Hard disk pcb board swap

[AMCRambler]

Anyone here ever have a hard disk crash and tried swapping the controller board on the disk with another of the same type? I've got a drive that crashed and lost it's MFT so it doesn't see any of the partitions on the disk. I scanned it with chkdsk /r from the Windows XP recovery console and now the pc recognizes the drive in Windows. From there I attempted using file recovery software to get the files off. The softwares all tell me the files are there, but after five minutes of scanning so that I can do the recovery, the disk stops spinning and is no longer visible to Windows. I've tried to computers and the problem is consistent. 5 minutes and the disk stops working. Also tried the freezer trick. Stuck it in the freezer for 20 minutes and tried it. I still end up with the same problem.
At this point I think the problem is either with the controller board on the disk or with the internals of the drive. I'm going to purchase another drive of the exact same type, and swap the pcb's and see if I can get it to work. Trying to save the $800-$1000 a hard disk recovery company will charge me.
My question is this, have any of you ever tried this? Will the boards swap between the drives easily? Or is there wiring that is directly soldered between the two? I've never fully dissassembled a disk before so I want to make sure it doesn't requiring anythign but removing the screws and plugging the board in. Thanks.

 

[Lonyo]

Not entirely sure of the specifics, but my housemate swapped PCB's and it worked.
You will need some torx screwdrivers, and I think it's reasonably easy to do.
AFAIK there's no soldering involved, since he didn't have anything but screwdrivers and the 2 drives.

 

[ch33zw1z]

swapping pcb's is no problem as long as you use the same # listed on the pcb. dont be surprised it if doesn't work tho...

 

[AMCRambler]

Alright cool. This is a last ditch effort. Figuring it's worth the 60 bucks a drive would cost to see if we can get the data off it. Otherwise it'll be lots of dough sending it off to a recovery company. It looks like it would be relatively simple. I'll have to pick up a torx set of screw drivers.
I'm wondering how hard actually swapping the platters between the two would be? I know I always read about these companies having clean rooms that they do it in. But as long as you were careful and used some lint free gloves, I bet swapping the platters wouldn't be too hard. Although there might be some close tolerances involved in the way they are attached to the spindle inside. Anybody every try swapping platters?

 

[PottedMeat]

Swapping platters? Probably not - although the heads don't actually touch the platters, it's very possible you will hit the arms or head into them. Not to mention the dust.

 

[StopSign]

You do NOT want to swap platters if you don't have the proper equipment.

 

[RebateMonger]

http://myharddrivedied.com has links to YouTube videos on hard drive repair. These are QUITE technical and informative and discuss things like PCB replacement and head replacement.

Scott Moulton also lists what to check to know if a replacement PCB board is a good candidate for a swap.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: PottedMeat
Swapping platters? Probably not - although the heads don't actually touch the platters, it's very possible you will hit the arms or head into them. Not to mention the dust.

I've heard of people doing it in home-built 'clean boxes'. Opening up the casing in a 'normal' environment will likely trash the platters just from dust/dirt, etc.

You can get the platters out pretty easily without damaging them. However, getting them aligned properly in the new drive can be difficult. They need to be pretty close to the same alignment you had or the drive's firmware may not be able to deal with it.

 

[Jiggz]

I wouldn't even try replacing platters not even in my dreams. Aligning this high speed disk platter is not something done thru "kitchen engineering". Try the pcb approach. Worse thing that could happen is put it right back up and at least you still have your new hdd albeit no data.

 

[SparkyJJO]

I've successfully swapped HD PCBs before, but the numbers on the PCB MUST match. Doesn't matter of the drive is the right model, the PCB has to be identical. The PCB I used to fix this one 60GB drive came from a 100-something drive, but the PCB was the same number as the old. So I got all the data off the drive with no problem.

Then found out the reason why the old PCB was bad was the PSU in the system was shot after it lit replacement PCB on fire :Q