Hello Everyone,

I am hopping to get some expert advice on this forum regarding my hard drive issue. A PCB has died on my WD3200AAKS-00G3A0 drive and I am having a hard time finding a replacement for it. Most drives I am finding have a DCM number with a different digits (last three). Does anyone here know if a PCB with a different DCM number will work for this drive? Here are the specs of the drive:

Western Digital 320GB SATA 16MB Cache
Model: WD3200AAKS-00G3A0
Firmware: 00G3A0
DCM: HHRNHT2AHN
LBA: 625142448
Manufactured in Thailand
PCB Serial (First two sets) 2061 - 701578

I have found one drive of the same specs, even the LBA number matched but the last three digits of DCM were different... will that work? I will appreciate any advice.

Thanks

Eugene

A PCB swap will not be successful, you need to program the PCB with the unique info from the original drive.

This data is stored inside the MCU (and also a copy on the platters themselves) and you cannot retrieve this data with the specialist equipment and skills required.

In this case if you want the data, then it does need to go to a pro. Assuming it's "just" the PCB it shouldn't be too expensive (for example we would charge no more than £195 for this, but we're too far away from you!)

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Can you describe the failure symptom?

If you upload a detailed photo, one of us may be able to help you repair your board. Many times the problem is only a shorted diode, in which case it can simply be removed.

Good luck.

BEFORE you "simply remove the diode" and do something else, READ THIS THREAD from the 1st to the last post.

wd7501aals-750gb-sata-circuit-board-please-help-t17028.html

"luck" is not always associated to "bring data back".

I understand that you are trying to save money... WD drive is almost impossible for the user or the computer shops to recover data...

Really ?

I mean, for the newer drive... WD can be a Pain in the $%! or slum dunk depend on what the problem is!
I still love them!!! I wish all has the same WD5000AAKS-00TMA0 like issues...

What I don't get is why I have a low % of WDs installed on my systems / the systems I service that work flawlessly from years (everything monitored and controlled)... (counting, they are several hundred drives).

Sad part is all of our system use WD drives with quadro backup. We can count on them!!! They do fail allright almost as expected

FOr us, this is the cost saving by using our own overstocked WD parts drives... Cost Cutting (may =) increased labor time to swap out the drives and dump the images back on the workstations

The OP may also want to read this enlightening thread, from first to last post:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15491#p113911

More enlightenment is available by searching for easy, no-cost DIY success stories involving "TVS diode" in several forums:
search.php
http://www.techsupportforum.com/hardwar ... e-support/
http://forums.seagate.com/
http://community.wdc.com/
http://www.deadharddrive.com/forums/

People MUST know that they can potentially fuck their drives and data, and that nobody will help them later and face costs and possible loss of data / revenue - then it's not a problem if still want to play russian roulette.