I have a Hitachi Travelstar IC25N040ATMR04-0 HDD which doesn't spin any more.

It was lucky to have a second HDD of same type. When I swap the PCB, the broken HDD will spin, but I'm not able to read any data from the disk.

After reading some threads in this forum I learned that this is due to different data stored in the NVRAM of the HDDs.

I haven't tried to swap the NVRAM, yet, because of "coffeebean"'s post "You can't swap pcb for ATMR Hitachi - period." in this thread: http://forum.hddguru.com/hitachi-travelstar-not-detected-bios-t8586.html

This post confused me. Therefore my question:
Is there a chance to reactivate my broken HDD by soldiering the NVRAM chip from the broken PCB onto the good PCB and then use the good PCB on the broken drive?

I have no PC3k or similar hardware.

Thanks,
Hans

To my experience that should work.

Dobre

_________________
Murphy was an optimist

Datarecovery in Belgium, Holland, France and Germany
Datarecoverytools http://www.drtools.eu

Hi Hans,

The post should not have confused you. You can't swap THE WHOLE PCB for ATMR.

you can swap nvram chip to good SAME pcb and it will work.

The clue here is to match MLC numbers to be sure of success

Dobre and Derp, thanks a lot for your answers!

I will check the MLC numbers, tomorrow (I don't have the HDDs with me right now).

What if the MLC numbers differ? Is there any chance the PCB swapping will work? Or can the data on the disk be damaged?

Thanks,
Hans

Hans,

Why you write will pcb swap have a chance, when the world is telling you
pcb swap has NO CHANCE - that means NO CHANCE that means not even
.00000000000000000001 % chance. That means :

PCB SWAP will not work - that means NEVER - that means NOT EVER - GET IT ??

You can read above advice again and you will probably get your data,
but you must CLOSE your mind to what you thinking and open your mind
to the advice written above.

Must I repeat ?

Derp,

Please excuse me, but you wrote:
"The post should not have confused you."
which means the post "You can't swap pcb for ATMR Hitachi - period" which I mentioned in my first post was wrong.

Then you added
"You can't swap THE WHOLE PCB for ATMR"
AND
"you can swap nvram chip to good SAME pcb and it will work."

Which I understand as: As long as I move the NVRAM chip from the broken PCB to a good PCB of same type (which from the last sentence in your post means I need a PCB from a disk with the same MLC number) I can use the good PCB to have access to the defective drive.

So where is my misunderstanding? How should I have understood your post?

In addition, Dobre wrote: "To my experience that should work." which supports my view.

So when PCB swap including NVRAM exchange won't work, what will work? My old PCB is broken, as it doesn't control the spinning of the drive, any more.

Update: I just confirmed that Product Number (P/N) and MLC are identical on both HDDs !

As a next step I will have an electronics colleague, who is used to soldier/replace SMD devices, to swap the NVRAMs.

I'll keep you updated.

Hi, Hans,



If you swap the PCB, and the HDD spin, just not able to read any data. That's because you have to swap the NVRAM chip, or you could use PC 3000 to rewrite programme instead of swap the NVRAM chip. (P.S. NVRAM chip have directivity, pls pay attention to you original PCB)

And I think you have chance to make you HD work again by opportune operation, pls take care.

If you data is very very important, I suggest you find a specialist in your local place after the HDD not able to read data again while swap the NVRAM chip.

Good luck

Thanks

_________________
Provided HDD PCBs and donor HDD, Real in stock
eric_lee8341@hotmail.com

Thanks Eric!

In the mean time I have swapped the NVRAM chips of both disk controller boards.

The result is: Both hard disk drives behave as before!

I.e. the new (spare) disk with its NVRAM chip on the old controller works without problems and the old disk with its NVRAM chip on the new controller will still not spin! (remember: with the new NVRAM on any board it will spin, but of course I have no access to the data on the disk).

There is only one conclusion I can make from this: The reason for me not being able to read the data from the HDD is a not working NVRAM chip as both controllers are OK!

Question is, where can I get the original data, which was stored on my old NVRAM? From Hitachi, which originally programmed it? Or how can I proceed?

Thanks and best regards,
Hans

And you think Hitachi will help you ? Try anyway...

Hi Hans,

The contents of the NVRam is specific to the drives; hitachi for sure will not help; probably the people you would contact would not even know of the existence of such an NVRam.
I'm afraid this can only be solved with more advanced tools like PC3000 or salvation data.
Time to go to a pro i'm afraid.

Best regards,

Dobrer

_________________
Murphy was an optimist

Datarecovery in Belgium, Holland, France and Germany
Datarecoverytools http://www.drtools.eu

Hi, Hans,

If you have dealt with your HDD, and got a conclusion that NVRAM chip of original HDD was damaged, I agree with Dobrer as below:

_________________
Provided HDD PCBs and donor HDD, Real in stock
eric_lee8341@hotmail.com

Thanks for all your replies.

Is there a way to find somebody who has a PC3000 or a HDD Doctor for Hitachi in the vicinity of Munich?

By the way: I couldn't find any price on the web for these tools. How much do they cost?

Hallo Hans,

Du koentest versuchen den NV-RAM chip mit hilfe von einem guten universellen programmiere zu lessen. Auch wenn der chip leicht beschaedigt ist, kann das hilfreich sein. Wenn das klappen solte, dann kannst du einen NV-RAM chip loeschen und mit den geschpeicherten daten uberschreiben.

gruesse

Hi quasimodo,

Thanks for your hint.

For all non-German speaking members of the board: Quasimodo suggested, that it should be possible to fix/reprogram the corrupted NVRAM chip with a good universal external (EPROM) programmer. Actually, I have access to such a programmer.

However, to be able to fix the NVRAM's content, I would need a storage allocation of it, i.e. a table which tells at which address which content is stored, especially the pointer to the drive's SA (which hopefully is not corrupted). Does anyone have such a description of the storage allocation or a link to it?

Thanks,
Hans

Bitte entschulding meine schlechte rechtschreibung. Ich habe schon seit etlichen jahren kein deutsch gesprochen.

I don't think that if someone would have it, that they would share. First you need to make sure if the NVRam chip itself is damaged or if it's the content that's corrupted.

I may be able to help on pm, but not on the open forum.

Anyways, best of luck