How to fix a hard drive

you could get some if the stuff recovered but it will cost a small fortune to have it done and you wont be able to repair the hdd as it's the way they make them they are designed not to have parts replaced


Sorry

What if I buy a identical drive, then replace the PCB (the part where you plug the power connector), and if i succeed i can send the one i bought replaced with the burnt pcb to my dealer and have my money & my files back, it's dangerous i know, but is it worth ? I had over 1TB of movies, photos, and important stuff...

it might not just be the pcb it could have affected the heads on the disk worth a go if you dont want to lose out on your stuff  

Even on the same drive they could be using differing PCBs. Thats quite common from what I was told. I haven't messed around in the data recovery field though so take my advice with a grain of salt.

PCBs are unique to the hard drive they ship with. They have all the data about bad sectors and alignment. Some data recovery shops have the know how to do it. But expensive.

This will work, i have done it in past and it worked out fine.
The drive you has to be 100% identical to the drive that is dead right down to the model number AND firmware version.

Also i would just set this up to retrieve the data then toss the old drive.

That's what i want to do mate, replace the old one and save my info, tomorrow i'll buy the new drive and do the PCB swap, i really hope they work, ive done a research through the internet and found a few cases where it worked without problem, it only needs to be the same drive and firmware

I'll keep this thread updated

It seems that the data recovery spammers are out in force.

All you need to do is to remove a shorted TVS diode and flow a blob of solder over an open circuited zero ohm resistor. That should cost you nothing.

See http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/TVS_diode_FAQ.html

If you need more help, post a photo of the damage.

If you need to replace the board, then be aware that most modern HDDs store unique, drive specific "adaptive" information in a serial EEPROM chip. This chip, or its contents, needs to be transferred from patient to donor.

The following PCB suppliers offer a firmware transfer service, either for free, or for US$10:

http://www.donordrives.com
http://www.onepcbsolution.com
http://www.hdd-parts.com

I would advise that you avoid those suppliers who don't tell you that a board won't work without modification. Often they will attempt to obscure the requirement for a firmware transfer by deceptively describing their products as being "for data recovery only".

Alternatively, if you are not adept at soldering, your local TV/AV repair shop should be able to transfer the chip for you.

Onepcbsolution.com also offer a firmware transfer service for US$20 if you have purchased your board from a different supplier:

http://onepcbsolution.com/firmware-xfer-without-pcb.htm...

If you upload a photo, I will be able to identify this chip for you.

If you data is important to you. Take it to specialists is recommended. Otherwise you can refer to this post: Hard Drive PCB Board Swap

Hello guys

Today i purchased a identical hard drive, same model, same everything, I tried the PCB swap but when i turned my computer on, i heard a strange noise coming from my old hard drive with the new PCB installed, nothing too noisy just like a tickling sound that lasted a few seconds, then the system booted in, it took a little longer than usual to get on windows but it finally did, BIOS recognizes the drive as a seagate unit, and so does AIDA 64, but my computer doesnt show the unit in "my pc"... I put the PCB back to the new functional drive and it worked okay, so the old drive didn't mess with the new PCB or anything.

When i was about to give up, because it'd be hard to buy the same PCB online and have it shipped to my house, because i'm from Chile and i bet the shipping would be more expensive than buying a new drive, I just noticed a broken "black square" in the old PCB, i'm sure its from there where the gray smoke came from the time i connected the hard drive to the computer, so i took a pic of them



There's a whole set of pictures of the rest of the PCB, so you guys can check if something is wrong because i'm not very skilled with these things.... I still have the hope of recovering my files... and i think i'm keeping the new drive too.

http://www.mediafire.com/?b57pemdfjyp8az5

Thank you all for your time guys (:

Up!!

Hey! anyone ?

I think the best bet now would be to find an identical part that burned out( It should have some part numbers on it) and then solder it.