Trying to recover data from a defective hard disk by replacing the PCB.

[Battousai01]

Hi guys, I have a defective 250GB Seagate hard disk and I have kept it for almost a year now. I am assuming that the PCB is bad and I will try and get the exact same hard disk but with different firmware.

My defective hard disk:
Serial Number: ST3250318AS
Firmware: CC35
Board Number: 100532367 REV A

The hard disk I found:
Serial Number: ST3250318AS
Firmware: CC38
Board Number: 100532367 REV A

The only difference is the firmware version. My question is, in case the PCB is indeed the defective part of the hard disk, is replacing it with the same PCB but with a different firmware work? Because I am thinking, changing the PCB with a newer firmware is also the same as updating or flashing the hard disk with the newer firmware.

Thanks in advance for any replies!

 

[hippovsmouse]

There's a place you can order just the pcb board - they need to be an exact match.

I tried that with a 320 gig hd that went bad in 2008 - I finally ordered a pcb in 2014 to try to fix it, but it didn't fix the issue mine is a different problem.

Anyway if you're interested I can find the site that I ordered the pcb from

 

[Zodiark1593]

How important is the data exactly? Since you've waited this long, I assume it's not something that will sink you to lose, but it is worth considering as fiddling with it yourself instead of through a professional presents the risk of losing any chance of recovery.

That said, there is a website I will probably edit in where you can find all sorts of drives down to the exact model number. This website is specifically meant for obtaining doner drives for recovery purposes.

 

[mrpete]

I could be wrong about this, but from what I've read it is frequently not as simple as just putting a new controller board on your old bad disk. But you never know, you might get lucky.

There are things that have been specifically programmed into your controller board that make that HDD work properly, for example, the platter defect list.

Try throwing the search terms below into Google/Bing/etc. and read some of the results. Some appear to support your attempt, others, not so much.

HDD controller swap

None the less, I hope the swap works for you!

 

[Battousai01]

Hi guys! Thanks for the replies. I have searched google and one site tells me that it is not just swapping the boards, this site tells (http://www.hdd-parts.com/se3hadr1010p.html) me that the BIOS also needs to be swapped once you have a donor board which I think is not very complicated. However, my question would be what if I found the "EXACT" model of the disk and board, can swapping it directly works or I still need to swap the BIOS.

Anyway I will still keep on looking and see if I can use the board with a different firmware.

 

[Elixer]

If you find the exact match, yes, should work, assuming the PCB is the problem.

 

[RecoveryForce]

Seagate drives have custom ROM code that must be transferred to the donor PCB. If the PCB does not match the serial number, it will not work.

 

[Elixer]

Seagate drives have custom ROM code that must be transferred to the donor PCB. If the PCB does not match the serial number, it will not work.

Do you know what year they started doing this?
I have transferred a PCB on one of my old seagates, and it worked fine.

 

[tweakboy]

I think more can be damaged but give her a try another try . gl