Hey all,

Just thought I would check with you guru's (:)) before going a head with a purchase for a similar drive so that I may use its PCB on a failed drive to recover the data.

The background is; after taking the PCB off the faulty drive, you can see exactly where the Motor Controller chip has burnt out and even melted a little bit of the foam between the PCB and the hard drive due to the overheating. The details of the original drive are as follows:

Brand: Western Digital
Model: WD2500JB – 00GVC0
Product of Thailand
Manufacture Date: 23 March 2006.
Logic Board Number (on the white printed sticker): 2061 – 701265 – 200 AL.
Logic Board Number (printed on the PCB itself): 2060 - 701265 - 001 Rev A.
DCM: DSBHCTJAH

Now I've managed to track down a similar drive with the following details:

Brand: Western Digital
Model: WD2500JB – 00GVC0
Firmware: 08.02D08 (Unfortunately I believe I'm unable to tell what this is on the original drive due to it not powering on at all, so can't check in Windows).
Product of Thailand.
Manufacture Date: 19 Jan 2006
Logic Board Number (on the white printed sticker): 2061 – 701265 – 200 AL
Logic Board Number (printed on the PCB itself): 2060 - 701265 - 001 Rev A.
DCM: DSCHNT2AH

Do you guys think this is a close enough match? Everything matches except for the DCM values, although ultimately there is only 3 digits difference in the DCM? The manufacture dates are within a couple of months, so I think this may be the closest I'll be able to find. I guess even with a drive that is so close to the original, the U12 firmware chip will still need to be swapped over?

There are a couple of PCB boards on e-bay in the U.S which I might be able to match - again except for the DCM value. I haven't been able to find a WD2500JB – 00GVC0 at all with a matching DCM, although there are 120gig Western Digital drives (after a bit of Googling) which have this DCM. I guess making sure the rest of the details match (Model, PCM/Logic Board number, date) should mostly be enough to ensure success?

Any other hints for a new guy to the trade will be greatly appreciated too .

I think it will work. Should we wager?

Haha, I'll place $5 on it

I guess I'm looking more-so for comfort that I'm making the right choice.

I don't think it'll work straight away (DCM digit 5 is different), but almost certainly work if the ROM chip is transferred to the new PCB.

Assuming you don't have preamp failure that is.

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Ahh, so it's mostly the DCM digit #5 that I need to look out for to match the DCM too? (And I assume as many others as possible.)

EDIT: Oh, and I've got my fingers crossed it isn't the preamp! Otherwise I guess there's no chance of recovering it without many-a-dollars.

Good eye Sean! I agree with Sean.

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

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Thanks for that guys. Guess I'll have to be vigilant in swapping over the firmware chip

Is there any other digits on the DCM number which I should keep a close eye on for future boards, or is it perhaps just digit #5? If I'm unsuccessful with this one, I'll attempt to find another drive with DCM #5 identicle. It doesn't appear to be too difficult to find boards with the same models, it's just the DCM that is proving difficult to match.

Thanks for the suggestions lads, greatly appreciated!