TOSHIBA MK2552GSX HDD FAILED

[BigB]

Hey guys
First time post. I had one of my laptop hard drives fail in the past few days (ugh...half a glass of wine in Italy right onto the keyboard). I was able to save pretty much everything on the laptop, but now I realized the second hard drive doesn't work whatsoever.

Its not visible in BIOs in either position, but the first HDD is visible in both ports. I suspect the PCB is damaged from some weird coloring on the back of the PCB. I can't pull it completely off right now because I'm away from home. I have attempted to dry it, but I'll still need to attempt to clean off the PCD on the other side when I get the proper tools.

Luckily my laptop has two HDDs! I have uploaded the photos, and I'm wondering if its possible to use the PCB from one right onto the other because they are almost identical. Would I need to steal any chips at all?

Good HD on the left, bad on the right

Thanks before hand guys!

[labtech]

Would not call it stealing, but rather adapting as Toshiba drives have unique information in the PCB.
Posting a high resolution picture of the underside of the PCB may help in getting some suggestions about how to go about doing that.

[BigB]

I wish I could get those photos, but I'm away from home for the time being. I'm trying to get as much info as I can for my options once I can get the PCB off. I'm hoping I can use the PCB to get one of them working again without needing to remove any chips. I understand there is unique information on the HDD's, but with two HDD's built back to back I'd think you could easily swap the PCB without a need of a chip change. Any thoughts?

[hddguy]

Mostly the PCB contains important ROM information. In Toshiba, the PCB also contains most of the Service Area as opposed to storing it on the media.

To further complicate this, many will use an embedded ROM so transfer of this adaptive information is not possible.

Posting a clear photo of both PCBs will definitely allow us to clarify exactly what options you have.

But to be honest, if you have already saved all your data wouldn't it be easier to just RMA the drives (assuming are in warranty)?

[BigB]

Well, that's the whole problem. I have about three months of photos and work documents I wasn't able to back up while on the road. Thankfully everything before that was backed up. The main HDD which works fine has nothing important on it, so I'm willing to scrap the good one to recover the lost HDD. I did look into the warranty as well, but its defently expired just a few months ago.


I found another forum link where someone has a photo of what the PCB should look like,
swapping-pcb-what-need-know-t18533.html

[hddguy]

If both your PCBs look like the one in the photo then it looks like the adaptive information can be transferred over as ROM is external (IC602).

You should consider the possibility that there could be other complications. Probably will be OK, but always is possible.

[labtech]

So, if you are not comfortable soldering ICs, then seek professional help.

Make sure you they specialize in data recovery and check their credentials.

Should not be expensive if the problem is just the PCB.