I have a Western Digital 1.0TB hard drive with a damaged pcb (scratches on the top surface which have exposed internal copper, and i suspect cut off or shorted some of the tracks). I have found a replacement PCB on ebay, but after reading the sellers guide to replacing the pcb I am unsure if this will just be a simple swap over. He mentions having to replace the ROM chip (marked U12 on the PCB). I found the U12 marking, but it is unpopulated on my pcb, so I'm assuming it does not have a ROM (or an external one atleast). So my question is basically, will this just be a straight up pcb swap, or will there be any additional steps i have to take in order to get it working? I dont mind doing a bit of research myself, but I dont even know where to start really. Thanks in advance for any advice or pointers you can give me!! If you need any additional info or pictures just let me know (but my camera isnt that great upclose, its highish-res, but everything gets blurred :s)

HDD Details:
WD10EAVS-00M4B0
PCB Sticker: 2061-701640-A00 AAD1 XC 8R16 0YUY K 0001020 0021
PCB Version: 2060-701640-000 REV P1

If U12 is vacant then ROM is internal to the MCU (the main chip with the M). Proper tools are needed.

I think there are some 'PCB online shops' that will do this for you.

If U12 was there you just move it across to a PCB of the same model, but your case is more complex.

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Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Data Recovery Cape Town

Thanks for the reply, i was afraid it was going to be something like that. Is there any software available to read/write that configuration info (assuming the tracks needed for it aren't the ones that have been damaged)? If not, besides sending it to a professional, im assuming my only other option would be to try and swap the MCU, which doesnt look like fun at all?

Hello j0no89!

If you are that lucky that the damage are not between the SATA connector and the MCU you should be able to read the from the internal ROM of the MCU using WDR Demo (http://malthus.zapto.org/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=33)

Before to do anything, you should keep in mind that WDR is a powerful tool and doing something wrong with it you could brake anything and lose all your data!

If you have important data inside that drive, you should consider to ask to a pro...
If the problem is only on the PCB it shouldn't be that expensive

Regards
Paolo

I just did a quick Google and found these guys, probably what you want?

http://www.donordrives.com/package-hard ... rvice.html

_________________
Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Data Recovery Cape Town

I use a scanner for my HDD "photos".

See http://malthus.zapto.org/viewforum.php?f=112

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A backup a day keeps DR away.