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

D

David D

Jan 1, 1970
0
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?
 
G

Geoffrey S. Mendelson

Jan 1, 1970
0
David said:
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.
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?

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.
 
M

Malissa Baldwin

Jan 1, 1970
0
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?

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

bz

Jan 1, 1970
0
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,

Yes, IF it is the same model *exactly*.
If not, it probably will not work.
if I can
get another one for the board and it will be ok?

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
infinite set.

[email protected] remove ch100-5 to avoid spam trap
 
M

Marra

Jan 1, 1970
0
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.
 
F

Franc Zabkar

Jan 1, 1970
0
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?

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
 
M

Michael Black

Jan 1, 1970
0
David said:
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?

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
 
T

Terry

Jan 1, 1970
0
David D said:
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?

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

Regards
 
C

Clint Sharp

Jan 1, 1970
0
Michael Black said:
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.
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.
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).
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.
 
G

Gary Tait

Jan 1, 1970
0
[email protected] (Michael Black) wrote in @theodyn.ncf.ca:
People are forever looking for certain types of drives to do this
sort of repair, but we rarely hear much about their success.

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)
 
M

Meat Plow

Jan 1, 1970
0
[email protected] (Michael Black) wrote in @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)

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
#1 Bartlo Pset, March 13-24 2007
#10 Most hated Usenetizen of all time
#8 AUK Hate Machine Cog
Pierre Salinger Memorial Hook, Line & Sinker, June 2004
COOSN-266-06-25794
 
A

Andy Cuffe

Jan 1, 1970
0
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?


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

[email protected]
 
D

David D

Jan 1, 1970
0
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.
 
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