Toshiba MK2546GSX

[techdesign]

I have a Toshiba MK2546GSX 2.5" SATA hard drive (dead obviously...not sure too many people discuss live working drives here) that I'd like to find out more about recovering. The drive itself "suddenly" died during a move between enclosures. Before that it exhibited no problems whatsoever, so my guess is that something happened to the PCB rather than bad sectors or other platter issues. Now the drive does not spin up nor is it detected by the BIOS.

In exploring this, I did purchase another PCB and tried a swap. At that point, the drive spun up, but the heads did a few clicks and stopped. I assume this is due to differences in firmware, etc.

So my question here becomes what is the feasibility of a DIY recovery? Does this become a matter of just finding a PCB with the same firmware, or is it deeper than that.

A few other directions I'm wondering about, although I don't have the capacity to do them...is this type of problem fixable by professional equipment such as the PC-3000? Can it "flash" the PCB on my dead drive and revive it enough to get the data off.

And finally, is this type of problem fixable by moving the platter from the bad drive to a working donor drive? Or again, like the PCB issue, are there deeper issues here such as matching PCB firmware to certain data written to the drive?

I appreciate reading all the posts here and the wealth of knowledge. Now hoping to gain a bit of knowledge myself!

[BlackST]

Use the search function in this forum.

[jono-ats]

No chance for DYI, unless you've got a BGA rework station in your garage and know how to use it.

[mr_spokk]

Hi, I would start checking the original pcb...especially a componant that starts with an F


Bosse

[pepe]

good hint, in fact the best u can do...

[beto]

u cannot exchange PCB´s on this model, ROM its embeddeed at MCU or tried, the hdd should reach readiness but when u tried to read any sector ABRT , u need to repair it, or find another way if u PCB is died , did u check spindle phases?, some times problems at toshiba are "Head sticktion, PCB problems, Spindle problems, Surface problems "
again the most important its a good diagnostic, if u dont have experience u know the solution

Regards

[pepe]

The drive spun up with the other PCB, so spindle is fine I think.
The problem is with the PCB.
Listen to Bosse!

pepe

[pcimage]

Post a good quality pic of your original PCB. Component side.