Please help...HD Recovery from a dead drive

[tandtmah]

Hello,
First time here, I need help. I have a: Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9,
120 GB ATA/133 HDD, M8FYB. It appears as if the board has a burnt chip. The chip with the word "Smooth" on it has some oxidization. I've tried to plug the hdd as a slave in a working pc and in an external enclosure but the hdd won't power on (I don't hear any spinning).
I really need the files on the drive. I have pictures from the birth of my son and the past 15 months of his development on the drive. Is there anything I can do to fix this or is there anyone in the Edmonton, Canada area able to fix this? I am pretty desparate here.

[tandtmah]

Ok, I'll reply to my own topic. I've read the maxtor sticky posted above and found that I should try a PCB swap. I've ordered a board from the site listed in the sticky. Now my question is, can the appropriate screwdriver be purchased at most hardware stores or do I need to special order that from somewhere? Also, will I need to solder anything?

[Starling]

Just a regular T8 screwsdriver. You can buy it at any Home Depot or Canadian Tire.
PCB swap should work.
If not - the preamp chip on the head stack got fried and that'd be real problem. Let me know how it goes, I might be able to help.

[tandtmah]

Thanks Starling. I was going to try the pcb swap first. If that didn't work, I was going to pm you to see if you could assist. I'll post back once I try the swap.

[tandtmah]

So I received my replacement board from Malaysia in great time (4 days). After I installed the board I went to plug the hdd in as a slave in my PC, and no luck. I did not hear any spinning, the PC did not recognize that there was a drive nothing. After looking at the card, I noticed that the card is not quite the same as the one I replaced.
Here are some differences:
Old card:
agere Ardent C8-C1
Samsung 428 (?)
Smooth L7250E

New card:
agere Ardent C8-C1
Hynix 535A
Smooth L7250E

The barcode number is the same: M8FYB
The S/N was identical (at least according to the website) except that I ordered a 160GB card and my drive is 120GB.

Is this the correct card?
Is my hdd toast?

Please help!

Thanks in advance.

[beto]

Maybe u can get another problem in some situations when spindle controller, was burned, some times damaged the preamplifier circuit too , wich its inside on your Hard Disk, i hope no, but some times this happend

[rameez]

why dont u replace the SMOOTH <spindle motor controller> with the donor pcb .

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

Rameez,

He Is Not a Chip Level Technician .He Even Wants To Know About Buying a Screwdriver Understand His Issue

[tandtmah]

Yes, replacing chips on pcbs is way out of my league. I've sent the drive off to a member on this site. Hopefully he has some success.

[raynce]

hey i had the same problem too.....wonder who can help me.... please. i really need those data back.

my maxtor hard disc crash....
the situation is like this

i had a virus infection on my window at first. and i need to reformat it. but i wanted the data back. so i connect my hard disc to my friends pc to recover those data. but. once i plug into my freinds pc. the hard disc electric board burn off i think. weird smell coming out.

now... i cant even detect my hard drive. help plz. i need consultant. and i need the data back urgently. i am a student and i coudnt afford to those company that recover data back for such a large amount of money. plz.

[Starling]

You need to find donor PCB from another drive. It should be of the same family(DiamondMax Plus 9 for example) and main chip should be of the same type(Ardent C8-C1 for example).
If it works - great. If not - then you've got a fried preamp like in the case above and it's not something you can do by yourself...

[raynce]

thanks for replying my msg. . .
but i really dont know how to do it. need some expert to fix it for me. anyone here will guide me or help me?

[Starling]

You don't know how to unscrew the PCB?

[Starling]

Yes, replacing chips on pcbs is way out of my league. I've sent the drive off to a member on this site. Hopefully he has some success.

Just wanted to follow up on this. I worked on this drive. It was burnt preamp indeed. Headswap worked OK.