This is a bad Apple OEM drive -- I've seen others asking for donor drives for the same, perhaps there's still some of these floating around.

Model number is WD1600JS-40MVB1, DCM is HSCACTJCA

I have a very similar drive model number WD1600JS-60MHB1, DCM: DSBHCT2AH

I pulled the pcb from the latter and the pcb number and chips exactly match the one from the bad drive, but the firmware is likely different. I'm hoping that if somebody has the firmware for the first drive listed, I could flash the second pcb and make it work. I tried to use the good pcb on the bad drive, and at least the drive spins up and sounds fine now, which indicates no mechanical problems.

Anyone have firmware for the 40MVB1 or a pcb from same?

Thanks for the help!

You have to transfer the original U12 from the defective PCB to the donor.

Good luck

Thank you, I appreciate the information -- I'll give that a try.

No luck -- it appears the ROM chip is where the problem is. The donor board without swapping ROM chips let the drive spin up and sound okay (though it couldn't be read and was detected incorrectly in bios) -- once I swapped the ROM chip, the behavior is exactly the same as before exchanging logic boards. Putting the original logic board back on the drive with the donor board ROM chip produced the same results as before the chip swap...drive spins up fine, but detected wrong and not readable.

If the ROM chip is the problem, is there any recovery outside of putting the platters in a specialized machine and doing a bit dump?

The key to recovery in this case is to diagnose the problem and correct it, not pull the platters, which would likely be devastating.

We're WD authorized and recover this type of drive quite often.

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I highly recommend Jono-ats for this job. He's a pro and has a very good reputation.

Good luck