Repair / Recovery for fried WD2500JS board

[califauna]

Hi gurus,

I'm helping out a friend whose WD2500JS board (2060-701335-005 Rev a) just got fried, presumably caused by a dodgy power supply.

THe board doesnt appear to been protected much by any diodes / protection as a chip near to the burnout area got toasted somewhat (several of its pins seem to have been burnt off the chip). At any rate the board is no longer recognised.

I have looked up this replacing this board and apparently the BIOS chip does also need transplanting when replacing the board. There are several sellers in the US we have found that sell the board and take care of the whole operation. We live in Barcelona though, and havent been able to find any such service so far, so we have taken it to a data recovery specialist for a quote but are considering a DIY repair.

So, I was wondering if I can get some advice regarding repairing this board, particular re. whether some kind of re-programming would also be necessary, or whether a replacement board and BIOS chip transplant will suffice to get it up and running long enough to get an image of the drive.

Also wondering if the transplant is a very risky operation and whether it requires tools only a HDD specialist will have. If possible we will take the replacement board and old board to a local electronics repair shop and let them solder it if we go down that route as it would be relatively cheap.

Thanks,
Dale.

[F_ARG]

Hello Dale, can you upload a PCB picture?

Best!

F

[Nick_CT]

Once you upload a pic (component side up) we can see if the drive has internal or external ROM.

[califauna]

I cant upload of a photo of the board itself component side up becasue it is at the data recovery centre. I have a photo of the other side of the boar though , and have looked for the diode and can confirm it is where it is on this photo of an identical board:

http://www.hddzone.com/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=1120

I noticed that fortunately the damaged area of the board is pretty much the other side from where the BIOS chip located.

The report from the data recovery centre has just come back (translated from Spanish):

"The spin motor controller on the pcb has burnt. This is generally due to repeated read attempts in the same area of the head. Head 3 of a total of 4 numbered 0 to 3 also shows a read / write error. . Although it reads information, it is presenting many CRC errors in random sectors of the service area, via the HOTSWAP technique. The repair of the PCB and the replacement of the head are necessary for the recovery of data."

The technician also explained to me that at some point the head was stuck to the platters. Im not sure if it is still or not.

Would it not be necessary to unstick the head from the platters in order to know the sectors where there are CRC errors? How can they know this without having first unstuck the head and spun up the drive?

Does this mean that if we attempt to swap out the board it will not read the disk, or fail again straight away?

[califauna]

Lacking a programmer you can move the ROM CHIP to the new PCB.

How easy is it to damage the ROM chip when attempting this? I could do this using my soldering kit, or perhaps take it to an electronics repair store nearby.

[F_ARG]

Califuna,

Does this mean that if we attempt to swap out the board it will not read the disk, or fail again straight away?

Sadly you can´t just replace PCB an access data. You need further procedures to access. Your HDD won´t work anymore as a reliable unit.

Sorry, buti don´t understand this thread. You have already sent your hdd to a data recovery center. They have informed you the problem. For what they told you there is no way of DIY procedure. The HDD has PCB and mechanical problems (head stuck + weak or damaged head).

Hope this help to clarify,

Best

F

[califauna]

Sorry, buti don´t understand this thread. You have already sent your hdd to a data recovery center. They have informed you the problem. For what they told you there is no way of DIY procedure. The HDD has PCB and mechanical problems (head stuck + weak or damaged head).

Hope this help to clarify,

Best

F

Thanks for the information you have provided, but in my posts here there are questions I'm hoping I can get clarified which haven't been responded to yet. Also, I don't automatically have 100 faith in this company (or any other!).

[F_ARG]

Hi Dale.

So, I was wondering if I can get some advice regarding repairing this board, particular re. whether some kind of re-programming would also be necessary, or whether a replacement board and BIOS chip transplant will suffice to get it up and running long enough to get an image of the drive.

Also wondering if the transplant is a very risky operation and whether it requires tools only a HDD specialist will have. If possible we will take the replacement board and old board to a local electronics repair shop and let them solder it if we go down that route as it would be relatively cheap.

You have two ways to solve ROM problem. Buy a patient PCB and:

1. Read de ROM CHIP using an external reader and then write it to the donor PCB board.

2. Desolder the patient rom IC and solder it in donnod PCB. You will need a decent solder station. It is not a difficult procedure but you need practice.

How easy is it to damage the ROM chip when attempting this?

It is not easy to burn the IC but it is a possibility if you overheat it.

But if the problem is the one that was told to you by data recovery company you will only make the things worse.

Best,

F