Hi, I'm a newbie to the internals of HDD controller boards, and I was wondering if one of you more knowledgeable fellows might be able to tell me the location of the ROM chip, on the above board, please?

As you can see, the board suffered a pretty nasty accident, and unfortunately, it contains about 3 years of un-backed-up pics of my young daughter, as well as most of my music collection. Quite keen to see if I can swap the chip onto a new board, which I have.

If someone could circle the chip for me, I'd be really grateful.

I know someone who can do micro-soldering, & he's willing to swap the chip for me.

Thanks in advance!

99% preamp gone .

This is the ROM chip :

with that family you should be able to just find a drive with the same firmware and just swap the board and it should work. That is if it is just an electrical issue. The board looks pretty bad so there is a chance it fried the preamp on the heads as well and if that is the case you should seek professional help.

Hi, thanks for your quick reply!

What's the preamp? As I said, I'm new to this

If the ROM chip is swapped, do you reckon I could get access to the drive?

Sorry, posted the last comment, & missed the 2nd reply.

When I put the new controller board on, it spins up the drive, & it clicks. It sounds like it's trying to work.

The replacement board is the same firmware; 3.05

Preamp chip is gone.
Preamp chip is inside a drive on a HS.

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Is it possible to swap the preamp chip?

Is it worth trying to swap the platter? I don't care if the drive dies after I've got my files from it.

I can't afford to pay for pro data recovery, but I don't want to loe my files either

Cheers for your help so far, guys!

No, YOU cannot swap the preamp chip.

NO NO NO, do NOT swap the platter. That would not help AT ALL.

Sorry, but no pro = no data

Sorry to be blunt, but this is beyond DIY.

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Shame I was looking for a cheap fix.

Looks like the drive will go into storage until I win the lottery :-/

Do you think it's worth trying to get the ROM chip swapped, just in case the preamp is ok? As you can tell, I'm still not giving up ALL hope, but I'm very close

Cheers for your advice not to swap the platter. I had my torx set at the ready.

Best action now is to place the drive somewhere safe until you can afford a professional recovery. I would also recommend pcimage for the recovery as he is a highly respected member & professional on this forum.

Loki

Hi, thanks for the advice, but I fear that pro recovery would prove too costly

Wow, that's indeed a nasty damage.

Some pro's offer free diagnostics and a quote according to the damage of your drive. So you would know how much you have to pay. Sometimes it can be even less than you imagine (but some times much more...).

If your drive has bad preamps, then head swap is necessary and this is NOT DIY by any chance. To put it straight, if you attempt to do this on your own, your chances of success are... zero. But if preamps are ok (which i doubt), then this shouldn't be too costly at this point.

I think your best bet is, as suggested above by other pros, to get your drive to a pro and get it diagnosed. And have them quote for recovery. Then, if you can't afford that, store the drive to a safe place until you can afford it. Or forget data and move on.

Sorry mate.

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