Samsung SP1614N board replacement

[palebluestar]

Hoping someone can help...?

I have two SP1614N's, one has been damaged by a recent power surge and I have been informed that the ROM has been damaged, this has made the disk undetectable in BIOS and also will not power up. The data is important to me as it was used as a My Documents only disk - therefore containing all of my important documents, Outlook files and over 5 years of pictures.

I have purchased a second SP1614N, what I thought to be a close match, after comparing the two disks I have noticed some similarities but also some key differences.
Similarities; The revision printed on the label is the same (REV.A), as is the detail printed the PCB (127-108, PALO/VELOCE, REV.08).
Differences, some which I understand now may mean that I may need to find a more suitable match;
Old drive: P/V: MS
Replacement: P/V: FS
The large square chip on the PCB has got different details printed upon it.
Old drive: 2004.11 (is this the build date?)
Replacement: 2005.04


I thought 'what the hell' and have tried swapping the board over, disk powers up, gets recognized in BIOS and windows starts to boot. This is where it goes no further, the Windows XP screen appears (with the scrolling blue bar) but it then freezes.

Therefore I have a few questions;
1. Is there a way to determine the F/W on the old drive based on the visible details printed on the label's or chip's?
2. I know the replacement drive has F/W of TM100-30, considering that I think the the replacement drive is actually a newer driver going by what I am assuming is the build date as above (2004.11?) - does anyone have an idea of the possible F/W?
3. If I knew what the F/W of the damaged drive was, could I flash the ROM of the replacement with the required F/W, therefore then becoming a match with the old drive?
4. Is what I am doing potentially damaging the data on the old drive - therefore should I stop?

Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance for any help.

[pcimage]

Is this your boot drive?

Or are you using another drive to boot from?

[palebluestar]

Is this your boot drive?

Or are you using another drive to boot from?

No Windows boots from a different disk. I used this as a separate storage for 'My Documents'. Mainly as resiliency against a Windows crash.

Also, thinking this may help - on the drive I am trying to repair it says the following;
P/N 0642
P/V MS

Thanks

[rchadwick]

Windows is a bit 'rude' and wants to be able to talk to all drives at bootup. You might have better results with a DOS or Linux-based imaging program.

[palebluestar]

Windows is a bit 'rude' and wants to be able to talk to all drives at bootup. You might have better results with a DOS or Linux-based imaging program.

I have tried a couple of data recovery applications, both FreeDOS based and both of which froze at the point where 'Initdisk' is displayed.
I do think I need to try again with a better matched disk so am currently looking at a few possibilities. Unless someone can provide any guidance on the above questions??

Am I correct in that the points which I need to match are the first four digits of the P/N and the P/V?
Is there anything else I need to match?

Thanks again....

[pcimage]

When u say it's recognised in BIOS, does it display proper model and capacity?

Download MHDD and check the drive with that. To see if you can read any LBA's on the drive.

The P/V applies to the platter and head manufacturers inside the drive, nothing to do with the PCB.

Usually you can't just swap PCB's on these drives, you need also to transfer the ROM chip from the patients PCB onto the donor.

[palebluestar]

When u say it's recognised in BIOS, does it display proper model and capacity?

The Model and capacity is correct, I suspect that the F/W ver. is not.

Download MHDD and check the drive with that. To see if you can read any LBA's on the drive.

The P/V applies to the platter and head manufacturers inside the drive, nothing to do with the PCB.

Thanks for clarifying the above, I'll try MHDD.

Usually you can't just swap PCB's on these drives, you need also to transfer the ROM chip from the patients PCB onto the donor.

Is it then the case that the ROM is unique to each individual drive?