Hello all,

I have a faulty Seagate Momentus 5400.3 - 160GB that I am looking to buy some donor parts for. I am new to this so am just trying to find out where people reliably get there HDD and PCB donor parts from? Are there any websites or companies that specifically deal in finding the correct drive?

Drive Details below:

- Seagate Momentus 5400.3 - 160GB
- SN: 5MA17343
- Model: ST9160821AS
- PN: 9S1134-506
- FW: 3.ALB
- Date: 07373

PCB - 100398689 - REV B
(100398688 K 373380FR)

The drive spins up fine but it has a constant ticking, it will spin up, click... click.... click (clicking could be continuous but it can occasionaly beep too) eventually it will give up and then spin down. The system cannot mount the drive. I intend to swap out the PCB and see if this helps. I have heard of stuck heads in these drives but as this is my first attempt I am going to start with a PCB swap first (live swap?)

If someone could point me in the right direction to obtain donor parts that match that would be greatly appriciated.

Thanks in advance.

Ciaran

Hi Ciaran,

Have you tried using google to find this drive for sale?

Also it sounds like this drive will require and expert to recover data. Live swap or pcb swap will only make it worse.

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When I search online I get 100's of results for the drive but I need to know for certain that its the correct drive before I purchase this. Something that Amazon ect wouldnt be able to do.

I thought a PCB swap would be the logical place to start but feel free to correct me if I am wrong

I have read that these drives (Was from and Apple Mac) have had problems with Fireware hence my starting point with the PCB.

Regarding passing to an expert to recover, everyone needs to start somewhere

try brokerbin. It will cost you though.

Broken Bin seems to be a network for people selling parts both new and used.

I appriciate this may work but am I crazy in thinking there are websites or people out there dedicated to finding the drive you need? I am sure I saw a site once where the guy did data recovery but also sourced and supplied HDD parts for other users.

any other recommendations?

( I am a newbie but fully intend to stick around so not just trying to gather info)

Try ultratec
http://www.firmwarefinder.com

Dobre

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Clarity, it took me less than thirty seconds to find a perfect donor and pcb on EBay with all the specs you have above. Based on your diagnosis maybe you should check out BestBuy or Target first....

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Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

This is great, thanks for all the replies... Its been taken in and I wont ask again.

Ebay always comes up with results but (as I said I am new to this but sticking it out) buying off ebay would be my last choice as...

If I am buying a drive for parts therefore I want the drive to be good to start with. It would be a nightmare if i swapped a PCB over with another faulty PCB.. i'd be scratching my head and wasting money.

If its being sold on ebay it could have come from anywhere. Anyway those are my opinions and they have been changed.... if the pro's sometimes use ebay for parts then thats good enough for me.

I had it my head that a DR company would use one supplier to source there parts.

Good Forum!!

Hi all,

Just created an account on your forum in which we often look for information. We are a young DR company, and we are always looking for drives on the net.
I just wanted to reply that it is impossible to create an account on HDDPROS. The site answers that you need to be invitated...
Does someone know how to be invited.

Rgds

That's just it, it's by invite, not request.

eBay is a good source for drives no matter where in the world you are.

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Data Recovery Cape Town

Do you have a link to HDDPROS?

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts