I have 3 of these drives in for recovery from Apple laptops. Donors for these are hard to find, it seems. P/N is 0A53319 and MLC is DA1905
Do I need to match P/N and MLC? Can I substitute in any way? Any tips will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Rick

these disks have specific head mapping depending if it is manufactured for MAC or other use. If you substitute any of the characters in MLC or P/N you may end up with a donor with more or less heads, though more heads will work. What is the head mapping of your 3 donors?

That theory doesn't work. I've got two drives here with different head maps:

Bad drive:
HTS541612J9SA00
Date: APR-07
P/N: 0A53319
MLC: DA1905 A145121
Apple HDD F/W: 2006
Top 3 heads

Good drive:
HTS541612J9SA00
Date: AUG-07
P/N: 0A53319
MLC: DA1905 A145121
Apple HDD F/W: 2006
Bottom 3 heads

This is just as annoying as the head magnets.

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Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

I have a perfect donor for that model.


Yes, MLC does not mean head map.

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www.datarecoveryne.com

Wow, is this characteristic of Apple drives, or this particular model?

I also got some of this MAC drive 120 GB with HM 123 and 012. looking for the same HM will waste lot of time. 4 head is the best choice.

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I know this thread is over a year old, but I'm having a bear of a time finding a suitable donor for this exact drive. Anyone have any tips?

You cannot use mac drives reliably, they generally have special firmware.

Apple ensures that disks it uses have their own firmware and identification, in some cases you cannot reliably use a non-apple drive in an apple computer for some setups.
EVEN if it is the same part number, but non -apple

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The drive itself is spinning up, and I can hear 3 soft clicks every few seconds. just won't mount. Tried Linux and windows. FTK imager and windows disk management can see that the drive is attached, but that's about it. I really don't want to open it up at this point, but I can't find a good donor. From what you're saying with this type of drive i'm SOL?

Personally I think you need to do a bit more work before you even consider "opening it up"
My only worry is that if the heads are "banging" that you may be continuing to do damage.

There are options to convert a non apple drive to an apple drive, but I have to say it is not something i have looked into. its not really something there is a lot of call for.

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