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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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Western Digital WD800AAJS 80 gb SATA drive PCB swap

August 20th, 2012, 18:22

Hi all,

Does anyone know if I can just switch out the PCB with the exact same part number on this WD800AAJS 80 gb SATA drive?
Or does it contain unique bad sector information on the PCB?

The drive powers up to full speed, no clicking noise and the drive is not detectable by any computer whether hooked up
directly to a SATA controller or hooked up using an external USB to SATA dock.

Any help would be appreciated!

y2kcio

Re: Western Digital WD800AAJS 80 gb SATA drive PCB swap

August 21st, 2012, 2:18

The PCB does not store and 'bad sector information', the P-list and G-list is stored on the drive (platter) itself. PCB would house adaptive info and microcode that allows the drive to initialise, so this needs to be moved when a replacement PCB is used.

It does not sound like the PCB is your problem though.

Re: Western Digital WD800AAJS 80 gb SATA drive PCB swap

August 21st, 2012, 3:18

Nick_CT wrote:It does not sound like the PCB is your problem though.


+1

Re: Western Digital WD800AAJS 80 gb SATA drive PCB swap

August 21st, 2012, 11:11

I've been told as long as the PCB doesn't contain the P and G lists, I can try and swap out the PCB with a replacement board and see if it works. I was figuring it was the PCB since the drive won't detect even though the platters spin up.

Re: Western Digital WD800AAJS 80 gb SATA drive PCB swap

August 21st, 2012, 12:39

You've been told by 2 people who do this everyday that it's very unlikely that the PCB is your problem. It's probably not what you want to hear, but the problem is very likely elsewhere and you will be wasting your time swapping the PCB.

Best to contact a recovery company if you want the data recovered, we can recommend many in your country if you want to go this route.

Re: Western Digital WD800AAJS 80 gb SATA drive PCB swap

August 22nd, 2012, 3:42

The PCB myth is too hard to die...

Re: Western Digital WD800AAJS 80 gb SATA drive PCB swap

August 22nd, 2012, 13:40

northwind wrote:
Nick_CT wrote:It does not sound like the PCB is your problem though.


+1


+2

More like fw issue to me.

MICROCODE WD

September 19th, 2012, 13:27

PLEASE

can someone like to explain/tell, what is microcode in WD,

any text, any pdf, any litrature,

few words from your personal experience

P L E A S E
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