Replacing circuit board on Hard drive

[Suicidal Tart]

Morning!

I have a hard drive (that i need data off) thats completely dead. It wont power up or make a sound in any machine that i've put it in.

I've read somewhere that if you replace the green circuit board from another HD with the same model and prefrably same creation date, it should fix it (assuming it is the board thats blown).

The particular drive i'm after though seems to be quite rare (WD1200AB - 00dba3).

If i use a different circuit board and attempt to access it via usb, do any of you think it will work? :/

 

[inactionman]

Depends if the fault is on the controller or within the drive. If it's on the controller it will work.

Could give you more useful info if you say how the drive failed?

 

[Suicidal Tart]

Well i was using a IDE - USB converter.

There wasnt any smoke, bangs or smells of burning though.. It just kinda died :/

 

[inactionman]

Were you getting any errors before? Having to repair files etc?

 

[Kryten]

Yeah, if you can get exactly the same controller board, not too difficult a job to change it. Quite likely the fault as the power handling is all on that board too which is the likely failure point.

 

[Zenith.UK]

YES, you can resurrect a dead drive if you use the circuit from another EXACT SAME model. I've done it with a Seagate 120GB drive that had a blown power regulator.

You need to make sure that the drive you're getting is indeed an identical model, and preferably manufactured at the same facility with the same firmware. You will probably need to get your hands on a small torx screwdriver set and make sure that you're earthed properly when you're working on it.
The single most important thing is to absolutely make sure that the contacts on the drive line up exactly with the contacts on the circuit.

The bonus is that once you've changed the circuit board, you can slave the drive in and copy the contents to another drive. You can then take the drive out, put the circuit back on your identical replacement and use it like normal. The original drive with the duff electronics can be drilled, opened, sanded, burnt or whatever method you prefer for ensuring data destruction.

[edit] I just checked and there is one on eBay.com (from the US) for $84+shipping.
http://cgi.ebay.com.my/WESTERN-DIGI...B-IDE-hdd_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQitemZ120310172555

Also talk to these people since they seem to list your drive.
http://www.bluegoosesystems.co.uk/catalog/WESTERN DIGITAL/REF/WD1200AB00DBA3.html
You'll need to contact them for pricing, but they are UK based.

 

[Suicidal Tart]

Nice one gents.

Nope i wasnt getting any errors before, although when it was in the actual PC it wouldnt login to windows, it was just sitting there on the "loading your personal settings" screen.

Before that it was blue screening + restarting before the logon screen but fdisc seem to fix that ..

Is it not worth getting a replacement one then if its production date is different? Even if its only a month or so?

 

[Suicidal Tart]

Sorry just a shameless bump.

If anyone has (fat chance? ) the following hard drive for sale, prefrably with the same production date, please let me know!

Model- WD1200AB 00DBA3
DATE: 17TH APRIL 2003
DCM: HSBANVJAA

LBA 234441648

Ta!

 

[inactionman]

Can't help you sorry, but it looks like Dark Orb managed for find a customer for his font system!

 

[Suicidal Tart]

..As seen on Dragons Den =p

I've managed to get in contact with the person selling the one on ebay that Zenith posted.

Its a few months different production wise but i'll have to see :/