Hi

I have a WD800JB-00ETA0 that died when my power supply died. It's not detected in BIOS. The computer just stops at detecting drives. The PCB also gets hot quite quickly. I've attached a photo of the element I think is the source of the heat. Would a PCB swap help? I've found a drive that is also a WD800JB-00ETA0. The last 6-8 letters of the DCM match. I'm not exactly sure how many as the photo I have is blurry. The 5th and 6th letters definitely match The donor is from 09 december 2003. The donor is from 04 september 2003. If that fails is platter swap an option?

Hi,

You can try the pcb swap, maybe works (if you match the rom version and the headmap too), maybe you will burn the new pcb too with short preamp.
OR in rare case you can destroy your data, if the preamp is damaged and will demagnetize your data from the platter.

Platter swap almost never an option, unless you can re-align the platters with some nanometer precisely.
(Some micron eccentricity will prevent the drive from working, and some shift from each other will render your drive unrecoverable at all.)

This case is for a pro clearly.

You can do a pcb swap, you have some (maybe 25)% for success, and more for no success, and some (maybe 10) % for damage the data as well wich is untouched actually.

If your data is really important, it is a time for ask a pro near you.

The decision is yours.

results-the-yourself-solutions-t11912.html

Janos

Swap the pcb and see if it works. If it doesn't, then you need to transfer the rom adaptives. Don't put the suspect bad pcb on your good donor. If your next question is how do I transfer the rom adaptives, seek a professional.

P.S.: Doubleboiling is a much safer option than a platter swap...

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Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

Thatdellguy,

You never seen a bad preamp wich erases one head when you read the another?

I have seen...

Janos

As in a foreign pcb causing the rom contents to update to the current head map in the drive?

_________________
Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

Ouch.

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

The various professionals commenting here are correct, if your serious about getting your data back, you should find a professional service you feel you can trust. However, if you cant afford that or are interested in giving this a try for the experience in your place I would try replacing the PCB with the closest match you can find.

I would also try first getting it to load with MHDD and running a scan with the remap switch set.

I will be swapping out the heads and platters on a somewhat similar drive (WD800AB-00CBA1, 18 MAR 2008, HSEHNA2AH) I'll post and let you know the relative difficulty of working inside the drive.

Let's hope it will be of some use to you.

Please don't post any more bad advice.

Why scan the drive with MHDD with remap on?

Why are you swapping the heads and the platters? Is the motor at fault?

If you follow Maux's advice you will lose your data forever.