Yes, I am a newbie…please don’t flame me.

I’m an on-site IT tech working for small to medium sized companies. 90% of what I do involves setting up and maintaining Windows networks. From time to time I get a call from a customer with the “click of death” on a hard drive. Normally data is backed up so no biggie, sometimes it’s not. Depending on how important the data is to the customer they either decide to forgo recovery or spend the $1000-$2500 it will cost to get the data back.

After doing some basic software recoveries on hard drives and getting data back my interest in the inner workings has peaked over the years. I’ve successfully taken drives apart, replaced heads, and put them back together in clean boxes to learn more about them. Which brings me to my question.

I’ve got a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 60 GB Hard Drive that won’t spin up at all. Here are the specs of the drive:

Manufacturer: Maxtor
Type: DiamondMax Plus 9
Size: 60 GB
Code: YAR41VW0
Other code: 6Y60L0420471
Mfg Date: 14 OCT 2002

I was able to determine that the PCB itself would get hot in some areas but not in others which seemed to be an indicator that the PCB had problems. Looking on-line I was able to order another PCB from a company claiming that it was the same PCB for the hard drive. (Please note, I’ve done a lot of research on the importance of firmware to the drive, and the importance of manufacturing dates of hard drives, PCB’s and the swapping of parts. I felt the PCB was a simple solution with very little consequence.) I attached the PCB and tried powering up the drive. The good news, the drive did power up. The not-so-good news, it appears the head on the hard drive moves a little bit back and forth and then does nothing or that’s what it sounds like. There is no grinding noise or high pitch squeal; I don’t really hear that infamous “click of death” either.

In the meantime, I’ve ordered another drive with the same model number so I could take apart and possibly use for parts if it comes to that. And no, I don't know the manufacturing date of the hard drive I ordered. So I understand it's probably not going to work for spare parts but what the heck. I don’t want to do any work to this drive unless it absolutely necessary. My thoughts thus far:

- The original PCB Board is bad - Am I correct?
- The new PCB board may be working fine. It could now be a problem with the head in the drive itself? Am I correct?
- The new PCB board is the problem because maybe the firmware is different and can't communicate with the head and read the info on the platter? Granted, the board I ordered is an exact match to the old one. Am I correct?
- Let me preface this question by stating, this may be a really stupid question, so please don't flame me. The hard drive has only got one platter, can I simply take the platter out of the non-working hard drive and place it in the new hard drive. The new hard drive is the same model number but until I receive it I don't know how close the manufacturing dates will match up. My initial thought, the dates won't be that close. Thoughts?

1) Yes. This old maxtor not spining up at all. If it would be a siezed bearing it would sing for u...
2) Possible
3) If its an exact match - should be the same.
4) Stay away from platter transplant...

Ill sugests locating ROM of ur old board and slaping it on ur donor board and see if it helps.

Thanks so much for the quick response. Swapping the ROM doesn;t look too difficult if you have the right tools. Where would you suggest I get the tools for the job?

I would recommend to look for a pro in this area.
Often, those drives have problems in SA (Service Area)
If your drive spins and does not make a clicking sound after board replacement, very likely heads are good.
Platter transplant is last thing you want to do on this model...

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Check the preamp with a multimeter if it is gone, the drive needs head replacement... But after head replacement not always initializes, so u might want to take it to a pro before opening it.

pepe

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

Allexi you were right! Thanks for the suggestion of swapping the ROM. I'm not the best with a soldering iron and I don't have one of those fancy guns. Did some research on which 8 leg chip was the ROM and I practiced on some old boards before I attempted the switch. Once I installed the old ROM chip on the new board the hard drive fired right up and I could hear it make a different sound, the head seemed like it found where it was suppose to be. After hooking it up to my computer I could see the Drive letter and I started copying data over. Some data was showing corrupt when trying to copy. Later this evening I will try to do a more basic copy transfer with a BartPE disk and Drive Imaging software. For now though I have recovered 99.9% of the data. I've spent a couple of weeks studying Hard Drives and watching/reading anything I can get my hands on. I am absolutely fascinated by this stuff. The best part of this experience is definitely what I have learned.

Great job m8. Happy for u =)

I guess someone sold you PCB with a wrong ROM version on it.

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