Hello All-

This is chapter one of my epic and disastrous HDD adventure. A crappy Antec power supply simultaneously roasted 3.5 TB across 4 drives in my media server, and now here I am. This first chapter deals with the following 1 TB Western Digital drive:

THE DEARLY DEPARTED
MDL: WD10EACS-00ZJB0
DATE: 17 APR 2008
DCM: HBRCHV2AAB
PCB: 2061-701474-600 01P XC 4H09 8CTQ M 0005380 8385

The chip labeled "smooth" (the spindle driver?) is burned. And also plugging the drive in and turning the (new) P/S on releases more magic smoke. So I bought a (so I thought) identical drive:

THE DONOR
(Recertified)
MDL: WD10EACS-00ZJB0
DATE: 04-SEP-2008
DCM: HARCNV2AA
PCB: 2061-701474-600 01P XC 4H09 4PLN M 0002360 8362

I swapped the logic boards, and plugged it in. The drive spins up but the bios does *not* see the drive, then after a few moments the drive spins down. The new board in the new drive works fine.

What should I do now? Maybe swap the old firmware chip to the new board? I know this is risky, so I just wanted some encouragement before I broke out the soldering iron. Are the PCB numbers close enough for this to work? Which numbers are "significant"? And I just screwed? If I am not mistaken, the dead drive has firmware "AAB" and the new drive has firmware "AA", so it's not surprising that it doesn't work.

Thanks for all your help in advance. Also feel free to make fun of me for not backing up. Doubling up 3.5 TB is expensive, but I have found that not backing up is emotionally worse.

Coming soon: Seagate 750 GB (x2!!!), Hitachi 1 TB

Unfortunately without special tools there is not much you can do. The ROM is located in the MCU and contains adaptive information unique to that drive. You would need much more equipment than a soldering iron to move the MCU. Contact a professional if your data has value.

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Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

I guess the ROM being stored in the MCU is a change compared to slightly older drives? After reading some more internet and looking at pictures of other WD logic boards I just now re-examined my board and realized that there is no U12 to replace. Why have they done this?

I see that the MCU is a Smooth LL6284, just one number off from this one: http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n24/klutzon/hds3.jpg

I don't mean to sound incredulous, it's just hard to give up so early.

And I guess that by specialized equipment you mean something expensive that can somehow read the control track information off the drive and re-create the unique control parameters?

EDIT: I see that the Smooth chip (burned) is the VCD, not the MCC. So is there still a chance?

MCU is a chip with a large M on it.

L6284 is a motor controller chip.

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www.datarecoveryne.com

If was burned only the spindle controller, could be possible to solder another from same family and model of course without experience impossible , at some families on WD, the MCU was damaged too and even some times that damaged pass into the HDA directly to the preamplifier causing burned too so u need to check that or send to a DR Company

Regards

What you can do is: Get a drive that is exactly the same model, size etc. It has to have been manufactured around the same time. Plug the new (working drive) into your Pc (keep both drives out of the case upside down so the logic boards are accessible) once the drive has mounted in windows, you need to put the drive to sleep (you can set windows to put hdd's to sleep after 5min) then while the HDD is asleep, with a T8 screwdriver carefully remove the board without shorting any components & leave the Power & SATA cable plugged in. Then screw it onto the bad HDD (with faulty board removed obviously) Then browse the disk & you should be able to see\backup the data. DO AT YOUR OWN RISK obviously.

I have moved these MCU with only a soldering iron....as long as they are SOIC chips its not a problem. BGA is a different story.

Mini wave tip is your friend!

WTF?

Please don't talk crap, this is never gonna work.

How do you take into account the likely differences in ROM version/P-List/Translator/Adaptives etc etc ...??

The guy clearly needs a new PCB with either embedded(MCU) ROM transfer or re-manufacture of same from SA onto a donor PCB.

TIme for pro help on this one.

Next.....

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PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

Yes, completely bogus.

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

Well, basically this guy doesnt know anything about DR but just being smart thats all.

I love how data recovery is full of myths and old wives tales, these solutions make me laugh everytime. Maybe he should put the hard drive in the freezer for 1 hour and it will work again. lol.

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Zero Alpha: zeroalpha.com.au
Find Cheap Donor Drives App: https://www.zeroalpha.com.au/donor-drive-app Updated February 2026

If you want to learn a bit about Hard Drive Recovery, you can start by watching these sets of videos by Scott Moulton of Forensic Strategy Services, He is an expert in this field & will say somewhere in the video's basically exactly what i just wrote about hot swapping the logic board. Ps, i have done this numerous times with success ! Personally I Don't Give A F#@K whether or not you believe me !!! Here is the link to his video's: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx-D1nJc ... re=related

That is why you need to hotswap the logic Board, Instead of just changing it over from a donor drive & turning the system on, as i stated it will only work with a donor HDD that was manufactured as close as possible to the faulty HDD.

sure

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SAN, NAS, RAID, Server, and HDD Data Recovery.

Hi RUPAL

I suggest you to read our good books on DR, 3 editions, plus lots of bonuses by Dr BlackST and friends.

Here's the link: http://forum.hddguru.com/your-experiences-with-data-recovery-courses-t11882-140.html

no, it will not
even if you take two drives from the same box
Defect lists and adaptives are unique for each drive

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SAN, NAS, RAID, Server, and HDD Data Recovery.

All i can say is that from my personal experience it has worked, And for others as well. I am no expert on DR , BUT if it works & you are able to get the data off the disk then that is all that matters Right ?

Here Is the exact video where he talks about swapping over pcb's, he explains in more detail how it works. It is exactly 5min into the video.

link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAUtv6kO ... re=related

Rupal there is always a chance at getting data back with DIY but correctly diagnosing the fault and repairing accordingly is what experts do and is the reason why 95% of the time an expert can sucessfully recover data. DIY runs the risk of not correctly diagnosing the fault and therefore contributing to a higher failure rate. I suggest if you want to debate the effectiveness of a DIY Youtube based data recover then please start a new thread, but as you can see the original poster is asking for advice on his 1TB WD drive and the damage he has is beyond DIY. He needs somebody with the professional tools to fix this problem. Rupal you made the mistake of posting noob solutions in a hdd guru forum, hence the reason why you just got flamed.

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Zero Alpha: zeroalpha.com.au
Find Cheap Donor Drives App: https://www.zeroalpha.com.au/donor-drive-app Updated February 2026

Ok, no worries. Sorry to hijack this forum\thread.