Hello, I'm looking for a doner drive for an 80GB SATA 2.5" Hitachi HTS541680J9SA00. I was told that not only do I need to get the model number right but also the PCB number burned in on the opposite side of the hard drive needs to match. I'm looking on Ebay and I found one that provides pictures and matches kind of expensive though. Is this all that needs to match? What if the manufacture date is different by 6 months? Does anyone know where I can go to understand the acronyms and info put on the front label.

I've spent hours watching videos from myharddrivedied.com and reading information on the internet. I'm quite a noob in this area. I don't have a ton of money to spend on this and really want to learn how to do it myself. Does anyone have any advice for me in general?

This hard drive isn't recognized by the BIOS and makes a clicking sound when given power. Notebook that it was in was dropped only 6 to 8 centimeters. I have not removed the case as I have heard about hard drive degradation. Does anyone know typically how many platters are on 80GB Sata drives from Hitachi? What would be the easiest way to go about fixing this if I have a doner drive. Thanks for any information you can provide me with.

ok you must match up the following the manufacture date i would try and match up to the close as you can.
its impossible to match the right month of drive sometimes

allso try and match up where it was made in thailand

the other you got to match up are

1)firmware code mlc number DA1587 (must match)
2)part number p/n
3)the underside of the logic board white label pcb rev has to match.


as the drive has been dropped the head is possible damaged now.
or just lost its service track data.


in this business you have to spend $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ that the only way

Hey Craig! Thanks for the help! I've got some money to spend. I mean, I don't know if I have the money to buy a Platter extractor that costs 500 dollars.

Craig, the PCB rev is which white sticker on the back? The rectangle one right? I need to match up every single number on that sticker? Which part is the PCB number and which number is the rev?

I was told that the PCB number is the small numbers on the board (not on the sticker)

When I open the drive if it appears that the heads are destroyed and there is only one platter, I should consider just moving the platter, right?

I'm curious, how do you know the heads are destroyed by looking at them? Usually, if there's visible damage, it damages the platter as well.

If you need to, you're better off moving the heads on this one.

However, if the data is important to you, it might not be too late to send it to a Pro. Realize that, at the end of this road you're on, there is likely no data.

Thanks for the comment! I don't want to send it to a pro. I want to learn how to do this myself... I guess what I'm saying is, I want to become a pro!!!

Also, craig, are you sure all of that has to match??? at http://www.myharddrivedied.com/ it says that only the Hitachi 2.5 – pcb rev has to match. Can someone please tell me where to find that info on the pictures of the drive I posted.

Thanks!!!

Head damage CAN sometimes be seen according to some videos I watched.

Yes, physical head damage can be seen, but often a damaged head will scrape the platter.

I misread your message. I missed a tiny 'if'. I thought you said that you HAD diagnosed bad heads. I must have needed more sleep

My advice about a Pro still stands. It's best to learn DR on data that is NOT important. If it's not important, your next step should be an attempt at diagnosis. If my car wasn't running right, and the mechanic I took it to immediately started tracking down a new engine, before even looking at the car, I'd be taking my car somewhere else. It might be difficult without the skills, but you should really, really try. This might mean removing the cover briefly in a clean environment. If you know what a drive is supposed to look like inside, you might notice something obvious. Maybe you'll get lucky, and find bad scratches on the platter. That way, you can give up with confidence.

Hi,

I have some thought about this case. Since it dropped from a some height while it was working, so I think only Head Swap can not fix the problem.

The HDD may be locked and some bad sectors, or PCBA problems or platter scratch. It is very hard to say what the problems inside the disk.

Normally, a 80GB Hitachi HDD has one platter and two heads. But I am not sure, I can not read from the label.

If it is the PCBA problem, you need to repair the NVRAM, your only solution is to purhcase HD Doctor for Hitachi, it may not in your budget.

Anyhow, It is a tough case, I wish you good luck.

Regards

Laura

_________________
SalvationDATA--Profesionnal Hard drive solution Provider. MSN: sales.laura@salvationdata.com

Thanks everyone for the comments. The data on the hard drive is from a college student's computer. I may open the disk and take a look at the disk briefly to look for visible damage. If there is only one platter, buying a doner drive and doing a platter swap seems to be the least difficult.

If there's 2 platters, I guess I will consider the Platter extractor from salvation data (will still need to find a doner drive.) It seems like a neat tool that I'd like to play around with.

Thanks Laura for your input too. I know you're representing a company and therefore going to recommend your product. I like what you guys sell (good quality products!) but I don't have 700 dollars... I think very few people have that much money that they could spend on a hard drive.

For someone that wants to learn how to do disk recovery, it seems like there just isn't enough information out there... neither in books or on the internet. I don't know how anyone ever learned this stuff!

Thanks for all the help. I guess my very last question is... about the PCB board rev... No one knows what/where it is on the images that I posted?!

I asked about where the PCB rev was... this is what hitachi sent me.

Dear Sir:

Thank you for contacting the Hitachi Technical Support Center.

As hard disk drives are not user serviceable items, Hitachi GST does not
offer parts for sale for any reason. Consequently Hitachi does not
recommend or support in any way user servicing of our drive products. For
that we reason we cannot assist you on this matter.

In addition any drives found to have been disassembled or tampered with by
untrained personnel will have their warranty voided.

If you have important data on your drive which you need to recover then you
should contact an official data recovery house such as Ontrack
http://www.ontrack.com/hitachi. These companies can recover your data for
you and their recovery processes will not affect your ability to claim
replacement of the drive under warranty where you claim would normally be
valid.

Best regards
Gregoire Beaudequin
Hitachi Technical Support Center

The Hitachi people were very helpful to me on the phone. They are easy to reach and know their products. This is based on contacting several of their reps. All were equally very willing to help me. This is based on using the US phone number.

Call them: http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/sources/tsc.htm

They were able to help me identify 5 additional part numbers for an identical hard drive, which substantially simplified my search for a donor drive.

My second inquiry was to obtain a list of 3rd party suppliers who could be stocking it. After the disclaimer that these were third-party suppliers and not endorsed by Hitachi GST in any way, I was given a list of 3 such companies. Finding their websites subsequently was a trivial matter.

Here is that information, if you require it:

Cue technologies
800-746-4283

TCB technologies
866-307-2787

Component sourcing group
877-274-7620

You are well advised to contact Hitachi. I suspect your actual PCB is fine, so an exact firmware match may not be required if you simply transplant it to the donor drive chassis if the heads/preamp assembly is the same. Call them up!

The PCB sticker is unique, hence you see the "matrix" barcode on it, but the first two strings from it would denote the PCB revision. You'll find that having a matching MLC will usually mean you got this PCB matched as well, if the drive model and p/n are identical. Note that Hitachi may have more than one identical part number to this drive. They will look up additional part numbers for you.

In practice, if you get the drive from within a couple of months of this one, it will have a matching PCB rev most likely anyway.

Thanks very much. Very helpful post!

According to the data sheet - http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/techlib. ... NAL_DS.pdf

This is a single-platter drive with 2 heads. Salvation's tools are not required.

Thanks a lot wiseleo. I don't know how I missed that!

Ok guys! I've got my donor drive being shipped to me! It's on the way!!!! I bought a similar Hitachi drive to practice on before the actual one arrives.

Unfortunately, I can not get the torx screw that holds the hard drive to come up!!!! It just won't budge. Does anyone have some advice for how to unscrew the screw that holds the platter??? In this model there is just one torx screw that holds the platters in alignment.

Often in other hard drives there are lots of screws in a circle that hold the platters together. In this model there are just holes with no screws... I'll put up a picture if this is unclear.

You need more torque and you need to ensure you are using the right size bit.

If you have a Fry's electronics nearby, they have a microscrewdriver with which you can generate a lot of torque on precision fasteners. I linked to it on my http://www.slowlap.com site. If you aren't curious about that site... here is the direct link http://shop1.frys.com/product/5272097

I have at least 4 of these.

That little tool is incredibly effective when it comes to loosening stuck microscrews on laptops and hard drives.

Actually, I'm from Texas and we do have fry's but I've been living in Moscow for the last 2 years. I'll by that tool and get it shipped to me. Thanks

The tool is sold out.

Are you starting to see why we charge so much for this kind of work? Specialized tools

Well, there are always Wiha tools. They are next on my shopping list (removing the headstack T5 screw on Hitachi is a major pain for me right now (tiny, inconvenient, essential), and an L-wrench will make it child's play).

http://www.wihatools.com/indexes/indxtorx.htm

You want T5,6,7,8 at the very least. The screw inside is probably a T8?

Strangely, Fry's is listed as a distributor of such tools, while I know for a fact that they do not carry any of them in stores. http://www.wihatools.com/distlink.htm

While you are at it, don't forget some anti-magnetic microfine tweezers. They really make life easier.

After all these hours and posts have you even inspected the platters for damage? This may be an entire waste of time.

_________________
Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.