How hard is it to swap HD electronics boards
 

I have two "identical" 1.2GB Western Digital HDs and one has just died.
I've talked to one professional data recovery company and they quoted me
$1100-$1500 for the 1.2GB MS-DOS HD -- I think my data was valuable -- but I
also think that I've got most of the source code stored on it distributed
around a half-dozen other computers around here and at work so I'm going to
pass on that route.

I could possibly do a board transplant to see if the drive died because of
the electronics or not and if it did, I could recover the data.

I'm an aerospace engineer with EE & CS degrees with 30+ years experience so
electronics and repairing equipment is no real scary prospect, but I've
never done this kind of work before and I was looking for some guidance as
to whether it's
a) unscrew + unplug, then reverse the procedure
b) (a) + some minor unsoldering
c) You'd better have your own factory and clean room

TIA
Norm

Norm Dresner wrote:
I have two "identical" 1.2GB Western Digital HDs and one has just died.
I've talked to one professional data recovery company and they quoted me
$1100-$1500 for the 1.2GB MS-DOS HD -- I think my data was valuable -- but I
also think that I've got most of the source code stored on it distributed
around a half-dozen other computers around here and at work so I'm going to
pass on that route.

If they are identical, (same model number), my guess is that it is A.
If they're not, you also _have_ to get a new firmware onto it, wich is
near impossible afaik. So...It is just to try.


I could possibly do a board transplant to see if the drive died because of
the electronics or not and if it did, I could recover the data.

I'm an aerospace engineer with EE & CS degrees with 30+ years experience so
electronics and repairing equipment is no real scary prospect, but I've
never done this kind of work before and I was looking for some guidance as
to whether it's
a) unscrew + unplug, then reverse the procedure
b) (a) + some minor unsoldering
c) You'd better have your own factory and clean room

"Norm Dresner" wrote in message
...
| I have two "identical" 1.2GB Western Digital HDs and one has just died.
| I've talked to one professional data recovery company and they quoted me
| $1100-$1500 for the 1.2GB MS-DOS HD -- I think my data was valuable -- but
I
| also think that I've got most of the source code stored on it distributed
| around a half-dozen other computers around here and at work so I'm going
to
| pass on that route.
|
| I could possibly do a board transplant to see if the drive died because of
| the electronics or not and if it did, I could recover the data.
|
| I'm an aerospace engineer with EE & CS degrees with 30+ years experience
so
| electronics and repairing equipment is no real scary prospect, but I've
| never done this kind of work before and I was looking for some guidance as
| to whether it's
| a) unscrew + unplug, then reverse the procedure
| b) (a) + some minor unsoldering
| c) You'd better have your own factory and clean room

If you aren't going to crack the bubble, why would you need a clean room?
Most likely to be (a).

N

I've done it successfully on older drives ... now I'm giving away my
age, the drives were 10Meg (that's Meg, not Gig) full height. Back then
I didn't know what to do with all that storage space! I guess the
software designers took care of that.


Norm Dresner wrote:
I have two "identical" 1.2GB Western Digital HDs and one has just died.
I've talked to one professional data recovery company and they quoted me
$1100-$1500 for the 1.2GB MS-DOS HD -- I think my data was valuable -- but I
also think that I've got most of the source code stored on it distributed
around a half-dozen other computers around here and at work so I'm going to
pass on that route.

I could possibly do a board transplant to see if the drive died because of
the electronics or not and if it did, I could recover the data.

I'm an aerospace engineer with EE & CS degrees with 30+ years experience so
electronics and repairing equipment is no real scary prospect, but I've
never done this kind of work before and I was looking for some guidance as
to whether it's
a) unscrew + unplug, then reverse the procedure
b) (a) + some minor unsoldering
c) You'd better have your own factory and clean room

TIA
Norm

Art Todesco writes:

I've done it successfully on older drives ... now I'm giving away my
age, the drives were 10Meg (that's Meg, not Gig) full height. Back
then I didn't know what to do with all that storage space! I guess
the software designers took care of that.

All drives I disassembled (and it's over a dozen different types at
this point, to get the magnets!) easily allowed for PCB swapping
without cracking the seal. It's simple screwdriver work.

Whether the firmware and media defect information is close enough to
work may be another matter.... Certainly can't hurt and is unlikely
to damage the drive assembly with your data even if it doesn't allow
for reading the data.

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I've taken the electronics off a few IDE hdd's and swapped them. I put a
board from one drive on another which was the same model, but a different
revision.. It didn't work, but it didnt screw anything up either..

- Mike

"Art Todesco" wrote in message
news:yvW9d.211414$MQ5.199142@attbi_s52...
I've done it successfully on older drives ... now I'm giving away my
age, the drives were 10Meg (that's Meg, not Gig) full height. Back then
I didn't know what to do with all that storage space! I guess the
software designers took care of that.


Norm Dresner wrote:
I have two "identical" 1.2GB Western Digital HDs and one has just died.
I've talked to one professional data recovery company and they quoted me
$1100-$1500 for the 1.2GB MS-DOS HD -- I think my data was valuable --
but I
also think that I've got most of the source code stored on it
distributed
around a half-dozen other computers around here and at work so I'm going
to
pass on that route.

I could possibly do a board transplant to see if the drive died because
of
the electronics or not and if it did, I could recover the data.

I'm an aerospace engineer with EE & CS degrees with 30+ years experience
so
electronics and repairing equipment is no real scary prospect, but I've
never done this kind of work before and I was looking for some guidance
as
to whether it's
a) unscrew + unplug, then reverse the procedure
b) (a) + some minor unsoldering
c) You'd better have your own factory and clean room

TIA
Norm



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The two drives must be as nearly identical as possible; different revisions
will not work. Have you tried any of the other suggested methods for jump
starting a dead drive? Freezing, twisting the drive in your hand as it begins
to start up (that one actually worked for me; saved 80G of data from a stuck WD
drive)...?

"BWL" wrote in message
...
The two drives must be as nearly identical as possible; different
revisions
will not work. Have you tried any of the other suggested methods for jump
starting a dead drive? Freezing, twisting the drive in your hand as it
begins
to start up (that one actually worked for me; saved 80G of data from a
stuck WD
drive)...?

So far nothing mechanical has worked. I need to do a little more
experimenting to see if I can feel the motor turning before I even think
about swapping the electronics.
Right now one drive is sitting on my desk and the other is mounted in a
drive frame with its label partially hidden. All I know right now is that
they're the same model, i.e. Caviar 31200 but I can't read the label to see
how "identical" they are. It's my vague recollection that I bought them at
the same time -- I think I walked into the store and bought two from the
shelf together -- so if that's true they'll be as "identical" as possible, 7
years after purchase (March 1997 date code).

Thanks for the suggestions
Norm

On Sun, 10 Oct 2004 14:48:42 GMT, "Norm Dresner" wrote:

"BWL" wrote in message
...
The two drives must be as nearly identical as possible; different
revisions
will not work. Have you tried any of the other suggested methods for jump
starting a dead drive? Freezing, twisting the drive in your hand as it
begins
to start up (that one actually worked for me; saved 80G of data from a
stuck WD
drive)...?

So far nothing mechanical has worked. I need to do a little more
experimenting to see if I can feel the motor turning before I even think
about swapping the electronics.
Right now one drive is sitting on my desk and the other is mounted in a
drive frame with its label partially hidden. All I know right now is that
they're the same model, i.e. Caviar 31200 but I can't read the label to see
how "identical" they are. It's my vague recollection that I bought them at
the same time -- I think I walked into the store and bought two from the
shelf together -- so if that's true they'll be as "identical" as possible, 7
years after purchase (March 1997 date code).

Does the dead drive respond *at all* to the controller? Not sure if
S.M.A.R.T. was available in '97 but try a readback of the status. A free
for personal use tool to do this is at
http://www.passmark.com/products/diskcheckup.htm

Have you tried a different position on the cable? Changing from "cable
select" to/from "master/slave"? A different cable? A different PC?

If the drive fried the electronics then installing an identical board on
the dead drive could result in two dead boards.

Penultimate effort, if all else fails: give it a good whack (drop it a
foot or so) on each axis, testing after each drop. If it *still* doesn't
fire up, as a last resort go ahead and break the seal and give the
platters a nudge. Once upon a time, some drives would fail to spin up
because they didn't have enough torque to overcome the "stiction" that
occurred between lapped read heads, polished platters, and a wee bit too
much lubrication in the parking zone.

The whacking (probably) and poking (certainly) methods are likely to
damage an otherwise functional drive, so don't do these casually.

--
Rich Webb Norfolk, VA

On Sun, 10 Oct 2004 14:48:42 GMT "Norm Dresner" wrote:

Caviar 31200 but I can't read the label to see
how "identical" they are.

I THINK I have one of those here, too. I'll try to remember to look
for it to see what revision level it is.

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------

"Norm Dresner" wrote in message
...
I have two "identical" 1.2GB Western Digital HDs and one has just died.
I've talked to one professional data recovery company and they quoted me
$1100-$1500 for the 1.2GB MS-DOS HD -- I think my data was valuable -- but
I
also think that I've got most of the source code stored on it distributed
around a half-dozen other computers around here and at work so I'm going
to
pass on that route.

I could possibly do a board transplant to see if the drive died because of
the electronics or not and if it did, I could recover the data.

I'm an aerospace engineer with EE & CS degrees with 30+ years experience
so
electronics and repairing equipment is no real scary prospect, but I've
never done this kind of work before and I was looking for some guidance as
to whether it's
a) unscrew + unplug, then reverse the procedure
b) (a) + some minor unsoldering
c) You'd better have your own factory and clean room

TIA
Norm


Your mileage may vary, I've had success swapping the boards on 1gig Conner
drives years ago, in this case swap the board and try, worst case it'll just
not work.

"Rich Webb" wrote in message
...

Does the dead drive respond *at all* to the controller? Not sure if
S.M.A.R.T. was available in '97 but try a readback of the status. A free
for personal use tool to do this is at
http://www.passmark.com/products/diskcheckup.htm


I haven't tried it on more than one computer yet but the BIOS's
identification code doesn't recognize that a drive is attached.

Have you tried a different position on the cable? Changing from "cable
select" to/from "master/slave"? A different cable? A different PC?

The drive died on the computer after working for years. I doubt that a
different position on the cable would make any difference -- and a
completely different drive works perfectly on that same position on the
cable.


If the drive fried the electronics then installing an identical board on
the dead drive could result in two dead boards.

I understand the risks -- but I also appreciate the possible gains. I'll
back up the alternate drive first.


Penultimate effort, if all else fails: give it a good whack (drop it a
foot or so) on each axis, testing after each drop. If it *still* doesn't
fire up, as a last resort go ahead and break the seal and give the
platters a nudge. Once upon a time, some drives would fail to spin up
because they didn't have enough torque to overcome the "stiction" that
occurred between lapped read heads, polished platters, and a wee bit too
much lubrication in the parking zone.


I've tried the hand-whack treatment. I haven't gotten to holding the drive
to my ear to see if I can hear/feel/sense the motor turning yet but I'm
obviously going to do that before I swap any electronics.

The whacking (probably) and poking (certainly) methods are likely to
damage an otherwise functional drive, so don't do these casually.


Yeah. But the drive is already dead.

Thanks for the suggestions

Norm

"James Sweet" wrote in message
news:_dpad.4743$gd1.440@trnddc08...

"Norm Dresner" wrote in message
...
I have two "identical" 1.2GB Western Digital HDs and one has just died.
I've talked to one professional data recovery company and they quoted me
$1100-$1500 for the 1.2GB MS-DOS HD -- I think my data was valuable --
but
I
also think that I've got most of the source code stored on it
distributed
around a half-dozen other computers around here and at work so I'm going
to
pass on that route.

I could possibly do a board transplant to see if the drive died because
of
the electronics or not and if it did, I could recover the data.

I'm an aerospace engineer with EE & CS degrees with 30+ years experience
so
electronics and repairing equipment is no real scary prospect, but I've
never done this kind of work before and I was looking for some guidance
as
to whether it's
a) unscrew + unplug, then reverse the procedure
b) (a) + some minor unsoldering
c) You'd better have your own factory and clean room

TIA
Norm


Your mileage may vary, I've had success swapping the boards on 1gig Conner
drives years ago, in this case swap the board and try, worst case it'll
just
not work.

Well, no ... there's a possibility that swapping the boards would result
in two dead boards. But crossing the street has risks too.

Norm