Hi, I have a WD3000 Caviar SE HDD which stopped working, when powered up it would just click for a while then do nothing.

I have purchased a donor drive to try to get the data off of the knackered one. What I need to know is what exactly I need to swap over to get it working, is it just the PCB and add the old BIOS chip to it? If so how do I identify which chip it is?

Is there any chance of the drive working if I just put the new PCB straight onto it?

Old Drive Info:
WD3000JB-00KFA0
Date - 17 Nov 2005
DCM - DSCACAJCA
PCB Number - 2060-701314-002 Rev A

New Drive Info:
WD3000JB-00KFA0
Date - 19 Jan 2006
DCM - HSBACAJCA
PCB Number - Not known yet

Would really appreciate your expertiese and advice on this!

First thing to try is to swap the PCB over for the known good one, and see what happens.

If it still clicks then you have more serious issues, and it's the end of the road for DIY.

If it spins up ok and stays spinning with no untoward noises then you're very lucky, it's probably a PCB issue.

It almost certainly won't work properly though without a "ROM" chip transfer.

If you get this at far, then post a photo of the PCB and someone here will tell you which chip to transfer.

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Hi, thanks for the reply

I have now identified the chip, marked on the PCB as U12 (now I know why you refer to it as such!)

I have added some photos anyway (of the faulty PCB) for confirmation and also incase any of you can see any problems I have overlooked

As far as DIY, I have no problem tackling this kind of stuff. If the PCB swap is a bust, then I will try a head swap as I have nothing to lose, worse case I end up with 2 bricks!

Regards

Of course it's your drive and your data, but with respect you have 0.01% chance of succeeding with a head swap on this particular model. You will end up with two "bricks".

It's a real pig of a job, even for most pros

PCB swap (with U12 transfer) is worth a shot.

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Of course my aim is not to go opening it up and trying to do a head swap, that's just a last resort

I have been reading up on as much as I can about these drives, just watched a YouTube clip with the same HDD of a different capacity(40GB) where he tried 3 different PCBs each with differing results (without swapping any chips) - youtube.com/watch?v=IQnAWBi11i8

There seems to be as many people saying the clicking is PCB related as there are saying its the Heads, will have to see what happens when I get the donor drive

Fair enough!

Good luck

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PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!