Toshiba - ROM Damaged Sabotaged

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

Hello Evereyone ,
I received a Toshiba MQ04UBD200 That the customer had taken back "Time frame not approved " .After the customer gave the drive to another company and for some reason they could not manage to get the data out .That customer gave me the HDD after 1 month of taking it back .I replaced the heads as the drive was in clicking state then i had got it earlier ,After HSA replacement the drive could not spin .I tried the ROM on few USB and SATA Boards just to confirm .I then used a Donor board + rom and it indeed spinned .This is a sure pointer to " BAD or Purposely Tempered ROM " . The Original ROM Chip That i Received In The PCB is Winbond 25Q80 Series Which Means Its " 1MB " .I then Told The customer about the situation and he called up the other company and they gave him a ROM file thats 512KB " From 000000-07FFFF " .But if i read ROM in programmer its from " 0x00000 To 0xFFFF0 " . Attached are The ROM Sent To Me By Other DR Company , ROM of Patient I Read With Programmer , Another Sample ROM Read By Programmer .

PS : Remove .ZIP extension And Rename To .Bin Extension Please

Attachments

ROM Sample Read By Programmer.ZIP

(1 MiB) Downloaded 91 times

ROM Patient Read By Programmer.ZIP

(1 MiB) Downloaded 92 times

ROM Sent By Other DR Company.ZIP

(512 KiB) Downloaded 92 times

[fzabkar]

The second half of "ROM Patient Read By Programmer.bin" is filled with 0xFF. Unfortunately that's the half of the ROM where the CPs are stored.

Game over.

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

The second half of "ROM Patient Read By Programmer.bin" is filled with 0xFF. Unfortunately that's the half of the ROM where the CPs are stored.

Game over.

Hi,
PC3K reads only Segment " 000000-07FFFF " why is that so ,Does that mean tool is not reading ROM properly ?

[fzabkar]

Yes, PC3K is "defective".

[fzabkar]

ISTM that the patient PCB may not be native. Otherwise, why would someone read the ROM with PC3K and then write it back, assuming that's what happened?

What are the date codes on the ICs and on the drive's label?

[pepe]

No firmware tool can read the FULL ROM properly (Toshiba) as far as I know.

pc3k can read it just fine but one needs brain to correct the address range based on the flash size... :s

pepe

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

No firmware tool can read the FULL ROM properly (Toshiba) as far as I know.

pc3k can read it just fine but one needs brain to correct the address range based on the flash size... :s

pepe

Pepe Sir ,
I will use the brain next time ,In this case the entire episode is done by that other DR firm .But its a eye opener for me ,I will check the flash IC numbers and use correct reading segment range ,BTW if tools cannot read flash number and correct the rages automatically ,They should ask what IC is used from DR Technician and then use correct segments to read

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

ISTM that the patient PCB may not be native. Otherwise, why would someone read the ROM with PC3K and then write it back, assuming that's what happened?

What are the date codes on the ICs and on the drive's label?

Hi ,
This is the label ,The File is Attached For Your Reference

Attachments

[fzabkar]

OK, so we can see the date on the label, but what about the ICs?

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

OK, so we can see the date on the label, but what about the ICs?

Hi,
The native ROM a Reference ROM and a ROM file of 512 kb is attached in top thread first post ,Which place is the Serial Number stored in this 1024KB Rom file , we can match that

[fzabkar]

Never mind.

[fzabkar]

There is no serial number in the patient ROM. That's because it has no CPs.

Here is a photo of your PCB:

https://recuperodatos.com/sites/default/files/webform/donantes/03490-PCB.jpg

The date codes on the ICs are 1744, 1744, 804, 751, 1740 and 1750. That suggests a manufacture date some time after week 04 of 2018.

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

There is no serial number in the patient ROM. That's because it has no CPs.

Here is a photo of your PCB:

https://recuperodatos.com/sites/default/files/webform/donantes/03490-PCB.jpg

The date codes on the ICs are 1744, 1744, 804, 751, 1740 and 1750. That suggests a manufacture date some time after week 04 of 2018.

Well,
i have never posted my PCB photos so how come you are suggesting its 2018 manufactured ,The label says 2020 not 2018 of HDA side of HDD .or are you suggesting me how i should read my PCB and date codes

[fzabkar]

There is no serial number in the patient ROM. That's because it has no CPs.

Here is a photo of your PCB:

https://recuperodatos.com/sites/default/files/webform/donantes/03490-PCB.jpg

The date codes on the ICs are 1744, 1744, 804, 751, 1740 and 1750. That suggests a manufacture date some time after week 04 of 2018.

Well,
i have never posted my PCB photos so how come you are suggesting its 2018 manufactured ,The label says 2020 not 2018 of HDA side of HDD .or are you suggesting me how i should read my PCB and date codes

<sigh>

Why is it so hard to get information out of you?

It's not your PCB, but it's the PCB that comes with your model. All I'm suggesting is that the other guy may have transferred the ROM or its contents to a donor PCB. I'm just showing you how to check whether your PCB is original. If it isn't, then the other guy must have the native PCB and maybe the native ROM.

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

There is no serial number in the patient ROM. That's because it has no CPs.

Here is a photo of your PCB:

https://recuperodatos.com/sites/default/files/webform/donantes/03490-PCB.jpg

The date codes on the ICs are 1744, 1744, 804, 751, 1740 and 1750. That suggests a manufacture date some time after week 04 of 2018.

Well,
i have never posted my PCB photos so how come you are suggesting its 2018 manufactured ,The label says 2020 not 2018 of HDA side of HDD .or are you suggesting me how i should read my PCB and date codes

<sigh>

Why is it so hard to get information out of you?

It's not your PCB, but it's the PCB that comes with your model. All I'm suggesting is that the other guy may have transferred the ROM or its contents to a donor PCB. I'm just showing you how to check whether your PCB is original. If it isn't, then the other guy must have the native PCB and maybe the native ROM.

Well,
Do not give up on me i am a oldie boldie now . I will make a video of this issue and post in thread also " For Everyone Reference "

[fzabkar]

There is no serial number in the patient ROM. That's because it has no CPs.

Here is a photo of your PCB:

https://recuperodatos.com/sites/default/files/webform/donantes/03490-PCB.jpg

The date codes on the ICs are 1744, 1744, 804, 751, 1740 and 1750. That suggests a manufacture date some time after week 04 of 2018.

Well,
i have never posted my PCB photos so how come you are suggesting its 2018 manufactured ,The label says 2020 not 2018 of HDA side of HDD .or are you suggesting me how i should read my PCB and date codes

<sigh>

Why is it so hard to get information out of you?

It's not your PCB, but it's the PCB that comes with your model. All I'm suggesting is that the other guy may have transferred the ROM or its contents to a donor PCB. I'm just showing you how to check whether your PCB is original. If it isn't, then the other guy must have the native PCB and maybe the native ROM.

Well,
Do not give up on me i am a oldie boldie now . I will make a video of this issue and post in thread also " For Everyone Reference "

Nobody wants to watch a video. Just upload a detailed photo of the PCB and I'll read the numbers for you.

I'm thinking, is this other guy an idiot or a crook? Why would anyone rewrite the ROM on a native USB Toshiba PCB? There is no legitimate reason to do this. Instead, it's feasible that someone might transfer the ROM contents to a donor USB PCB. However, in this case it would make more sense to use a SATA donor.

In short, if we can prove that your PCB is not native, then you can go and bash the door of this idiot and demand the return of the original PCB.

[michael chiklis]

In short, if we can prove that your PCB is not native, then you can go and bash the door of this idiot and demand the return of the original PCB.

In the past, I have had customers bring me Seagate drives with non-native pcb, after i pointed out the situation to them, they replied that they had gone to a PC service shop before coming to me.
So i told them to bash the door of the shop and demand the return of the original PCB, but they alway answer "WE DON'T HAVE IT ANYMORE"
I'm quite sure the answer will be the same also in this case

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

In short, if we can prove that your PCB is not native, then you can go and bash the door of this idiot and demand the return of the original PCB.

In the past, I have had customers bring me Seagate drives with non-native pcb, after i pointed out the situation to them, they replied that they had gone to a PC service shop before coming to me.
So i told them to bash the door of the shop and demand the return of the original PCB, but they alway answer "WE DON'T HAVE IT ANYMORE"
I'm quite sure the answer will be the same also in this case

Yes ,
i agree with you on this

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

Well,
Do not give up on me i am a oldie boldie now . I will make a video of this issue and post in thread also " For Everyone Reference "
Nobody wants to watch a video. Just upload a detailed photo of the PCB and I'll read the numbers for you.

I'm thinking, is this other guy an idiot or a crook? Why would anyone rewrite the ROM on a native USB Toshiba PCB? There is no legitimate reason to do this. Instead, it's feasible that someone might transfer the ROM contents to a donor USB PCB. However, in this case it would make more sense to use a SATA donor.

In short, if we can prove that your PCB is not native, then you can go and bash the door of this idiot and demand the return of the original PCB.

Sir ,
Video is for end users and startup DR shops ,Its not a video to make you aware of the case ,Case is crystal clear to you already