Thank you for your suggestions.

I asked about the recovery services WD suggested. It's way too much to be
worthwhile ($500 to $5000). Luckily, a few of my more important data have
backups on CDs. There are a couple of others I don't have, but it won't
worth $500.

I later noticed that there is a burnt mark on a chip on the board that is
attached to HD. I think it's the controller that is broken, and my data is
probably intact. I will probably try to buy the same model and switch the
controller to see what would happen. Other than that, I will just send it
if I cannot find any. Does anyone know where would be a good place to find
refurbish drives. The drive is WD Caviar 450AA.

Thanks for the information,


Changhsu Liu

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