Question on HDD circuit boards...

[Fedexdeliverz]

I have recently had a Hard disk faliure on my storage/backup drive, and 'lost' quite a large amount of important information. I seemed to have gotten the 1 in 1 billion chance to have a backup drive die while in the process of reformatting my main drive... meaning what was on it was the only copy of my stuff. -_-

Now, from what I can tell, the failed hard drive has a fried circuit board, as when connected to any SATA and power cord in my comp, doesn't spin, or get picked up by the BIOS. I'm hoping that it's just the board that's fried and not the motor, 'cause technically that means I can switch the fried board off the drive for a working one, right?

The failed drive is a Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JS 250gb 8mb SATA

I'm wondering if it's possible to rotate the fried board off with a board from one of the following:
- WD2500JB (250gb Caviar SE EIDE)
- WD2000JS (200gb Caviar SE SATA)

Or would I have to find the exact same drive to replace the boards down to the model number WD2500JS-xxxxxx <-- whatever the x's are on my drive.

I know it would void warranties on 2 drives, but if it's a good chance it would work, I'd rather void warranties on two 75 dollar hard drives than pay 1000 dollars to get my information recovered.

Thank you!

 

[cprince]

I think it has to be the exact same drive down to the model number. I have done it twice, one time it didn't work because different model number. The other time it worked because of same model number.

 

[RebateMonger]

This information may help.

As a rule, I try not to trust a single backup in cases like this. I'll make two backups on different hard drives. The odds of a failure like yours are low, but it CAN happen.

 

[Fedexdeliverz]

Yeah, I think I learned not to do single backups ever again. ><

I guess I should check around local shops for a drive with the same numbers as mine.

 

[Shawn]

It has got to be the EXACT same drive.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Fedexdeliverz
Yeah, I think I learned not to do single backups ever again.

Good luck in your quest. That's really bad luck to have a drive fail like that.

 

[daveybrat]

I've given up on the circuit board trick myself. I've never had it work for me out of the couple times i've tried it. I've also never had the freezer trick work either on partially bad drives.

But i guess it's worth a shot. Just go into it with low expectations and hopefully you'll get lucky.

Good luck!