Replacing PCB on a SATA drive

[TheCenturion]

Mate has external hard drive. Wrong plug was plugged in, hard drive no longer works.

Cost of new hard drive is around £100. Cost of PCB is about £50.

Hard drive is an HD103SI samsung. It's a 1tb 5400 rpm drive. My question is whether replacing the PCB will fix the drive? I think I read somewhere that SATA hard drives can't be repaired by this method

The PCBs that I've found are for the HD103SI, so is it safe to assume that they work on this hard drive?

Thanks

 

[PistolPete]

Repairing drives by replacing PCBs is extremely hit and miss anyway.
You have to match PCB to very close tolerances, and even then an identical donor PCB may not work as the alignment of the sectors on the 2 PCBs maybe out - the larger the drive the more accurate (generally) the alightment has to be.

Unless you HAVE to have the data back (in which case I'd be asking where the backups are if it's important) I'd simply buy a replacement drive.

 

[TheCenturion]

Hi, thanks for the reply .

What about if the new pcb was taken from another hard drive of the same model? Would that improve the chances of fixing it?

The data is important. There are no backups

My Mate simply can't afford one of those data recovery services either, as they're usually hundreds of pounds

 

[CaptainCrash]

What about if the new pcb was taken from another hard drive of the same model? Would that improve the chances of fixing it?

The data is important. There are no backups

If you read around various tech forums, there are plenty of people who've apparently done it successfully, but obviously there are no guarantees, as even something like a different firmware revision can throw a spanner in the works. There's also the cost of the new drive to be taken into consideration - a few months ago I'd have said by all means have a shot at it, but at the current inflated prices it might need a bit more thought... worst case scenario, you'll end up with two dead drives instead of one as well as a considerably lighter wallet, and nothing to show for it.

I guess it depends on whether the value of the data justifies the gamble; only you (or your mate) can really answer that.

edit: just re-read your first post (properly this time) - if you can get the PCB alone, and it's *definitely* from the *exact* same make/model, it's probably worth a try.

 

[Boycey0211]

i've just had exactly the same problem on my HD103SJ, I've ordered a new PCB so i'll let you know in a few days how much luck i have with it. And yes i should have backed everything up but im a bit of a div. Fingers crossed eh!

 

[Idleman]

i've just had exactly the same problem on my HD103SJ, I've ordered a new PCB so i'll let you know in a few days how much luck i have with it. And yes i should have backed everything up but im a bit of a div. Fingers crossed eh!

Can you post a link.

Have a Seagate Barracuda LP 5400 1.5TB and plugged in my laptop charger by mistake. The caddy still works

 

[Boycey0211]

I don't really want to encourage people to pay £50 for a new pcb without knowing if its going to work first, and the only way I found out was by swapping the pcb from an older similar drive which causes it to spin up but not read because the firmware isn't right. Your best bet at this stage is to contact seagate directly and see if they can offer you an exact replacement, but like I say i want to make sure it works before I tell anyone where to get the stuff.

 

[TheCenturion]

I don't really want to encourage people to pay £50 for a new pcb without knowing if its going to work first, and the only way I found out was by swapping the pcb from an older similar drive which causes it to spin up but not read because the firmware isn't right. Your best bet at this stage is to contact seagate directly and see if they can offer you an exact replacement, but like I say i want to make sure it works before I tell anyone where to get the stuff.

Hiya mate, did your new pcb come? And did it work?