Disaster with a pleasant ending!

[Saddle]

I just wanted to share an experience I just had, and a solution that I didn't even know existed...

Three weeks ago, my own personal DAW (digital audio workstation)/general purpose computer died. Although I'm not sure of the exact sequence of events, I lost the P/S, motherboard, and the controller PCB on the hard drive fried. Literally blew open one of the chips on the little PCB.

Of course, I didn't have a recent backup, and I was a bit frantic. 40 gb of audio and other files basically gone. The drive is a Seagate 7200.11 500gb drive.

Knowing that the drive and platters were basically undamaged, I started looking for a used drive so I could switch out the PCB. I found a company advertizing on eBay that not only had a replacement PCB, they can copy the firmware, with the settings of your drive (platter, heads, sectors, translation info) and move it all into a new PCB.

It seems that the 7200.11 drive series had several inherent problems with seek errors, track 0 errors, etc., and they can provide you with a new PCB with all the settings and firmware version.

Anyway, the good news is that I got the new PCB back, mounted it on the drive, and it works as well as if nothing had ever happened.

Yes I now have a backup. Three of them. Bought O&O Backup and really like it.

Anyway the Company is www.PCBSolution.com

Kevin was a real help, generous in His e-mail replies, and all in all a very pleasant experience.

They provide solutions for a myriad of problem drives. Maxtors, WD's and Seagates. They are worth looking into.

Thanks

 

[wimwauters]

It looks like he got swamped?
-
update: site's back!

 

[seedubya]

Good to know - thanks!

Anyone know what's involved in actually doing this?

 

[Saddle]

I know that on some drives (maybe all of them) there is a serial interface that using Hyperterm and a protocol converter, you can communicate directly with the console in the hard drive interface. It may be that there are commands that allow you to dump the firmware and/or settings (drive parameters) and then copy that info to another board.

It sure saved my bacon!

 

[rsarceno]

Thanks for the info. I have been doing some research on the subject matter. Recently I sub-contract a data recovery with clean room facility. The initial report as follows:

"Electrical Analysis:
The hard drive contains a board called the hard drive controller board, in this phase we check whether all chips on the board are functioning. We will check to ensure that power is being supplied properly to the drive.
The Test Concluded that the board is fully functional....."

The tech said that it only required a Multimeter to check the PCB and there's no't much to check. Does anyone have info "HOW TO" diagnose PCB.

Thanks

 

[phaZed]

I know that on some drives (maybe all of them) there is a serial interface that using Hyperterm and a protocol converter, you can communicate directly with the console in the hard drive interface. It may be that there are commands that allow you to dump the firmware and/or settings (drive parameters) and then copy that info to another board.

It sure saved my bacon!

This. On most SATA drives you will see a series of pins, just like the 'ol PATA drives. This is how the factory loads/modifies the ROM on the PCB. It can also be used in a limited capacity to diagnose the PCB and verify it is operating correctly.

Check this site out:
http://howto.starahead.com/?p=61

Seagate had a problem with some firmware a while back that basically marked the drive (On the PCB) as BSY - "Busy" forever. Hyperterming and then sending some commands can save the day.

 

[Larry Sabo]

I would doubt they check all the ICs on the board. The only thing you can check with a multimeter is the sacraficial TVS (transient voltage suppressor) diodes. They are usually what blows in an over-voltage situation.

 

[RegEdit]

http://www.hdd-parts.com/ is another good data recovery site that teaches you what you need to match up when swapping PCB's.

they can copy the firmware, with the settings of your drive (platter, heads, sectors, translation info) and move it all into a new PCB

I never knew they could do that. That's good to know. These people are GOOD!

I heard that 50% of physical failures are fixed by replacing the PCB.