IS it possible to replace circuits on a hard drive board?

Ok, I have a major dilemma here. My seagate SATA hard drive's circuit board is toast. There is a black burn mark on it. So, I did what anyone would do when they panic, I called DATA RECOVERY and of course, it is going to be $450.00+ to recover, plus the cost of a hard drive. So, now being a person that doesn't have that kind of money lying around and very much needing the data on the drive, I unscrewed the circuit board and found that it is only burned on the top part - not underneath and it looks like it is ok on the actual hard drive part - no burn or blemishes. Is it possible to change the circuits, if I can get another one for the board and it will be ok?

Reply to
David D
Loading thread data ...

Since the drive is relatively new, it should be pretty easy to locate an exact duplicate. I have not seen the drive in question, but I expect that the connections from the drive to the controler board (which is what is toast) are removable. If that is the case, then you can remove and unplug it from another drive and install it on your drive.

If you are lucky whatever burnt was not caused by a problem with the drive part, and it will work.

As for replacing individual components, it's possible, but the work need to remove and replace the surface mount components is considerable for someone who does not have the proper equipment and skills. You may also need a custom component that is available only from Seagate if at all.

It sounds to me by the way you asked the question you do not have the skill to remove and replace the controller board. IMHO since you want the data on the drive, it would be better to find someone who will do it for you, then "learn it by doing".

Good luck.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Geoffrey S. Mendelson

In the long run it would be easier just to recover your data off of the backup CDs.

Reply to
Malissa Baldwin

David D wrote in news:1179696768.394979.4870 @a26g2000pre.googlegroups.com:

Yes, IF it is the same model *exactly*. If not, it probably will not work.

Maybe. Maybe not. Only one way to find out.

There is a company in canada that does 'hard drive repair' for a flat rate, depending on the model of the hard drive and its symptoms.

They will replace the electronics and recover your data and send you the fixed hard drive with the data on it.

Don't remember their name but google on 'hard drive repair' 'flat rate' 'canada' and you should find them.

If worse comes to worse, there are some nice strong magnets in the drive. I like to salvage the magnets. BE CAREFUL, they are strong enough to 'bite' if you get a thin piece of yourself caught between a couple of them.

--
bz

please pardon my infinite ignorance, the set-of-things-I-do-not-know is an 
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
bz

Why on earth didnt you back things up ?

I keep my data on 2 hard drives, a flash drive and on DVD's too. I never throw old DVD's away just in case, they are all dated for reference.

I always unplug the flash drive when not in use in case the PC PSU goes and fries all the drives.

Reply to
Marra

On 20 May 2007 14:32:48 -0700, David D put finger to keyboard and composed:

If the burn mark corresponds to a motor driver IC, then a replacement board may suffer the same fate, assuming the motor is shorted.

Otherwise I'd be worried about SMART and bad block data. If these data are stored in an EEPROM, then a board swap may be tricky.

- Franc Zabkar

--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.
Reply to
Franc Zabkar

People are forever looking for certain types of drives to do this sort of repair, but we rarely hear much about their success.

Last year, someone asked here, and actually continued in the thread, and his results were not successful. The thing that hadn't been thought about was that the board as unique to the drive. It had an eeprom to store information about bad sectors, and drive a that went bad would not have the same combination of bad sectors that drive B supplying the replacement board had.

The scheme of replacing boards might have worked twenty years ago, when every hard drive came with a chart on it listing bad sectors from the factory, and you'd have to include that information when getting the drive going. But, it's been a long time since drives were so raw. Now, the actual controller is on board the drive, and the bad sectors are locked out from the factory.

I suspect the matter of replacing hard drive boards has become mostly an "urban legend" at this point, people seeking exact drives for replacement boards because they have seen people doing this already, and they are desperate for some solution to recover the data on the drive that should have been backed up long before the problem. But just because people seek drives with the same board does not mean they are actually successful (in finding matching drives, or in getting the bad drive to work again).

Michael

Reply to
Michael Black

Learn a hard lesson and back up your dataa in the future.

Regards

Reply to
Terry

In message , Michael Black writes

Umm, no, not urban legend, it can work, I have done it successfully three or four times now. I have also had it fail more times but I suspect that's because the drive mech itself was toast. Never guaranteed to work and I'm always pleasantly surprised when it works. As for backups, people should know better, one person I tried to help with data recovery (it went to a lab in the end) lost their job over the lack of a backup and it was only good luck that the affair didn't make the newspapers.

I have recovered data but have never relied on the failed drive again so I don't know if it was a long term fix or not, they've always been clearly marked as not to be used with permanent marker.

--
Clint Sharp
Reply to
Clint Sharp

snipped-for-privacy@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Michael Black) wrote in news:f2reon$623$1 @theodyn.ncf.ca:

It works for me.

I have two nearly identical WD drives (the only difference is one is 40GB, the other 80), one with a blown motor driver chip on its board. I can move the one good board between the drives with no ill efffect to either drive, other than I can only use one at a time.

FWIW, the Drives are WD400AW-0DDK1 and a WD800AW-0DDK1, from the perfomer line (from my TiVos)

Reply to
Gary Tait

I did it years ago with a couple Connor RLL drives that weren't identical but had the same electronics.

--
#1 Offishul Ruiner of Usenet, March 2007
#1 Usenet Asshole, March 2007
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Meat Plow

If the board is the only problem, then it might work. Some drives will tolerate a board swap, but others won't. There's no way to know until you try it. The good news is that it won't damage anything unless the old drive caused the board to fail. Both drives must be exactly the same model (even identical looking boards from different drives won't work). Andy Cuffe

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com

Reply to
Andy Cuffe

Yes, right now I am trying to find not only the exact drive (easy), but the exact firmware and P/N as well...easier said than done.

Reply to
David D

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.