030  OK     00000400  OK         0007B000   00000020  BAD
0047  OK     00000B18  00000C00   0007C682   00000000  OK
000D  OK     00000108  00000200   0007C04E   00000000  OK
004F  OK     0000052C  00000600   0007C156   00000000  OK
01A2  OK     0000007E  00000200   0007D19A   00000000  OK
01B6  OK     0000069E  00000800   0007D218   00000000  OK
01B0  OK     00000128  00000200   0007D8B6   00000000  OK

dir  -  Module ID/Size as reported in directory module (0x20B or 0x0B)
hdr  -  Module ID/Size as reported in module's header
N/A  -  Not Applicable
BAD  -  Module has invalid checksum. This may be due to non-existent module.

ROM modules saved to Flash_00\000Bmods and Flash_00\020Bmods

Active directory is 0x20B

Analysing active 0x0A module ...

Head map checksum (Expected / Actual) = 0x0000 / 0x0000 - OK
Number of heads (physical / in use) = 10/10
Head map #1 = 0x03FF / 0b0000001111111111 <---------------------------------------------- head map
Head map #2 = 0x03FF / 0b0000001111111111 <----------------------------------------------
  head map

DCM = | W | 2 Z E C E M 7
      : : : : : : : : : :
      : : : : : : : : : unknown
      : : : : : : : : top VCM
      : : : : : : : ACA
      : : : : : : bottom VCM
      : : : : : HSA
      : : : : media
      : : : preamp
      : : latch
      : base
      spindle motor

Analysing active 0x0D module ...

Firmware Version = 01.01A01
World Wide Name = 50014EE26A66BCA9
Model Number = WDC WD50NPZZ-00A9JT0                    
Serial Number =                    

PUIS flag byte is 0x02
PUIS Disabled

Analysing active 0x4F module ...

ROM version = 0000000A

Analysing active 0x47 module ...

Preamp values
-----------
0  012C057E
1  01300581
2  012A0369
3  01340581
4  012C057E
5  01320581
6  012C0462
7  0136067E
8  0134046C
9  0134057E

Microjogs
-------
0  0000
1  0000
2  0000
3  0000
4  0000
5  0000
6  0000
7  0000
8  0000
9  0000

Head/Media DCM = EZ

Desert Data Recovery

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Jan 16, 2026, 11:35:04 AMJan 16
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I must stress that there are two aspects to recovering SMR drives with platter damage. One is software (changing ROM etc) and then there is hardware. One is not much good without the other. 


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pbzcbf...@gmail.com

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Jan 16, 2026, 11:35:54 AMJan 16
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Module 0x30 in the active directory has a bad checksum. That may be why you PCB doesn't spin up your drive.


On Saturday, January 17, 2026 at 3:11:48 AM UTC+11 recuper...@gmail.com wrote:

pbzcbf...@gmail.com

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Jan 16, 2026, 11:38:28 AMJan 16
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I was only suggesting a method by which to determine whether a bad head was preventing the PCB from spinning up the drive. I have no idea about the data recovery aspects My idea is to switch off various heads to prevent the firmware from testing them.

Desert Data Recovery

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Jan 16, 2026, 12:34:15 PMJan 16
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Yep. Fully appreciate that and your willingness to help.  


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