PCB - How close is close enough?

[OneBit]

A friend of mine had a Western Digital (WD3200AJS) hard drive that is no longer recognized by any computer. I told him I would take a look. I noticed there wasn't any clicking but it does spin up, so I figured it was the PCB. I spent a lot of time looking for a match online and finally came across one that I thought would work. Here are the details of each:

My PCB:
Model: WD3200AAJS-40RYA0
Date: 22 SEP 2007
PCB number: 2061-701444-800 AC

Possible Match PCB:
Model: WD3200AAJS-00RYA0
Date: 28 JUN 2007
PCB number: 2061-701444-000 AE

When the possible match hard drive arrived, I swapped the PCB, but it made no difference. So I tried the bad drive's PCB on the good hard drive and then that drive was not recognized. So I'm pretty sure the PCB match I thought I had won't work. The stuff I read said the model number should match although the first number after the dash wasn't that important on WD drives, and the PCB number should match up to the first 10 digits.

What is the real story - does every number, letter and date have to match?
Thanks for the advice.

[hddguy]

Most drives have a ROM chip on PCB, the contents of the ROM are unique for each drive abd will not work on a different hdd unless ROM chip is transferred to donor PCB before replacement. I do not think your HDD has external ROM on it.

[harddrivespecialist]

It does not sound like a PCB problem.

In any case, Original PCB carries unique information or a microcode which has to be tranferred to a new board in order for that board to match your drive.
Special equipment is needed to do that.
Your friend can either take it to a pro or learn to live without his data.

[pcimage]

hddguy is correct

This is a "ROYL" series drive

The ROM on this PCB is inbuilt in the MCU.

You therefore need specialist equipmemnt to "manufacture" a new ROM from the SA (Service Area) modules and re-write a compatible ROM to a donor PCB.

Sorry to say (for you), but on this occasion you DO need to seek professional service.

[OneBit]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I'll start looking up professionals to send the drive to.

[OneBit]

One more question for harddrivespecialist - you mentioned that it doesn't sound like a PCB problem. What does it sound like to you? I'll be sending it out to a company for them to find the problem, but I was just curious what you thought.
Thanks!

[prodata]

maybe translator.... or something else