Hi All,

I have been looking for some good information on how to find a replacement PCB for different brands and models.

Can anybody with experience contribute the rule to find a compatible PCB for different brands (e.g WD, Maxtor, IBM, Hitachi and Samsung especially). If you know what's needed can you please share?

I have found the followinig resources and thought it may be helpful to other forum members:
http://www.myharddrivedied.com/presenta ... paper.html
and
The one on this HGGGuru site:
http://hddguru.com/content/en/articles/ ... k-Q-and-A/

and some good info at:
http://www.iswamp.com/data-recovery/har ... ir-pcb.php
http://www.iswamp.com/library/hitachi-pcb.pdf
http://www.iswamp.com/library/Maxtor-PCB.pdf
http://www.iswamp.com/library/Seagate-PCB.pdf
http://www.iswamp.com/data-recovery/wd-pcbs.php
http://www.dataclinic.co.uk/fujitsu-pcb ... bility.htm
http://www.dataclinic.co.uk/ibm-hitachi ... bility.htm
http://www.dataclinic.co.uk/swapping-pc ... drives.htm
http://www.dataclinic.co.uk/hitachi-dk2 ... d-swap.htm
http://www.dataclinic.co.uk/hard-disk-d ... bility.htm

I've done what i can to help - if you have any other links or experience please share so us newbies can learn and not learn the costly, long and hard way of trial and error.

Thanks in advance.
Zed.

Anybody else have any information to contribute?

Hi Zed ,
I am also new and learning bit by bit. From my personal experience for seagate drives in order to have matching donor pcbs f/w is major criteria. Both pcbs must have same firmware. (some times you need to check rev. which can be found on back side of the pcb.)
e.g -100139362 Rev B. I have got fair success if problem is with logic card.
To really get a match for seagate you must check Nos. of Microcontroller / Spindle controller and layout of power components.
Thanks
hddbug

Thanks - do you find the whole number on the PCB needs to match or only the 1st few numbers (e.g 8 numbers)

Hello,
I just thought I would point out my post deals with this issue as well, although specifically Maxtor drives only. hard-disk-drives-repair-and-data-recovery-f1/what-is-the-necessary-critieria-for-maxtor-pcb-replacement-t7695.html, I know it's a lengthy post but I thought verbosity would be encouraged in this subject instead of a quick response. Also there are some questions I posed in there that I would very much like to have answered so anyone interested please help out.

Thanks, but don't try to Hijak my post. This page is for all brands of PCB info so if you can help out and make this a sticky for newies when it becomes more useful that would be awesome.