This drive is marked OEM and was removed from an external enclosure. I removed the controller board and there is no visible damage to the diodes or any other circuitry. The drive does not power up. Firmware is: SD35. Based on everything I've read on the forums so far - replacing the controller board isn't really an option unless I can find one with the same firmware (checked ebay and could not find one).

The drive has some pictures on it that my friend would really like to have back. Since it is an OEM drive - I'm guessing Seagate won't be any help.

In reality is there anything I can do short of sending it off to a data recovery company?
Thanks in advance.
Bob.

Test the diodes with a mulitmeter

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Using my digital multimeter in diode test mode but without removing the diodes from the board, both of them gave me numbers other than zero. The numbers were different when I swapped probe ends but I always got a value. I tried to look up exactly how to test the diodes but couldn't find easily understood instructions on how to do that.

The diodes are not crispy or burnt looking.

The diodes sound OK. Can we see a detailed photo of the board?

BTW, if you purchase a PCB from the following vendor, it should cost you ~US$40. A ROM transfer service will cost you an additional $10.

http://www.onepcbsolution.com/

Attached are pics of front & back of board and close up of diodes. Again, no visible damage.
Thanks for your help.
Bob.

Oh, and http://www.onepcbsolution.com/ doesn't have a PCB listed for this Seagate 7200.11 750GB drive.

hi,
you can take the same model(100466824) with your PCB and swap ROM chip. no need to matching FW version of it. as you had to swap ROM chip from original PCB to good PCB.(it's contain adapter FW matching with FW which stock in platters) ROM chip position on IMG_3463[1].JPG top right corner 8 pin one. i have it in stock. please contact me by email or MSN if need help.

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The SMOOTH motor controller chip appears to have a burn mark at about 11 o'clock. There also appears to be a fleck on the heat spreader on the underside of the board that may correspond to the hot spot.

I think your most practical solution is a board swap and ROM transfer.

Just to let everyone know - I ended up doing a PCB board swap (with firmware transfer). After putting the new board on - it spun right up and I was able to get all of the data off of it.

I'm so glad to have found this forum and to have had the help of ppumkin and fzabkar in helping me get my friend's data back.

I also want to thank Kevin with PCB Solution (http://www.onepcbsolution.com/) for helping me through this and getting me a working board for the drive. He was great through the whole process and will definitely look to Kevin again for help with similar problems in the future.

Thanks!
Bob.