Can I use Donor 2060-771945-002 REV A for the burned pcb patient 2060-771945-001 REV P1

By Transferring ROM Chip? both pcbs are from WD20EZRX HDD

When i tried it just spin up then spin down not detected.


Please any suggestion?

what was the issue with the original board?

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

It may or may not work. I'd look at the main controller chip to see if it's the same. It all really depends on what was revised, if it's just a different brand of RAM or slightly different motor control chip, it'll probably still work.

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

Most probably preamp is dead. If you are lucky, the fw checked preamp id before moving heads and decided not to move it.
If you are less lucky, it moved heads and rearranged the data a bit.

see viewtopic.php?t=31493&f=1&start=0#p219267

pepe

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

That statement is misleading. It implies that a dead preamp always fails in such a way as to write on the platters as the headstack sweeps across the disc. As your fellow data recovery professional states in that other thread, such a circumstance is "extremely rare". Morever, the words that you use are loaded.

By way of analogy, let's assume that the chance of being killed in an air crash is one in a million (which is extremely conservative). If 100 million passengers arrive safely at their destinations, we would not say that they were lucky. However, we might say that they were not unlucky. Conversely, if 100 passengers are killed in air accidents, then we would say that they were unlucky. The meaning is entirely different. Moreover, nobody would say, if you value your life, don't fly.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Of course we might argue on this matter from thread to thread, I only want to point out that checking the preamp is a better idea than just hope it will not kill our data.
Out of curiousity, how many recoveries have you done?
The chance is a lot higher than the example you brought. Let's say 1 out of 20 preamp damages will cause data damage if not treated properly. We might say we don't care about 5% of the cases, we are still at 95% success rate as long as preamp damages are concerned, but let's play with the situation a bit.
Suppose you had such a drive, bring it to some DR firm for recovery (i know it would never happen in reality, but let's suppose).
Let's suppose it fails into the 5 % of preamp failures where it kills the data and they do not care about checking the preamp and kill YOUR data out of neglect.
How would you react if they said 'we were lazy to check the preamp and your data is in bad shape'?
It does not matter if they say so, you would know it was the case because you are good in electronics and you would be somewhat angry with them depending on your temper and depending on the value of the data they just killed by ignorance or out of neglect.

My question is if we can reduce the risk why not do it?

pepe

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

1 case in 6 years is not even remotely close to 5%.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

it is not your experience, please tell us how many recoveries have You done altogether.
(we have no idea how many Alexii did over 6 years either)
But it makes me nervous how he handled them. ('we have enough donor pcbs, so let's just try and see if it smokes or not')
kindof similar how Stalin thought of people... ouch...

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

To the OP: Please excuse us to hijack your topic in such way, it seems i can't make a comment without getting a banned by Franc

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

Let's look at the question of your rogue, data destructive preamp from an end user's perspective. If we accept your claims, then the user will have a 5% chance of data loss when faced with the OP's predicament. Let's say the user wants to eliminate this uncertainty by engaging a data recovery professional. However, if he chooses one at random, what are his chances of finding one who knows enough electronics to be able to test a preamp? I can show you numerous threads where experienced forum members have disdainfully told me that they don't need to understand electronics, they only need to swap ROMs. With this in mind, would a figure of 1% be too conservative?

If we accept this figure, and assuming that all of these experienced pros will share your concerns and will actually test the preamp, then the end user who has a rogue preamp will have, at best, a 99% chance of data loss. That's essentially no better than a DIY outcome.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

We agree that we disagree anybody who says DR has nothing to do with electronics. As such, it is a pity there are DR firms not able to test a preamp if the pcb is blown. This may as well reduce the chance as you said. BTW, my posts might draw attention to the problem, if they are not misinterpreted.

However, users should be warned for this possibility at least when suggesting a DIY solution.


I don't get it. If the drive gets to a pro's hands who tests the preamp, why would there be 99% chance of data loss?
Am i missing something?

pepe

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

Sorry, my post was ambiguous. I'm suggesting that a drive with a known rogue preamp that is sent to a randomly selected DR firm would have a 99% chance of data loss simply because 99% of DR firms would not test for this case, either because they don't know how to, or because they don't deem it to be necessary.

Perhaps a better way to put it would be to say that an end user would reduce his chances for data loss from 5% to 4.95% if he chose a DR firm at random instead of doing the job himself.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

When i was active on this forum i posted some info about how to check the preamp with cheap tools, of course now i don't only rely on that method, but the majority of preamp damages can be filtered with a multimeter.
Around 2006 or so.


Don't write bullshit, we are talking about a specific problem and its proper treatment.



And this is morally questionable to cut open such a forum. Users were posting info there in the belief there is a limited audience. They shared knowledge with eachother and not with the world. They were urged to share info. Now it is cut open, it's like shooting somebody from the back. Nobody will post info there either.

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

For once, I have to say I totally agree with Fzabkar... Even if the preamp is damaged from the surge that blew the PCB, it's very unlikely that it'll damage the platters. Unless the data on there is literally going to cost you your life to lose it, I'd say go ahead with replacing the PCB. If it did damage in such a way that it's going to damage the platters, chances are the damage is already done regardless.

@Pepe, chill out. I'm starting to see why you were banned.

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

it depends on wether the drive was working at the moment of the surge. If it was powered off, the data is safe until u power ir up with the bad preamp.
If it was working, it might have caused some damage, like 1-2 sweeps, but the more u play with it, the more damaged it will be.

Btw, I don't feel like i have to chill out, i have no emotional relation to anybody's drives.

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

Actually, I agree with pepe on one point. If you can test the preamp, then do it. I would, but that's because I always attempt to determine the full nature of the problem in order to select the most appropriate solution. I would hate to burn a replacement PCB because I neglected to at least test for shorts on the +5V and -5V supply rails. That would require less than a minute of my time. In fact there are plenty of threads where I have demonstrated how to do this.

My primary issue with his statements is that they imply that end users should not attempt DIY recovery, but should send their drives to professionals, presumably because professionals would perform the required testing. Clearly, this is not true, and the user would be essentially no better off.

As for the claims of 5%, or 1 case in 6 years, that is something that you and others can assess for yourselves.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.