Hard drive PCB for data recovery

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  • uberplasma
    Senior Member
    • Oct 2011
    • 85
    • Canada

    #1

    Hard drive PCB for data recovery

    Hi everyone

    I have a seagate ST9250410AS with a bad controller, according to seagate support and the diagnostics they gave to run and the error codes generated the platters are fine as is the data, just a bad PCB, they can recover the data for $ 1200, which i don't have. So i found a PCB with same firmware except it is from a 5400 rpm hard drive, where as mine is a 7200. Are they compatable, for at least long enough to pull my data?
    Cheers
  • ratdude747
    Black Sheep
    • Nov 2008
    • 17136
    • USA

    #2
    Re: Hard drive PCB for data recovery

    probably not.
    sigpic

    (Insert witty quote here)

    Comment

    • uberplasma
      Senior Member
      • Oct 2011
      • 85
      • Canada

      #3
      Re: Hard drive PCB for data recovery

      thx
      thought so
      cheers

      Comment

      • Per Hansson
        Super Moderator
        • Jul 2005
        • 5895
        • Sweden

        #4
        Re: Hard drive PCB for data recovery

        Hi, well you can try but don't get your hopes up.
        You must have a PCB matching as well as possible, even firmware
        (Don't use a PCB not made for your drive, especially one made for a different motor, they use different current and maybe even voltages!)
        Here is a data recovery request I sent after trying to swap PCB with one bought on eBay myself a few years ago
        MANUFACTURER: HTS421280H9AT00
        CAPACITY: 80

        PROBLEM DESCRIPTION:
        The drive is identified on startup by the BIOS as HTC4"1"8 H)AD0
        Once inside Windows the size of the drive is recognized (80GB) and the partitions
        But they can not be read, I tried to recover data using RunTimeSoftware GetDataBack NTFS
        It was able to read the metadata and list all files, but they where all corrupt when I tried reading them after recovery

        PREVIOUS ATTEMPTS:
        A donor PCB was bought, exactly matching MLC number (DA1303)
        And also matching the first two rows of numbers on the PCB sticker (0A26790, DA1187B)

        On first test drive was not found at all, so I desoldered the eeprom from the original PCB and put it on the new one
        The drive was now identified as before; HTC4"1"8 H)AD0 and filesystem was unreadable from Windows as before

        Next I swapped over the flash memory IC aswell, but there was no change
        Last edited by Per Hansson; 01-19-2013, 11:31 AM.
        "The one who says it cannot be done should never interrupt the one who is doing it."

        Comment

        • shovenose
          Send Doge Memes
          • Aug 2010
          • 6575
          • USA

          #5
          Re: Hard drive PCB for data recovery

          I doubt the 5400RPM and 7200RPM are compatible, because they motors are different.

          Comment

          • retiredcaps
            Badcaps Legend
            • Apr 2010
            • 9271

            #6
            Re: Hard drive PCB for data recovery

            Originally posted by uberplasma
            I have a seagate ST9250410AS with a bad controller
            I suggest you look on ebay and try to get an exact match. One ebay auction says

            "This model PCB board has a memory chip which holding the unique Hard Drive configuration info. We need to copy this memory chip info to the new board."
            --- begin sig file ---

            If you are new to this forum, we can help a lot more if you please post clear focused pictures (max resolution 2000x2000 and 2MB) of your boards using the manage attachments button so they are hosted here. Information and picture clarity compositions should look like this post.

            We respectfully ask that you make some time and effort to read some of the guides available for basic troubleshooting. After you have read through them, then ask clarification questions or report your findings.

            Please do not post inline and offsite as they slow down the loading of pages.

            --- end sig file ---

            Comment

            • kc8adu
              Super Moderator
              • Nov 2003
              • 8832
              • U.S.A!

              #7
              Re: Hard drive PCB for data recovery

              i can look in my pile.
              i save drives just for this kind of work.
              you will need to swap the eeprom from the old board on these.

              Comment

              • uberplasma
                Senior Member
                • Oct 2011
                • 85
                • Canada

                #8
                Re: Hard drive PCB for data recovery

                Hi
                so unless i lay out the $ 15k for the recovery hardware(sold a few kilometers away) or $ 1200 for seagate to do it the data is probably lost.
                I did find a matching hard drive speed , model, part # and firmware, only difference is serial number, should i even bother buying it. Even a slight chance at recovering the data(childrens pics) is better than nothing. seagate sent me a replacement drive, so i can't be desoldering eeproms unless I am very careful and do it so they don't detect it.
                thx

                Comment

                • retiredcaps
                  Badcaps Legend
                  • Apr 2010
                  • 9271

                  #9
                  Re: Hard drive PCB for data recovery

                  Originally posted by uberplasma
                  I did find a matching hard drive speed , model, part # and firmware, only difference is serial number, should i even bother buying it.
                  I found Scott Moulton's videos especially part 1 - 7 on hard drive recovery to be valuable. I haven't watched his other stuff yet, but they all look interesting.

                  http://www.youtube.com/user/SuperFly.../videos?view=0

                  He also explains the serial number part at

                  --- begin sig file ---

                  If you are new to this forum, we can help a lot more if you please post clear focused pictures (max resolution 2000x2000 and 2MB) of your boards using the manage attachments button so they are hosted here. Information and picture clarity compositions should look like this post.

                  We respectfully ask that you make some time and effort to read some of the guides available for basic troubleshooting. After you have read through them, then ask clarification questions or report your findings.

                  Please do not post inline and offsite as they slow down the loading of pages.

                  --- end sig file ---

                  Comment

                  • smason
                    Badcaps Legend
                    • Feb 2010
                    • 1652
                    • Canada

                    #10
                    Re: Hard drive PCB for data recovery

                    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx-D1...824295&index=1

                    At about 6 minutes in, Scott talks about boards and firmware and dates.
                    He says if the board manufacture date is different from the drive by as little as 2 weeks, you could be in trouble.
                    36 Monitors, 3 TVs, 4 Laptops, 1 motherboard, 1 Printer, 1 iMac, 2 hard drive docks and one IP Phone repaired so far....

                    Comment

                    • capsasdf
                      New Member
                      • Jan 2013
                      • 1
                      • new jerry

                      #11
                      Re: Hard drive PCB for data recovery

                      Some older drives have the same basic information on two PCB boards of the same model, provided that both drives were made at about the same time, before more unique adaptives were programmed into the next line of drives. If one of the PCBs fails, there is some chance of making a recovery by simply swapping the boards of the two drives. However, hard drives have contained "customized" firmware on at least an occasional basis since they've become a consumer product, so the chances of a straight "board swap" working are low. So in most cases you also need to move the old PCB's BIOS to the replacement one.

                      Check this article: http://www.hddzone.com/fix_hard_drive_pcb_board.html

                      Comment

                      • Uniballer
                        Badcaps Veteran
                        • Jul 2013
                        • 334
                        • USA

                        #12
                        Re: Hard drive PCB for data recovery

                        I had an old Antec power supply fail in a computer at my workplace. It took out everything directly connected to the power supply (hard disk, DVD drive, motherboard, case fan), but the CPU and RAM were OK. I bought a Seasonic power supply, similar motherboard, hard disk, etc to get the system running again.

                        I wasn't sure if there was anything valuable on the hard disk. I pulled the PCB from the drive (Seagate ST3500413AS) and there were a bunch of scorched components and traces near the power connector. I couldn't figure out how I was going to even identify them, let alone replace them. So I found a PCB on ebay (Seagate 100535704 rev C) on ebay ($20 best offer, free shipping). I first tried the new board as is and it spun up the drive but it wasn't recognized by the BIOS. I transferred the EEPROM (25FU406B - 8 pin SOIC - upper left corner in the image) from the old board to the new one and the disk now works just fine. I guess I kinda wasted my time though because there were no files of any value on the drive that hadn't already been backed up.

                        Now here is the question: Would you trust the repaired hard drive in an active role? Or is it now damaged goods? How would you test it to qualify it? Thanks for your opinions.
                        Last edited by Uniballer; 02-02-2014, 06:49 AM.

                        Comment

                        • Uniballer
                          Badcaps Veteran
                          • Jul 2013
                          • 334
                          • USA

                          #13
                          Re: Hard drive PCB for data recovery

                          I erased and scanned the disk with MHDD V4.6 and didn't find any problems. All of the SMART tests pass. I installed a UNIX operating system on it and beat the hell out of the disk for a while. No problems that I can see. I guess I'll beat the hell out of it for another week and call it good if it is OK. I just wish there was a stand-alone disk exerciser the way MEMTEST86+ is for RAM.

                          Comment

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