I have been asked to recover data from a WD1600JS drive that has failed.

The symptoms are that the drive clunks a couple of times, the BIOS hangs, then reports the drive as a WDC ROM MODEL HAWK with 8gb.

If I can get my hands on a new PCB of the same type and revision (2060-701335-003 rev B) and swap over the U12 chip is this likely to fix it? Or does it sound like it is the U12 that has failed?

For reference, I'm a network engineer that is dead handy with a soldering iron and software, but I'm not a pro and don't have access to PC3K kit or other specialist tools. I would prefer to recover the data myself, but understand that if it's more than a bit of PCB and chip swapping that it's a DR specialists job.

Thanks

STM

It's probably not a pcb fault but you can't rule it out.

If the pcb is not at fault then it's time to seek pro help.

It is not/not only a pcb fault 90% . Easily confirmed with specialized tools.

Thanks for the swift reply guys. It's not the answer I was looking for, but I guess it was the answer I expected.

Will have to weigh up the value of this data now and see how much cash it equates to :-/

Thanks

STM

If u can get your hands on the PCB easy - might as well try swaping the ROM fromn patient to donor and pray it works. Just make sure u mark what belongs where. If not - PCimage from this forum is from UK. Knowlegable, very polite guy =) I like him =) I am sure he can provide a free no obligation diagnostics and estimate. At least ull know what u are dealing with.

Sounds more like heads/preamp than PCB to me, and these drives are a handful when it comes to head related problems

We can usually handle them though, except in cases of excessive platter damage.

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Well, I thought getting hold of a replacement board would be easy. We have a lot of computers with WD drives in here, and I could re-image a spare drive to free up one of the WD ones so I could *ahem* borrow the PCB. It turns out, however, that although a lot of them are similar board numbers, none are close enough that I would be confident that they would work.

So buying the correct one from eBay would be my best option, but by the comments on here, it doesn't look like that will do the trick anyway so it will have to be a job for the pros.

Thanks

STM