Hi everybody!

I have a Samsung Spinpoint M8 P/N: HN-M101XBB with native USB and a dead controller PCB, i look for a donor drive.
PCB model is BF4-00365A, HDA - M8ENB, originally drive came from Samsung S2 portable drive.

Standard reflowing procedures didn't help.
I tried to solder SATA connector to PCB, drive started to spin, but booting was failed.

I consider to try a donor PCB swap.
Is the Seagate ST1000LM024 will be a good replacement?
Donor drive PCB is BF41-00354A, and have a same elements except the USB controller.

If so, do i need to swap firmware chip to donor PCB?

Any other thoughts and possible solutions are welcome.

Thank you.

Hi,

If the drive spin, you can check terminal log to try to get some hints of what's happening.

Also, does the PCB has external ROM?

dmarques,

Hello!

The PCB looks like this.



The ROM chip is Winbond 25X40BL. How do i check log if PC don't boot with HDD attached?

Thank you.

I was saying a picture of your actual USB PCB and SATA PCB please.

Please





Chip below mini-USB is a JMicron JM20329 Hi-Speed USB to SATA Bridge. 4 capacitors from SATA data lines are removed.

And the donor PCB

Hi,

Winbond chip is the ROM. Replace that from USB PCB into SATA PCB and test.

dmarques,

Thank you!

Is there some chance that i can kill donor board, by attaching it to USB drive? I mean, is it 100% compatible? Cause donor HDD is Spinpoint M8E

Yes, there's always chances that something goes wrong

Do you know Murphy's law?

Yep, i know that But if seriously, does this PCB is a good donor? Maybe there is some better options?

And small offtopic question: What actual information ROM chip holds in case of HDD?

Thank you.

I think that's a good donor PCB.

The ROM holds some important info to start the hdd.

It's clearly understood, but what type exactly? Many thanks!

For example, head map, adaptive settings, etc.

Hi,

I have the same problem on a Samsung S2 250go and have try the same solution aka soldering on PCB after removing capacitors.
But it didn't work.
Anyway, your post is interesting because it shows that we can replace an usb pcb with a sata pcb (with chip swap).

All article that i have read here (if i understand them correctly), said that we have to find an exact pcb matching (BF-00.../MS7_line...) perhaps in order to don't swap rom chip !?.

In my case, rom is inside Marvel MCU 88i8823-TFJ2 so it's a more difficult recovery procedure, i think.

Thank you

Hello again!

So i tried to replace PCB and ROM from USB drive to donor, but i didn't help. It seems that here is some mechanical problem. It tries to spin, but without any results. BIOS don't detect it.
And it killed donor's ROM... The donor is Seagate ST1000LM024. Ordered it last week from eBay.

I'm out of any solutions...

I took drive to my local data recovery specialists, the diagnosis is some problem with heads block, and there is need to replace them. The price 8x times more than donor drive...

Also, DRS told me that these drives have some data encryption cause of USB, so the simple disk plates exchange won't work, is it true?

Is it possible to replace heads by your own? I have a dust-free conditions in my friend's photo & lens repair shop.

Hi,

I don't think you can do that yourself, at least with a good chance of recovering your data.

I'm not sure on those, but I would believe if there was some encryption.

There is no encryption through the bridge, but I agree with dmarques that you wont be able to do it yourself with a decent chance of saving your files. The physical swap is just the start, you also need to be able to handle subsequent errors and complications, and will have no control over the stability of the drive.

Damn...

The price of recovery killed all my hopes.

So the head swap is not just like that easy as i thought...