HTS541612j9sa00 still not working after head swap

[HDD Spaz]

Hi Guys, currently working on a really strange case.

Original problem, disk comes ready, no nasty clicking sounds, can feel heads moving, trying to read surface. Disk does not detect. Cannot access firmware or read modules.

I changed head stack, the 'bad' headstack had 3 heads, donor head stack had 4 heads. After head stack change, disk comes ready but does not detect. I am now able to read both copies of modules, NV RAM etc.

I changed pcb, then worte NV RAM, still same problem. All modules appear to be correct. (except DUMP)

I have tried writing mods from a good donor but still no luck. I can access SA area and read the mods but no sectors can be read in data area even with a loader.

I'm starting to think NV RAM may be corrupt. I am using HDD Doctor from SD, when I connect a good working donor, I have the option to read NV-RAM from SA, with this disk, the option is not available.

I seem to have run into a dead end. Does anyone have any advice? Has anyone successfully hotswapped a hitachi travelstar?

Thanks

[jono-ats]

I don't think you can hotswap a Hitachi Travelstar. I've never had any luck with that.

If you had a PC3000, you might try booting with the start-up resources, then ID'ing the drive.

Jono

[lcoughey]

I get a lot of these drives. I usually have at least two or three of them on the go at any point in time. I haven't experienced this problem, yet. The only thing I can suggest is to try another set of heads and Jono's PC3000 suggestion.

[HDD Spaz]

Heads are fine.

If heads were not fine then I wouldn't be able to read all 3 copies of the modules. But all 3 copies don't show any errors.

Maybe errors in NV-RAM. Anyone know what to look for in NV-RAM, can any common corruption be identified?

[Harvey]

I don't believe it's NVRAM issue as you will have no access to any copy of firmware under NVRAM corruption. I guess it should be firmware corruption. You can backup all modules and open it with Winhex. Check whether there's strings of "40404040" in any of the modules. And I also suggest you to overwrite firmware of copy A with the one from copy C. Attention, module RAM0 is not allowed to be borrowed from copy C. Otherwise it will cause HDD to click after overwriting.

[HDD Spaz]

thanks for the good info. I'll give it a try.

If there was any 404040 errors in any mods, surely data compass would be able to access data? I have tried it and it didn't work (surprise surprise)