Hard Drive Circuit Board Replacement

I have an old Maxtor Diamiondmax Plus 45 with what I think is a bad circuit board after a power supply surge several years ago. I recently found a similar model on ebay and purchased it and swapped out the circuit board. I have some old pictures I want to try to recover. I didn't think it would be easy. After switching out the boards I the drive in a computer as a slave; however, the computer didn't recgonize it. Any suggestions??

B/T/W- I now have an external drive which automatically copies data and files from y computer.
Thank you in advance.

 

Why not try connecting the HDD externally via USB using an ide/sata to usb2 connector.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...156102&cm_sp=DailyDeal-_-12-156-102-_-Product

Good Luck

 

Thank you very much. One question- Does the USB connector bypass the bad circuit board?

 

I doubt it, the controller is the conduit between the platters and the PC. Was the original purchased drive recognized by your machine in the first place? Have you tried any of the tools found here at Seagate to see if it's operational? Click on downloads/SeaTools.

Please realize that I'm grasping at straws here. Do not bring back to 'factory condition' as that will wipe the drive forever.

 

Not recently. A few years ago I tried a few tool available, but to no avail. This weekend I'll try again. I was thinking that the firware on the new board may be different from the old one. I may reinstall the circuit board on the new (used) driveand install the same firmware as the old drive, and then, reinstall the new board on the old drive. i.e., if I can locate the right firmware. Its a challenge anyway you look at it. If it works great, if not-well, I learned my lesson about backing up data etc!!!

 

My understanding is the board has to be an exact match. Your original post says a similar drive. Does the board look identical?

 

The newer the drive, the closer the match must be, ATA drives to about 5 years ago were usually fine with the same firmware revision level; more recent ATA and SATA drives may also need a chip from the original board resoldered to the new one, depends on the maker.

 

Sach2,

Its the same model number, code and gigs, -has the same HDA designation (whatever that is), but the PCBA (03A for the old drive and 10A for the replacement drive )and Unique ( 11A on the old drive and 54A on the replacement). Again, I don't know what these mean.

Thanks. HB


Satrow,

If necessary I have a friend that could attempt to change the chips out

Thanks!!!

 

I don't know what the PCBA is either. I have only read threads about swapping circuit boards and they seem to want an exact match. Model number and gigs would seem like a match to me.

You seem to be tech savvy but just to make sure you didn't forget something simple, have you set your jumpers to slave according to the label diagram for that drive? Have you looked to see if the drive is recognized in BIOS rather than just looking in Windows for a drive letter?

Maybe try and set the old drive to master and connect it as the only HD to see if it is seen by BIOS. Of course it won't boot but just check if it might be seen by itself.

 

Jumpers are in the proper position. I'll trying connecting it as the primary and see what happens this weekend. Thanks again!!