i have a ST3500620AS Firmware SD15 7200.11 ( target drive )
it spins up and sounds at power on are normal
not detected in bios
if connected as second drive the system takes much longer to boot
i have another drive same model but different firmware ( donor drive )
when i swapped the pcb the target did not work : click click noise
i swapped back and the drive spins up again and sounds normal
do i go thru the serial port method or will an identical firmware pcb work
i have access to a the same model drive with the same firmware if this would work i would rather backup the donor drive and try its pcb on the target

the target drive is manufactured in 2008 .. would seagate still recover my data ?

1. You cannot straight swap these PCB's, even the drives s/n is programmed into the PCB.
2. The PCB is not your problem.

Seagate may well recover your drive for you, you need to check the s/n to see if it's covered by that plan. But beware that OEM drives (i.e. tha vast majority of drives out there!) are not covered.

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Your drive may be a victim of the Seagate 7200.11 BSY bug.

Here are repair procedures for Seagate 7200.11 drives:
http://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128807

Tutorial with photos:
http://www.overclock.net/hard-drives-st ... -pics.html

Pinout of Nokia CA-42 cable's Pop-port connector (use pins 6,7,8):
http://pinouts.ru/CellularPhones-Nokia/ ... nout.shtml

See the following technical bulletin:
http://www.expreview.com/img/topic/seag ... Update.pdf

Seagate were at one time offering free data recovery services to those customers whose drives were affected by the bug. This may still be the case.

After you have repaired your drive, you can apply the following firmware update.

Firmware Update for ST3500320AS, ST3500620AS, ST3500820AS, ST3640330AS, ST3640530AS, ST3750330AS, ST3750630AS, ST31000340AS [207951]:
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/s ... cId=207951

If the Windows based updater rejects your drive, then use the CD ISO version. The difference is that one version compares the drive's existing firmware specs against an update matrix file, whereas the other version just checks the drive's model and family.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.