Hello guys....

Please help with advice to recover my files on my IBM DeskStar 41.0GB hard drive !!!!!

Model: IC35L040aver07-0
p/n: 07n6654
MLC: h32161
Made in Thailand.
Assembled in China
May 2001.

The problem is: my hard drive spins up, but is not recognized by the BIOS, so the machine fails to see a hard drive attached to the system.

The symptoms : the hard drive makes 4 very quiet head seeking (?) noises, it waits 1 second, then repeats the seek/click(?) noises 10 times.

I recorded the sound from the Deskstar spinning up in mp3.

Listen to the sound it makes HERE

So far this is what I tried :

I bought an identical hard drive ( Same Model, p/n and MLC, but made in Hungary and Assembled in Czech Republic in July 2001 ) to try to swap the circuit board and see if it would work.. unfortunately, it did not work !!!!!!

I am very careful because there are some valuable files, but I would like to do this myself if possible.

Any suggestions of what to try next ?!

Someone had suggested swapping the small 8 pin surface mount NVRAM chip.. is this necessary ?! Why ??

Also, How hard is it to unsolder and resolder this NVRAM chip ?? I have soldered many things before and am relatively good at it but have never soldered any surface mount components so I would probably pay someone to swap the chips if that is the solution..

I am waiting for your replies

Please HELP !!!
Christopher

Sounds like a head problem to me.

Where are you based?

Thanks for your reply.
I am based in Montreal Canada near northern New York State, US.
What about the sound or description, makes you say it sounds like a head problem ?!

Repeated attempts to read from FZ.

What is FZ ? ( I am new to hard drive data recover but am very experienced in software and firmware in general).

I'm not an expert but first of all you should fix the board. I.e. resolder the contacts.
Then you will need proper tool to operate with the Service Area of the drive and examine which module/s can't be read. And where is the problem at all.
To be honest I have not seen AVER drive made in Hungary, but based on this i saw in DTLA family. Drives manufactured in Hungary and Thailand have different F/W version code, and this make them not interchangeable even Nvram was resoldered/rewritten.

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DataRecovery.bg

Thank you Samo.

Some questions back for you!

1) When you say Resolder the contacts, which contacts are you referring to ???

2) When you say "you will need proper tool to operate with the service area", is this...
a) pc3000, or
b) is there some other lower cost USB-to-IDE adapter that we could use,
c) or could we just use a special software from the PC to talk with the drive at a lower level ??!!??

2) And just for my curiosity... Where are the 3 locations where the 3 firmwares are located ?!
Already we know it is located in:
a) drive FZ (firmware zone in system area?!)
b) in nvram chip (not sure ???)
c) unknown ????????? eeprom????

Located Backside

Any special comercial software product like Pc3k, Hrt... or other special software for the corresponding model.

c> Masked ROM
In IBM drives are a bit harder to explain the relationship of all f/w.

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DataRecovery.bg

Thanks Samo.
Further clarifying question for you !..

1. For resoldering the contacts: I see many contacts on the back side.
a) 40-pin IDE connector.
b) small ribbon cable between drive spindle and printed circuit board.
c) I think there is another set of contacts under the PCB (??)

Which contacts do you recommend that I resolder ??!!??

2. could you give me some names of "other special software for the corresponding model" that talks to the ibm deskstar AVER model ?? is it free or costing $ ??? Any idea where to get it ??

3. Any idea of price for Hrt ?? Where to get it ??

The cotacts between printed board and HDA.

The "other special software" usually is written by people/companies working in the recovery business. They usually write own soft to give them this, that comercial did not or can't give. The name here doesn't matter. They never will sell or give it any form.
Despite all there are free tools that can operate with HDD like HDD Repair and other like some demo tools from comercial products.

For Information about HRT - here

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DataRecovery.bg