A self-fulfilling prophecy.

Data was not important...

$$ + DIY = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

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http://www.pcimage.co.uk

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Ahhh!
Can you upload a high resolution photo of the damaged component and pcb.

The Spansion chip is obviously my EEPROM. At first, there were two pads missing... Then, I scratched the silicon part to try to find a metal part that I could attach two little pieces of kinar wire to solder them and replace the missing pads. That's why you see the whole upper corner missing...

I think I'm totally sc***ed now... I was fearing the head replace, which was performed like a breeze, and it came to me by the EEPROM swap...

I just did.

The post has to pass moderation though since it contains links to Imagechack.

Sorry but I can only open the first image.
It appears the most interesting image would be the fith. We really need to see it.
There appears to be some damage!
I notice you have some considerable understanding of electronics, kyner wire etc.
You really have to consider what you have done so far and how you might get around the problem (of your own making).
No more charging in like a bull from now on!

Edit the URLs.

Canned air ? .. You have obviously never sprayed canned air near a particle monitor - It goes off the scale.. We have done this to show visitors that canned air is not pure, it is canned air complete with dust at the time of canning. When you spray a drive with canned air, you are almost shot blasting it.

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If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, you probably don't fully understand the situation. ... Mr Kipling

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There is a slight chance this eeprom can be saved, but it will not be an easy job.
I've done such things in the past, but this is the worst case i've seen yet.

Dobre

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Murphy was an optimist

Datarecovery in Belgium, Holland, France and Germany
Datarecoverytools http://www.drtools.eu

Can you open them now? I repost them as I can't edit my original post anymore!

Edit: Oh, and I only did this to my EEPROM because I got SO MUCH excited that I successfully swapped the heads, that I couldn't wait to go home and bring my desoldering pump. So I tried to lift the EEPROM with a razorblade while heating its pads with the solderer. Some times excitement is a very bad partner...

PS: According to the bottle of the canned air, it is ultra pure and free of particles, especially for such situations where elimination of dust is critical. It is not a normal keyboard air spray. I don't bet my head of course... It's just a label... But according to the platters condition that any particle of dust disappeared when I sprayed them, I think the label is saying the truth.

Looks like game over, to me . . . .


Jono

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

Since I don't know of any way that I can revive this EEPROM, nor do I know/think that I can use just the six remaining pads to read its content and then rewrite it to an empty EEPROM chip (which in any case would need special equipment), I had another idea...

If I get one more disk like them, and connect it to my computer, it would initialize, and then with an appropriate program I can "pause" the disk, and without disconnecting it, transplant the whole PCB to my patient disk, and then "resume" it through the program, wouldn't it work? The system of course would "know" the new donor disk connected, but what are the chances that I could rescue the 10GB I need from my patient disk?

Hi the pics are working fine now.
To 'revive' the eeprom you have just one chance.
The the case compound material has to be VERY VERY carefully scraped away until you can just see the remains of the lead which would have connected to the original leg/pin. You can use a hobby craft knife or some other hobby power tool. It looks like you would have to do it for 2 of them.
Then you would connect kyner wire to the 2 leads as well as the other 6 pins and would then solder each to the remaining pads on the pcb. You should be able to trace the missing pad to a suitable point.
Check everything making sure all is good and use insulation tape if and where required. Fit the pcb to the drive and............if you are lucky it might work.
The crazy situation is it is probably much harder for most peeps to mod the eeprom chip than swap the heads.

This will for sure kill it; there are microscopic tools needed for this.
No way he's going to be able to connect the wires this way.

Dobre

_________________
Murphy was an optimist

Datarecovery in Belgium, Holland, France and Germany
Datarecoverytools http://www.drtools.eu

Thanks a lot both of you for your answers guys. The problem is not the way I will do it. I thought of using a sandpaper grade 1000 to fine sand it till I find the two leads. But I thought I have already destroyed it when I used to razorblade to scratch it for the same reason (to find the two leads). Actually, there is this tiny piece of the corner edge that came out... Where is the core of the EEPROM really? Even more inside the chip? Do I still have some room to dig into for finding the leads?

Also, what about the other idea that I had? With the on-the-fly PCBs swap?

Yes



Not you.



Won't work as there is unique data on the EEPROM. Try it if you don't believe.

And now one good news and one bad :

The good : assuming you have not done a disaster with media and heads, even in this situation is still possible to get data out from the drive
The bad : it's gonna cost you a lot of €.

Thanks a lot for your reply BlackST.

I also have one good and one bad news:

The good: The heads swap was performed flawlessly. I really did a pro job even though I'm not a pro...
The bad: I can't afford the LOTS of money you are talking about.

And even if it was a medium amount of money, I don't know if it would worth to spend it either. We are talking about 20-30 pictures of my baby girl that I don't have on any other disk, all files of a forum that I administer, quite many vacation pictures, etc... And only some documents of my business, that more of them, I already recreated.

In other words, it's not any critical business files in there to justify a big amount of money. Just things I'm emotionally attached to them. I will not give up, however, as even though I can't spend much on this, I still want to do whatever I can do...

I think I will contact a professional electronics person to ask for his assistance in reviving my EEPROM. After that I know the route...

If only I had the patience to bring my desoldering pump...

Then you are on your own. Good luck.

"The heads swap was performed flawlessly" and no obvious media damage.
ok, but still dont know the true condition of the media and condition of the new heads after fitting
And unfortunately wont be able to find out till get a 'working' PCB

If I knew more about 'adapting'/programming a new pcb (and new eprom) to attempt to read some raw or SA sectors, to see if anything was readable, I would help. But I don't.