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Data recovery and disk repair questions and discussions related to old-fashioned SATA, SAS, SCSI, IDE, MFM hard drives - any type of storage device that has moving parts
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Help Needed Please

March 13th, 2010, 13:34

I'm hoping someone can help me out.

I have a Western Digital 2500JB Hard Drive
WD Caviar SE
MDL: WD2500JB-00REA0
DATE: 19 Aug 2006
DCM: DBCHCT2AAN
SN: WCANK5864382
PCB: 2060-701292-002 REV A
2061-701292-C00 AC XC 3E10312V B 0002060 7062

I had pulled the PCB board off the drive and the Smooth chip is burnt. I went ahead and found a replacement PCB for the drive. I had read that because the smooth chip was burnt the problem could go deeper into the drive. I also read that I should put the new PCB on the drive and if it spins up without burning up the PCB I may get lucky.

I replaced the PCB board and the drive did spin up, and was not recognized. I was on to swapping the ROM chip. I didn't know how to do this so I asked a friend who said he could. He brought the PCB's back to me the next day and said that he couldn't get them hot enough to get them off the board. I put the new PCB back on the drive and now the drive still spins but now has a clicking sound. Did he ruin the PCB board. He said that he tried both PCB Rom chips. Am I totally screwed. Is it possible that he ruined my ROM chip? If so is there any hope of finding a new ROM chip or am I reduced to now having to send it in for a $1000+ data recovery?

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Re: Help Needed Please

March 13th, 2010, 14:43

Results of the DIY without pro equipment and too much Internet. At this point a seasoned pro can help you out but it's gonna cost $$$$$$$. Hope both the boards are not ruined that much and the original rom chip is still readable.

P.S. with proper equipment I remove a SOIC in less than 10 seconds, safe and sound. Without, it's Russian Roulette.

Re: Help Needed Please

March 14th, 2010, 2:15

Hi
if u have important Data in it give to Pro. for Recovery then u can play with this Drive.

Re: Help Needed Please

March 14th, 2010, 12:04

ROM chip could be damaged by overheating it or by soldering it in wrong direction on the PCB.
Rebuilding ROM is not an easy task, so just hope it's not damaged.

Re: Help Needed Please

March 14th, 2010, 15:38

harddrivespecialist wrote:Rebuilding ROM is not an easy task


It's just "open the wallet" :D

Re: Help Needed Please

March 15th, 2010, 15:45

If the drive still spins then most likely the ROM chip itself hasn't been damaged. However, it's possible that the new PCB was damaged during your friend's experimentation. It's also possible that there is damage beyond the PCB - either heads and/or platters. If data is critical you should send it to a professional service who can verify that the new PCB hasn't also been damaged. Make sure you send the original ROM chip as well.
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