I have a HDP725050GLA360 Deskstar that died on me. At first glance everything looked good, that is until I looked at the reverse side of the PCB. I have a donor board from the same model drive, but different S/N and MLC. Several threads talked about transferring the chip at U5 and possibly flashing. Can some knowledgeable soul please advise what I would have to do with the donor PCB to make this recovery possible?

Here's what burned:



The other side of the PCB seems ok, although the burn nearly went through to the other side:

The burnt chip is the motor controller.

I'm not familiar with your board, but I would examine U5 and U7. One or both may be EEPROMs, in which case they would need to be transferred to your donor.

These URLs should help you identify the components:

http://hddscan.com/doc/HDD_from_inside.html
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/HDD_ICs.txt
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/TVS_diodes.txt

BTW, the white connector at J3 has a locking tab which you must release before removing or inserting the flex cable.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

8 out of 10 there's additional damage too.

Just to provide an update:

I transferred the chips from U5 and U7 onto the donor PCB. Plugged the drive in, the motor spun up, the OS recognized the drive and I was able to make a full recovery with no additional surprises. Many thanks for the advice.

Play lottery as you were very lucky ...

Hey talmao - PM me six number between 1 and 50.. Thanks mate.

PS Well done

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It seems that the unluckiest people in the world are those that don't backup.
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