Hi,

So just my luck, the only drive which has not been properly backed up decided to just not work today. Plugged it in and it doesn't spin up.

It is a Hitachi 3tb drive:

Model: HDS723030ALA640
MLC: MRK3B0
FW: 3B0
Built: Dec-2010

When plugged in, drive does not spin up, but is somewhat detected as a 0mb drive in Windows.

I have 11 other drives, but they are all slightly newer. I tried switching the boards over, and the drive spins up fine, but does not get detected in Windows. It has a newer firmware, so this is to be expected. I put the broken board on a working drive and that does not spin up either.

Thinking that it could be related to the firmware, I switched the SPI flash chips from the non-working board to the good board. Drive still does not spin up.

I'm thinking that I need to get a board with identical firmware, and then swap the SPI flash chips between the two boards to get it working. Does this sound right? Something to do with the NVRAM value that tells the CPU where to start executing code from the flash, and that this address may be different for different firmware revisions or something - I'm not entirely sure!

Thanks for any input you can provide. I've never had to do this before so excuse my ignorance.

Here's the PCB pic for reference.

to replace an hitachi PCB you need:

same model number
match the first 2 lines of PCB sticker
swap NVRAM (or adjust from SA)

edit: are you sure that there is no short between the legs

Thanks. Can you please tell me: which chip is the NVRAM (or is this the SPI EEPROM) and what does SA stand for

PCB sticker has:

0J14045
BA3867A

Second drive is slightly different, which would explain why it doesnt work.

0J14078
BA3967A

I don't have the Hitachi-IBM tools. I am able to give you a dump of the SPI flash though. Please see here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7PwEG ... sp=sharing

I don't have the Hitachi-IBM tools. I am able to give you a dump of the SPI flash though. Please see here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7PwEG ... sp=sharing

check if the Main Controller Chip & Board Number the same

sometimes the NVRAM can be extracted from SA (sometimes not)

I don't have the firmware tools. Is the nvram same as the eeprom?

here's a dump of the spi chip: http://users.on.net/teepingkoh/hitachi/



Board number is the same, but controller chip numbers differ on the bottom two lines.

only the third line on the LSI chip OJ.....

and the dumb is not the NVRAM it's the rom

Original Board:
LSI
MEL-B2B1
0J11389 Q
TNN2B686
EAM4180713 THB


Donor Board:
LSI
MEL-B2B1
0J11389 Q
TNN3G035
EAN0200321 THC





which chip is the NVRAM chip? or how to dump NVRAM? The dump posted above was from the 8 pin SOIC chip marked 25U4035

i was thinking

maybe the patient's PCB can easily be fix, maybe a diode or fuse was burned

Here's the NVRAM on your board:


Move it to another PCB with the same first two lines of the white sticker.

_________________
Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company

Thanks. Looking at this dump, can you confirm that it is valid before I go an seek a board that would suit?

http://users.on.net/teepingkoh/hitachi/

Thanks again

But first you may want to test these two diodes:


If they are short circuited, you can just remove them and it might still work.

If you have the dump of the NVRAM you can post it and I'll check it for you.

_________________
Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company

Sorry, I didn't realize you already posted it. Yes the checksum looks good, so I think you got a good read of the NVRAM.

_________________
Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company

first try maybe it's the diode

B.T.W. what's the drives SN ?

Not a problem at all. Very appreciative of your help.

I have tested the diodes (in circuit) and they are not shorted. Guess my best course of action is to hunt down the correct board and swap the chip. Is there any more tests that I can try?




Serial is YHG1HEPA

i'm sorry but the NVRAM usually contains the HDDs SN, i don't see it in your dump

deleted

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.