Hello everyone,
This is my first post but I have spent a while reading all posts relevant to my dilemma in an effort to not ask redundant questions. As english *IS* my primary language I hope that I can ask questions that some people have asked previously but weren't answered due to a possible language barrier and finally have them answered in an unambiguous way. In essence, I am hoping to compile information from multiple posts here, add the little information that I myself have, and hopefully solve my as well as countless other people's problem in the process. I definitely am looking for replies to this message.
Ok so here it goes. Here is all the relevant data for my harddrive:
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250gb PATA133 HDD
Code: BAH41B70
K, G, C, A
Model #: 6B250R0060811
LBA: 490234752
^^^ All that information is on the front sticker of the HDD, on the PCB itself there are two stickers. Directly underneath the power connector, there is a code MAERBRAV, and underneath the IDE connector there is a code B4GBA, and on the same sticker in a smaller font the code:
20124LMJHM
ER
On the PCB itself by the most top right screwhole there is the board number which is 301956100, underneath which it says SABRE/RC3/RP. Now I'll try to make sense of that alphabet soup but I don't have all the answers; so please, someone enlighten me and anyone else that may stumble across this at some point.
In my case, the Smooth HDD Motor Combo IC L7250E 1.2 burnt out. That is a chip on the PCB, for those of you who don't know, the manufacturer is Smooth and L7250E 1.2 is the model number of the chip. There was fire damage sufficient that the pins are damaged and I don't have much confidence that the PCB itself is fine and I can just swap this chip; even if the PCB was in perfect shape the pins are quite small and close together and I don't know what equipment I would need (and yes I have a soldering iron dual setting 15 and 30 watts and I know how to use it but I don't know how to keep from bridging that many connectors with solder) in order to do it successfully. If you wanted to attempt something like this I have found a place through someone elses posting that sells this chip, the URL is thus: http://www.softcom.com.my/Maxtor_Latest.htm, and it's only $3.
Taking someone elses posting yet again I've been able to ascertain that in order to ensure compatibility that the PCB board you get will work you need to match certain parts of your model number, as explained here:
"For the following Maxtor hard drive models: Fireball 3, DiamondMax 16, DiamondMax Plus 8, DiamondMax Plus 9, Diamond Max 10 and all MaxLine products there is also a GTLA Number on the model (next to barcode on the bottom of the drive). Format 1Y222J2223322. 1, 2 and 3 stand for numbers, Y and J for letters. The numbers 1 and 3 as well as the letter Y need to be identical to be able to replace the PCB on these drives."
My model number is 6B250R0060811 and breaking it down into the above nomenclature means that I have to match the 6B and the 08 of my model number with another drive if I expect it to work (6B250R0060811). For those of you who care, apparently the "6" in 6B stands for the number of heads the HD has but that's all I know about these numbers. But that's not all you need apparently, you also have to match the firmware of your drive, and a given model has sometimes over a dozen different firmwares. This is where I am confused as when I futilely called Maxtor when this initially happened to me and sat on the phone for a while and *slowly* was transfered up the tech support ladder, the value BAH41B70 was identified as the firmware, HOWEVER, this five letter code on the sticker under the IDE connector B4GBA I have also seen referred to as the firmware revision, it also seems to need to match, as can be evidenced here: http://www.ultratec.co.uk/TechSection/PCBGuide.asp (scroll down to Maxtor, also valuable information for identifying criteria for every make of HDD). A question I would like to ask at this point is, do I need to match both values (BAH41B70 & B4GBA), or just one, and if just one, which one is more important to match?
Also, when looking for a replacement PCB, even when a listing has a copious amount of information listed about it, as you can see here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0151742524 (and just in case by the time you read this this listing is purged from Ebay's system the information listed is thus:
Main Controller IC: 040116600(agere BEAGLE D4-D4)
HDD Motor Combo IC: L7250E 1.2
Cache Memory: 8MB
Board Number: 301956100
Firmware: BAH41B10
Tested and Working on the following HDD:-
Maxtor Diamond Max 10 6B160P0 160GB / 6B200P0 200GB HDD / 6B300R0 300GB HDD) the *full* model of the drive is obviously missing (6B250R0060811) as this number is only on the front sticker of the housing of the HDD, is there some value on the stickers that are on the PCB itself that confers the information that I need to compare against, i.e. 6B & 08 from that model number? Could some people please contribute links to places I could call or websites to search for the PCB I need? Anyone have the PCB I need and is willing to sell it to me?
The one small ray of sunshine peeking through this oppressive raincloud is for anyone having trouble following along, the one thing you DON'T have to worry about when getting a replacement PCB is that it comes from the same SIZE hard drive, if the firmware matches, you can have a 300gb HD and take a board from an 80gb disc and you'll be good. We just need to figure out what value connotes the firmware (BAH41B70 or B4GBA or both?)... Could someone please explain to me and everyone else reading what the values K, G, C, A mean or stand for, also code MAERBRAV underneath the power connector as well as 20124LMJHM
ER and whether any of that needs to match?
Finally, I just want to add that if you do manage to match everything and you put your donor PCB onto your original drive, turn on your computer and BIOS doesn't recognize it or just says Maxtor SABRE or Maxtor CALYPSO you will get a HD of 0MB, in which case, try a live board swap! This entails you actually got a HDD and not just a PCB board, but if you bought a replacement HDD then let the BIOS recognize your new or donor drive, then use the power saving function and put your HDD's to sleep after 5 minutes of inactivity, carefully unscrew the PCB from that drive onto the one you're trying to recover; yes this does work! If you get a message from your OS that you "unplugged" or "ejected" your hard drive then you didn't wait long enough for your hard drive to get put to sleep, normally if you touch it you should feel a slight vibration, when power savings mode is activated you won't feel this.
Also if some of the experts weigh in and tell me that due to the Motor IC blowing on my PCB they think that it might have blown the preamp inside the housing as well, I would just like to point out that all hope is not lost for doing it yourself although you will have to shell out some money (but not thousands of dollars). You can do a platter swap with the following tool, the Platter Replacement Stand, but I think it's more apt to name it a Head Stack Platter Extractor and you can get it here: http://www.salvationdata.com/productDetail.asp?pn=00013 (although it's out of stock at the moment maybe a flurry of emails will put it back IN stock). But I don't have a clean room you say... Not a problem again because HERE's instructions on how to make a glovebox: http://www.thenook.org/archives/3487.html! You're not going to open a data recovery business but for working on one drive at a time it works. I hope this helps somebody, and I hope those of you who really know all the answers will help ME , thank you for your time.

P.S. I just want to thank Scott Moulton for his invaluable resource on the subject, http://www.myharddrivedied.com/presentations.html. I met this guy at Defcon this year and unlike alot of people in this industry who seem to keep their sources for finding parts and actual knowledge secret, in the classic hacker tradition, Scott believes that knowledge should be free, but if you make him apply it in your general direction, THEN he should be compensated for it, quite fair IMHO . If you want to learn something about the fundamentals of HDD recovery, read his papers and watch his videos, otherwise, don't bitch!