Hello,

I've read quite a few success stories on these forums so i thought I might have a go at recovering my data.

My psu blew up recently, and I found it has burnt out my WD1600JS PCB. I will be getting a closely matching board I'd like to try to use as a donor.

Dead PCB:
MDL: WD1600JS-00MHB0
DCM: DSBHCTJAA
Sticker: 2061-701335-B00 AF
PCB: 2060-701335-005 Rev A

Donor PCB: WD2500JS-00MHB0
DCM: DSBACTJCA
Sticker: 2061-701335-B00 AH
PCB: 2060-701335-005 Rev A ----identical

Is this worth trying? As you can see there are some differences between the boards, but not many.

I figured the first step is to replace the U12 ROM chip from the dead pcb to the donor pcb, then stick the donor in and give it a whirl??

Any suggestions or advice for this new and aspiring data recovery technician

You are on a right track.

Just keep in mind that your ROm chip could be dead from a power surge also.

_________________
www.datarecoveryne.com

I'm hoping the ROM chip isn't dead, but I guess if it doesn't work I'll blame the ROM.

I'll keep updating the thread as I try new things, for myself and others with similar problems.
I finally received the suitable PCB. I actually have 2 dead drives, and the donor matches almost exact to one of them, and closely to the other (first post).
A simple PCB transfer was unsuccessful on both.

heres what happened

Donor WD2500JS
1. Dead WD2500JS
The platters start spinning and continue spinning when powered. Bios recognises the drive as "WDC ROM Model - Hawk", windows can't see the drive. I took a close look at the U12 chip on both, and it looks like they have different codes.

2. Dead WD1600JS
Drive makes clicking noises and then powers off. Bios recognises drive as ""WDC ROM Model - Hawk".

Now I'll try swapping the U12 chip. To be honest I don't look forward to desoldering the U12 because it looks hard to avoid damaging the chip and board.
However I'm all setup to go ahead, will let you know how it goes.

It is very easy to solder and desolder ICs if you have the right gear. it's miserable if all you have is a pencil type soldering iron and some braid.

_________________
http://www.datasaversllc.com

Alas, this is what I'll be using Oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained.

Success!

The U12 swap worked wonders, I was able to retrieve all my data from the WD1600JS.

During the desolder I was very careful, and basically used wick to remove solder, then heated the pad and lifted the leg with a pin. Not the best method, but these were all the tools I had to use. Soldering the chip onto the PCB I didn't find easy, but again I was careful and took my time so as not to heat up the chip too much.

After putting the modified PCB onto the WD1600JS, the first sign it was working was in the bios where it was recognised with the proper code, man what a relief it was seeing that bios screen. The drive seemed rock solid while copying files over.

I think I might try to put the original U12 chip back on the donor PCB, and use that HDD from now on. Or perhaps my newfound confidence is pushing the boundaries by doing this. I can't see any problem though, as long as my soldering job is good.

Can I say, a big thankyou to the gurus on this forum. By reading various threads outlining the procedures I was able to recover some important files from a HDD I would have otherwise thrown in the bin.

That is awesome that you fixed that.

Is the code on your original U12 chip:
25P10VP
(logo) 8607X

If it is, I would like to buy the fixed board you used to recover your data. Please reply either way.
Thanks.

Never mind my last post.

I also had success with transferring the U12 ROM to a new, similar board. I knew my soldering abilities were not up to the task, so I paid a local electronics store $40 to do it. They warned that static from working on the board might fry it, but I asked them to do it with no guarantees.

They suggested that the board might become unstable over time, so as soon as I get my data off, I am retiring the drive.

Thanks to everyone who helped create this thread.

Thats great news Gregor!
Sorry I couldn't help, but it sounds like you didn't need help.

Had a WD2500JB (P/N: WD2500JB-00REA0) that was part of an external USB enclosure (WD2500I032-001) that would not turn on. HD board was discolored, and upon using a T8 TORX wrench, found that the grey foam padding was also discolored around several chips.

Following advice in this forum and others, I found a HD on ebay, mfg on as close a date to mine as possible (HD boards go through several revisions as more units are mfg and sold). $60 shipped for a 250GB drive (no enclosure).

When it arrived I desoldered both U12 chips (big solder globs across both rows of pins, then alternated heat and pried up). Cleaned up pins of old U12. Used desoldering braid to clean new board. Then: old U12 -> new board -> old HD. Before screwing back in, I tested continuity of my soldering job on each pin with the diode setting on my cheapo meter. Powered on and was recognized right away. I'm watching all my data stream off it as I'm typing this. I'll have detailed pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/gr8horizon

$60 saved 200 GB of data. Maybe I'll pay another $60 for a backup drive This also makes me consider always buying two hard drives at the same time so I have one for just this kind of occasion. Don't be afraid of surface mount components; I actually used a huge RadioShack 40W iron. Just practice a ton on any old piece of equipment... or your cell for that matter... that's what your extended warranty's for, right?

You are very lucky Baker.

80 % of this series damaged when (MCU) chip burned>

Good job friend

Dear unknown20010


can u tell me please where is the mcu chip located on the WD1600JS-60MHB1

tks so much

Ephraim

It should be the biggest chip on the PCB!!!

This worked like a charm. Thanks OP! I had to run Getdataback, because windows wanted me to format..
I got the same exact board and it burned in the same area. I was Trying to hot-swap with the case open.
Live and learn.
Good thing I had bought like 3 of these things, all 250gb.

Hooray for people successfully using the search function

_________________
You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

tommyiii,

I swapped over the U12 chip onto a replacement PCB and the 250GB WD drive only recognised 31.5GB of the drive. When i checked it out in disc management it showed up as a RAW Healthy Primary Partition. Is this the same problem that you had? I powered down the drive and searched for some advice but there doen't seem to be a prefered data revcovery software or any clarity on wheather this will recover 32gb or 250gb of data? Can you help?

I tried the drive again and it won't spin with my replacement PCB and original U12 anymore but it spins with replacement PCB no 2. It looks like i'll have to transfer the U12 again but i'd like to be prepaired incase the RAW file system problem happens again.

Thanks,
Neil

If the data is important then do not do anything else. A pro will recover the data, it wont cost the earth providing theres no more tinkering!

Hi,

I have a WD 250 GB external hard drive that started smoking and then failed. When I removed the PCB it became obvious that the motor control chip and the R120 and a few other chips were black/ burnt out. After a bit of web searching I found that I can replace the U12 chip and place it on a PCB from the same or very similar hdd.


I bought a PCB with matching PCB number from HDDZone in an attempt to change over the U12 chip.
I bought a heat gun from hobby craft rather than pay for an expensive solder station (http://direct.hobbycraft.co.uk/productd ... gue=240614) to remove the U12 chip and soldering iron from Maplin (http://www.maplin.co.uk/30w-soldering-iron-32909) to re attach the chip on the new board.

The transfer was a success and the drive spun up but the file system showed 32 GB in a raw file structure, PANIC I thought id damaged the drive or overwritten something . I powered it down to read up on the RAW file structure, after that the drive wouldn’t spin up when the jumpers were configured as slave and wasn’t recognised in disc management. At this point I was ready to give up and realised how much hassle data recovery can be.

I later decided to give it one last try and bought a complete HDD from Ebay, same size and firmware, manufactured 6 months apart in the same country but the DCM number was slightly different. The first 3 sets of the PCB white label matched my hard drive too which gave me a good degree of confidence. Luckily for me the transfer worked and the drive spun up showing the correct size and all of the data was available.

I must have spent £100- £150 buying all the parts and about 5 weeks waiting on parts and trying to fix it with no guarantee it would work. I’m REALLY glad it worked but I’m not sure I’d do it again. The soldering wasn’t too bad but it’s the not knowing if you’re going to make it worse that worried me.

I hope the above links are helpful for the next guy that needs to buy the kit before he starts.

I appreciate that you're trying to help others - however the non-temperature controlled hot air gun which you link to above, is aimed at "arts & crafts" uses, and is entirely unsuitable for electronics work.

Using that type of hot air gun substantially increases the risk of damaging the component you're trying to remove (and everything else on the board, if someone has a PCB which they didn't want to damage during the component removal), compared with the risks of properly using the correct tool (along with other precautions like ESD prevention).

As an analogy, it's like using a hammer to insert a screw. That's the wrong tool - sometimes you might get away with using it; but other times you'll cause a bigger problem than you started with, and you'll wish you hadn't done that...

Of course YMMV and everyone is free to choose whatever risks they want to take, with their data - but that choice also comes with responsibility for the consequences.

http://www.clasohlson.co.uk/Product/Pro ... =168541881

Thats what I have used in the past to remove surface mount components.

Vulcan - whats your opinion on this one? I have the various nozzles plus a home-made one to give it a more accurate feel.

I have never used it on HDD as thats not what I do - but was usefull to bring back to life a laptop MB with the infamous NVidea GPU......