Chris Oates wrote:
"David Farber" wrote in message
...
I use my generic, home made, pc to test and analyze client's hard
drives.

Get a USB caddy to mount the drive in.
Get Roadkills Rawcopy
http://www.roadkil.net/listing.php?Category=2

Yes! Exactly. That would have prevented the problem completely which was...

I've slid so many test drives in out of the drive bay that occasionally the
test slave drive doesn't go in exactly straight and clips the bottom of the
Seagate drive. After closer inspection of the Seagate controller board, I
found a capacitor hanging by one terminal, a zero ohm resistor which had a
cold solder joint, and another capacitor missing from the board. There were
just a couple of pc pads with only some leftover solder to show for it. All
these parts are very small smd components and that's why I missed it on the
first couple of go-rounds. Fortunately, I had another Seagate drive with the
same controller layout. I used it to supply the missing capacitor. Soldering
was not easy at all as I tried to hold the part in place with a tiny
screwdriver. The magnetic field from the drive must have transferred to the
capacitor (or my tools have been around too many speaker magnets) because
the screwdriver was totally useless in aligning it to the board. I wound up
using a wood stick from a broken off Q-tip to hold it in place.

Anyway, the drive boots fine now. Next step is to backup the drive. I get so
involved in backing up and restoring other people's data I've neglected
doing the same for myself.

Thanks for your reply.
--
David Farber
David Farber's Service Center
L.A., CA