Replace Board/RMA Possible

[hijodeltigre]

Summary, says it all, really.
I'll try and get another HDD, WD10EADS, 1TB Green
Will warranty still go if I do a board swap to try and recover the data?

 

[hijodeltigre]

I guess I'll elaborate. I was swapping HDDs for my HTPC and out of 4 this one didn't pick up in Vista, nor did it in BIOS after I went back up to check.
The drive, however, does seem to spin and power up when connected to one of those external cases, the Thermaltake BlackX to be more precise, so I haven't lost hope just yet.
The drive is not older than 6 months, and it's actually the first drive that's ever died (?) on me since I started building about 6 years ago.
Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

[Zensal]

I don't think they will honor the warranty if you tried a board swap. You probably should have just sent it in when you knew it was not working.

Might be worth a shot if you can't tell it was swapped.

 

[hijodeltigre]

Oh, Zensal, thanks for the reply.
I haven't done the board swap yet, I'm pretty close to ordering another drive but I want to hear a couple more opinions before I do. Are there any stickers under there.
Anyone have any expierence regarding this?

 

[Blain]

Here you go

 

[Old Hippie]

If the BIOS doesn't recognize the drive, it will need more than simple recovery programs.

Here's a little tutorial for a WD PCB swap.

 

[Modelworks]

You cannot swap boards on the new drives. Anything that is 500GB+ you can forget it. HD manufacturers changed their designs so that part of the information that the drive needs to work is stored on the platters. When the drive is first booted at the factory it goes through a diagnostic and setup that calibrates the board to that drives platters. It is required because of the higher density on drives now. If you put a different board on the drive it will still use the old calibration data from the drive you took it from. Any data you get from the now swapped board drive will be corrupt.

 

[Blain]

To recover your data...

Originally posted by: Blain

Here you go

 

[Old Hippie]

Originally posted by: Blain
To recover your data...

Originally posted by: Blain

Here you go

Hey Blain, do you know any place where he can send it?

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
You cannot swap boards on the new drives. Anything that is 500GB+ you can forget it.

I'd read about this and was going to mention it, but couldn't find more information.

 

[hijodeltigre]

Oh, crap! And here I thought I was going to be all cool ad haxx0rs.
Oh well, I guess it's lost. It's not like I have the money to pay for data recovery.
I guess I'll just send it. Or better yet, any tips on hopefully making it come back to life?

 

[Blain]

Freezer...

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Blain
Freezer...

Yeah, if it's the drive controller, sometimes reducing the temperature of the PCB board, will help.

Hint for the future: It's MUCH easier to recover data from backups than from a failed hard drive.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: Blain
Freezer...

Yeah, if it's the drive controller, sometimes reducing the temperature of the PCB board, will help.

Don't laugh...
I've had the freezer trick bring a failing HD back to lead a productive life.

 

[Gillbot]

at the first signs of serious HDD trouble, I use the freezer trick and make an image of the drive.

 

[Elixer]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
You cannot swap boards on the new drives. Anything that is 500GB+ you can forget it. HD manufacturers changed their designs so that part of the information that the drive needs to work is stored on the platters. When the drive is first booted at the factory it goes through a diagnostic and setup that calibrates the board to that drives platters. It is required because of the higher density on drives now. If you put a different board on the drive it will still use the old calibration data from the drive you took it from. Any data you get from the now swapped board drive will be corrupt.

You know, there has to be some way to do it. Since most makers have a in-house recovery "service", there must be a way to do it. Just need the right tools.

Maybe they have a huge deep freezer they throw all the drives into.

(too bad that don't work if the HD is making 'boing...tick...tick...tick' sounds...)

 

[Old Hippie]

Originally posted by: Blain

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: Blain
Freezer...

Yeah, if it's the drive controller, sometimes reducing the temperature of the PCB board, will help.

Don't laugh...
I've had the freezer trick bring a failing HD back to lead a productive life.

I've had it work for mechanical problems but have never tried for electrical. The OP's spins but it could be a problem with the arm or electronics.

If you're not gonna pay for recovery and the drive's under warranty, go for it.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Elixer


You know, there has to be some way to do it. Since most makers have a in-house recovery "service", there must be a way to do it. Just need the right tools.

There is a way to do it but it isn't something most pc users are going to know how to do. If you don't know what the term i2c means then you might as well forget about doing it at home.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: Elixer
You know, there has to be some way to do it. Since most makers have a in-house recovery "service", there must be a way to do it.
Just need the right tools.

You're exactly right.
Do you have a matching donor drive?
Do you have a clean room to disassemble the HD & swap components?

These videos will help you do the job yourself

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: Modelworks
You cannot swap boards on the new drives. Anything that is 500GB+ you can forget it.

I'd read about this and was going to mention it, but couldn't find more information.

The problem is that the newer drives store the location of where the startup information for the drive is located in a eprom or nvram chip on the board. So when the drive powers on it loads the information from that chip then goes to that location on the platters to get its firmware and starting info.

If you change the board then when the drive powers on it loads the information from that boards chip which will point to the locations of the firmware on the previous drive. The drive cannot continue booting, or if it does boot it will still provide corrupt data because the layout is set for the previous drive.

A workaround is removing the old nvram chip from the board and putting it in place on the new board. That sometimes works. But the ROM version of the board has to match 100% or the drive will again stop starting up.

The other problem is that the nvram is sometimes inside the main controller chip. Not many people have the ability to desolder and resolder 128 pin + chips.


What recovery services do is replace the board, swap the chips, update the internal information and then retrieve the data. It takes someone who really knows what they are doing and that understands firmware down to the actual bits.