In-depth technology research: finding new ways to recover data, accessing firmware, writing programs, reading bits off the platter, recovering data from dust.
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July 31st, 2008, 20:04
very weird problem we had with this one
i have done a replacement head stack and allso a straight forward platter swap
to another drive
when the pc boots up you can see the drive in the bios no problem
when you go to windows and try and find the drive under disk management
there is nothing there at all
what am i missing do we need to swap a rom over from the logic board at all
July 31st, 2008, 20:05
Does it show up in MHDD?
August 1st, 2008, 2:58
Kill the G-list
August 1st, 2008, 5:10
I would say it's the g list. Are you sure you have the correct pcb on the disk? With all this head swapping and platter swapping, its easy to get them mixed up if you havent marked them.
August 1st, 2008, 8:03
craig6928 wrote:what am i missing do we need to swap a rom over from the logic board at all
Sounds like you've changed the PCB, these are unique to each drive.
Either use the original PCB, or swap the ROM (if there is one, microprocessor needs to be swapped if no external ROM)
August 1st, 2008, 23:34
ok loaded up mhdd and it picks up the drive no problem
but when it comes to scan/repair it does not advance at all
changed the logic board and suprise suprise it advances on the scan/repair now
but has a lot of errors
the next option is for us to swap over the rom
which i think is the 54 ic12 chip. 8TMEL0519
but the other qeastion is that this could be damaged as i had the following
1)motor sticking
2)head stack damaged preamp gone
3)and now the main logic board is faulty
has anyone come across in 3 items going at the same time
hi Odiferous
how do you kill the G-list do i need special hardware like salvation sells

thanks for all your help guys on this problem
August 7th, 2008, 3:53
craig6928 wrote:changed the logic board and suprise suprise it advances on the scan/repair now
but has a lot of errors
the next option is for us to swap over the rom
If it scans at all, even with erorrs, then I do not think any replacement of PCB or ROM is nessecary. Also many toshibas have ROM embedded into the processor making ROM swap very difficult.
What is the MHDD scan like? Do the errors form any consistent patterns? Is the scan results the same if you begin the scan from halfway into the disk?
August 9th, 2008, 2:30
sorry for the late update
same problem hard drive is seen in the bios and allso mhdd
but it does not let you doing anything else.
if the main rom is embedded into the processor and if this is faulty too
does that mean the data is lost
at the moment going to try and get the right board
but the main ic is a bga type.
how do you go about Kill the G-list
August 9th, 2008, 4:53
Kill G List with PC3000 or AFF.
August 10th, 2008, 4:34
ok update on this weird problem i used aff and it came up with this
THIS DEVICE DOES NOT REQUIRE RECOVERY OR UNLOCKING
so the qeastion is it shows in the bios ok
but wont show up in windows at all and you can not use any recovery programs.
any other advice as this has got our head scratching first we come across this weird fault
cheers
August 10th, 2008, 8:11
Possible BAD Media or Bad Head. Put heads back into donor drive, see if it reads.
August 10th, 2008, 15:03
when using AFF it says that the drive is working fine no problems
no recovery needed and no fault with the drive
try and partition windows on the hard drive and it goes to blue screen of death
again hard drive is seen in the bios but not in windows
August 10th, 2008, 19:12
ok hard drive is showing up in windows now
but again no data at all ??????
there is suppose to be data on the drive
August 10th, 2008, 22:04
windows sees the drive you can put transfer folders over to the hard drive
no problem etc
if this drive was blank i suppose media pro would not be picking up any file system
same goes with get data back
its coming up blank
anyone come across this weird problem
August 11th, 2008, 3:36
can you see 'data' using hex editor? or is disk all zero's?
August 11th, 2008, 4:28
used media pro hex program there data there
but that because we did a install of windows to test
there no other information on the drive at all
im thinking the drive is total blank at this point in time
the client has had this to other parties before sending it to us
thanks for your help guys
August 11th, 2008, 6:17
Did your client refuse a quote from another company before sending it to you? It sounds suspicious unless you get the disk mixed up with a donor.
August 12th, 2008, 14:27
im not total sure but the drive did go to other companys for a cheaper price
when we got the drive we could all ready see someone had removed the board
before we got our hands on it.
what could the problem be a head problem again ?????
we matched the drive up
donor both are made in china
so they come from the same factory
could it be the head design had changed on the hard drive ???????
August 12th, 2008, 16:26
I think the technical name for the problem you're having is 'Sour Grapes'...
Once, as more of a favor, I tried recovering an old MFM drive. Problem was, this was not in the mid 1980's, but last year, and everything I had that could remotely be used was long in the trash. I borrowed an MFM card, found a motherboard with an old BIOS, and was scratching my head as to why it the head wouldn't seek. Back then, things were a bit more obvious, with a nice stepper motor to drive the heads, and a standard stepper driver IC on the PCB. After verifying the PCB was good, using a scope, I removed the PCB, and discovered some nice soul had severed the 6 wires coming from the stepper motor, right where they went into the motor. That's when I found out the guy had taken it somewhere else. He was a bit vague as to what happened, but I bet someone did the work, and the guy just didn't feel like paying. I didn't work too hard on it myself after discovering that.
August 12th, 2008, 17:10
I've heard of a well known DR company removing the platter and turning it upside down on a Toshiba drive when the customer did not proceed with the job. The depths some companies will go to!
Was the top cover removed before you got your hands on it? Was the label cut?
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