If I found a PCB that is has a model close to my PCB model but not exactly the same. and the firmware was installed to that PCB will trying that on my dear data holding hard drive affect that data or do any hardware damage to the hard drive's parts?

Your good unless it's a Hitachi. Don't do it with Hitachi's.

however, depending on the model of your drive, most likely a simply board swap isn't just going to work, there are adaptive parameters stored on PCB that need to be extracted and written to new board, or if it is stored in external ROM chip via EEPROM or NVRAM you can desolder and move them to the new board, if it is a match.

I didnt want to start a new thread as my issue is similar to the op's.

I have a WD5000BEVT that is dead. The 88i9045 IC gets very toasty within seconds. From searching online for a few minutes, it seems like this is a Marvel controller. It looks like this IC has an external eeprom. Is this correct as I cant identify an eeprom on the pcb? I have found an exact numbers matching pcb on the correct capacity drive and even manufactured in the same month, and was wondering if this may work? I dont know if I need to copy accross the firmware - which given my IC gets very hot, I'd assume the firmware is gone for good.

Thank you.

EDIT: Upon further reasearch it appears that this pcb has a Winbond 25x20ANIG 2mbit spi flash IC. It is located near the connector, a long way from the 88i9045. Is this flash for storing the firmware that I need to swap over? Just seems counter intuitive to have that data located so far from the controller IC. When desinging pcb's, I usually place memory close to the device needing to access it.

Is the 8-legged IC labelled "U12"?

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It is indeed labeled U12.

Then yes, it's the "ROM" chip, which must be transferred.

Good luck

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Great! Thank you for taking the time.

Second question. Sheepishly, what if one were to expose the platters?

NOT good at all...Exposure outside clean environment is never good.

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That could well have serious consequences.

I guess by "sheepishly" you've already done this?

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Yeah I have unfortunately. I didnt see until after I'd opened the top cover that the screws holding the pcb on the frame had shallow torx heads. Upon first inspection, they looked pressed into the pcb and I thought the screw heads where under the top cover. I had the cover off for maybe 5 minutes - probably long enough to coat at least the top platter in enough gunk to mess it up, right?
I am not sure what to do now. This was a secondary backup drive. My primary failed too but that one has physical media damage and the data is gone. The data on here is the last 2 years of technical drawings, pcb designs, 2500+ emails, simulations - you name it.

Well, if the data is important then you definitely need pro assistance.

This has gone way past DIY now

DO NOT even attempt to power this drive up with potentially data-threatening contamination.

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Russwinter : your post has solve a big issue I was facing. Details sent in PM

Looking at what is in my dropbox, out of the 300+gb of data on this drive, I think I only need a couple of gb. Several files at a few Kb (firmware), a couple of design files at 20 - 100mb each and the library folder to my cad software. Out of that, my only "ultra must have need" are two firmware files, and 4 design files. Anything out of the library file just saves time as I can redo those symbols and patterns again. Although there's probably 100+ hours of work there.

So saying that, and the that I'm seeing opinions all over the map on the web that a 5 minute exposure isnt so bad, I should attempt to power this up and copy those files? Once that is done I could attempt a drive clone. The thing only has to run perfectly for an hour or so and I'm seeing degradation reports after several hours of running for much longer exposure time than this. I'm also seeing where kids are cutting holes in their drive cover so they can see the heads working and their drives are lasting months up to years.

No-one is going to tell you: "Hey, your drive will be fine, even after being opened outside of a clean environment for 5 mins". You can believe those stories on the internet if you want to; perhaps you'll be lucky. The big problem for you is that if you are unlucky, and enough contamination got into the drive while it was open, then your attempt to power-up the drive could cause a head crash. That would mean "game over" for your DIY attempts, and any professional recovery would then be harder (and more expensive) or perhaps even impossible. That is why pcimage explained that powering-up the drive now, is putting your data at risk.

We can't see the drive, and we don't know what contamination entered the drive. That's why no-one can tell you that your plan to power-up the drive and try to extract the files, is safe. Ultimately it's your data, your risk, your choice. Good luck with whatever you decide.

I completely understand. Its the same as diagnosing a patient over the phone.

All I'll say is I did make sure no visible particles were on the platter when I closed the cover up again. Of course, its hard to see a 5 micron sized piece of dust!

If I were to risk it all, what cloning software is recommended these days? I have an ancient copy of Norton Ghost 15.0 somewhere.

Interesting I see you both are from the UK. I used to live in Nottinghamshire before moving to the US almost 12 years ago.

Personally I think it's even worse than that - unlike a patient, we can't ask a disk drive where the pain is etc.


That depends who you ask - different people make different recommendations based on their own experiences & skills, and we don't know what is most appropriate to you and your expectations / requirements. I've done a quick scan through some of my earlier replies to similar questions, and you can read them below.

internal-500gb-maxtor-with-loads-bad-sectors-what-t23110.html
data-recovery-from-toshiba-mk1059gsm-t22183.html
help-with-hitachi-deskstar-hdt722525dlat80-ide-t22211.html

If you search & read previous replies from other forum members, they have recommended other software like DMDE, HDClone, Media Tools Pro etc. There are many possible options and they all have risks, especially for the inexperienced. There are also several different options for the next stages, after you've got a clone of the "problem" disk (either onto another raw disk, or into an image file in a filesystem). In any case, you're going to need lots of empty disk space, so organise that before you start.


That's not a good option (no control over bad block behaviour, no log file etc.).


I believe pcimage is in Peterborough and I'm near London. I've done my fair share of flying to & from the USA for business. Coming back to the UK each time, the jet lag is getting worse as I get older.