Can I fix this Western Digital Raptor? (NEWBIE - WD360)

Hello HDD Guru Forums,

I sadly know nothing about hard drive circuitry. I was referred here by a friend, and I am desperately hoping someone can help me.

I have a Western Digital Raptor WD360

MDL: WD360GD-00FLA2
DATE: 11 MAY 2005
DCM: HBCAJAB

Specification Sheet: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=872&p_created=1039465570

The drive is not recognized by my computer's bios or operating system. My theory is that the problem may be the burned-looking part shown below:

Extra images in case they are helpful:

Is there anything I can do to repair this drive, such as replacing the controller board or the burned part?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I will be more than happy to provide any further information if helpful.

You can try replacing the pcb.
On 74GB raptors this can be done without any changes; I am almost sure this has to apply to 36GB raptors (please someone correct me if I'm wrong).

All you have to do is to find another WD360GD-00FLA2 and use it's board (before you do that, carefully compare two boards; they should look identical).

Again, please someone correct me if I am mistaken here, since I did not have much experience with 36GB raptors.

Last edited by Dmitry Postrigan on July 12th, 2007, 14:52, edited 1 time in total.

Since WD Store Head Mask Information in its ROM. For Changing PCB must to match this Information. If board from 20 GB ( have 2 head ) can be used to 40 GB ( Must have 2 head too ). If Board 20 GB ( 2 Head ) want to be used to 40 GB ( 4 head ) then ROM content must to been changed too.

Thanks
Aping

And some drives use not all the heads, and which head they are not using can differ even between identical drives!
So a copy of the rom is strongly advised.

Dobre

For this kind of Raptors (Expedition type) 36GB models always have same number of heads and Heads map inside ROM
Only a problem could be different version of ROM, but as Dmitry mention Raptors usually have only one ROM version and probably you will not have any problems if you find exact model for PCB replacement

Thanks guys,

It sounds like you are saying that the DCM number does NOT have to match, and that I should only be concerned with matching the full model number (WD360GD-00FLA2).

Is this correct?

Yes.