Failed controller on WD1000BB Drive - Why can't swap?

[DesertTripper]

Hello, Newbie to the forum so please bear with me.

I recently had a power supply fail in my primary Athlon XP system. When I replaced the supply, the hard drive failed to be recognized in BIOS. Further investigation showed that it would not even spin up. I removed the controller PCB on the bottom of the drive and could see that something had melted a spot in the foam rubber insert and there was a slight burnt smell. So... looks like ruined controller board. Okay, so I swapped the controller board from my almost identical backup drive (same model and capacity - the only difference being the last 5 on the model # are 00CAA0 and 00CCB0 respectively.) Now the drive spun up and I could hear the head going through its initialization procedure as it always does, but it still fails to be seen in BIOS. WD's diagnostic failed to see it either. I returned the board to the good drive and that worked fine. An inquiry on WD's web site found that it is still covered under warranty but no attempt to recover data will be made unless one is with a "government agency." Brilliant - give freebies to the agencies that can most afford expensive data recovery!!

Like a dummy I hadn't backed up in a month or so and have a bunch of data I would like to get back. I was wondering if anyone has had any luck with swapping controllers to get data back or if there is something on the controller board that "marries" it to the drive it is attached to that would prevent it from being recognized in CMOS if attached to another. Thanks!

 

[Rufusman]

The last few numbers you found on the drive (00CAA0) will be the firmware of the drive. In some cases these are vital for the successful swapping of a PCB.

Try to find one with the exact model and firmware and it should do the trick (no guarantees of course, as there still may be internal problems).

If you are in Australia, you can go to

http://www.pcbsearch.com.au.

They have thousands of drives in stock and will swap the board for you for a small fee.It costs nothing if they cannot copy the data.

 

[DesertTripper]

Thank you for the heads-up. Unfortunately, I do not live in Australia, and furthermore $500 (US or Australian) is hardly a "small fee" for me! There is a fleamarket in our area that sells surplus computer hardware so there may be a chance of me locating a drive there. I will make sure that the firmware codes match and see if I can get my data back.

Thanks very much,

Desert Tripper

 

[edfair]

there is a periodical for equipment resellers that carries heavy ads for drive refurb places that carry stocks of drives at reasonable prices. You might try their online ads to see what you can find.

http://www.processor.com

Ed Fair
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