Controller for Western Digital "Expert" 205BA 1

[Grover99]

Anyone have a good source for controller cards for old hard drives? I have some really important personal information on this drive, but I can't afford data recovery service. The drive was in a machine that literally had a screw loose. That screw took out the mobo & several cards when it shorted something after the PC was moved--including the drive. Since the problem was electrical, I'm confident that the mechanics of the drive are OK, but the controller is cooked. Anyone know how close the controller has to be to the original for me to be able to recover the data? Apparently, there are TWO WD model 205BA drives, but only one is the Expert series (the other is a Caviar). Is it possible that a Caviar's electronics could resurrect this drive?

Any leads would be greatly appreciated!

 

[micker377]

http://storagereview.com/articles/200001/20000120WD205BA.html

Read this site, one is a two disk drive and the other is a four disk drive. I doubt they would interchange. I'd do a google search and see if you can find a "new" drive and swap parts.

 

[happydownloader]

Also check a bunch of the computer shops in your area
I'm sure that some of them will have a bunch of old dead hdd's kicking around that may have had just bad sectors and not the controller card gone. Most shops don't even bother trying to change stuff like that and just sell a new hdd to them. You should get lucky that way

 

[Grover99]

Micker & Happyd...--
Funny you should mention that. I'd hit eBay a dozen times over the last few months before posting this and I found plenty of the Caviar drives, but not what I was looking for. But today, lo and behold, I not only found one, the auction was only a few hours from over! About an hour ago I won the auction--still less than $50 after adding in international shipping. Thanks for your advice!