PCB PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD REPAIR
In this section I will explain common faults and some key features of the PCB as well as describing possible faults.
How important is each component to the drives operation? and why swapping incorrect PCB's can result in more damage.
When if possible, will PCB replacement work.
PCB PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD REPAIR
HARD DRIVE REPAIR
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Do it yourself hard drive repair & the risks
Please: Evaluate this site Before attempting any form of self data recovery or hard drive repair
What is the problem?
Does the hard drive spin?
If so does it click?
Does the armature kick out?
Do the hard drives heads vibrate to initiate?
Is there an odd smell to the drive?
If it doesn't spin do you here a slight or faint ticking sound?
Does the BIOS see the hard drive?
Does the BIOS see the hard drive as the correct model?
Are there funny characters showing on boot?
Does the operating system blue screen?
Important things you should be aware of before you do anything to a suspected failed hard drive
Static discharge will kill a hard drive when handling... especially the internal components
Dust will destroy your data... DO NOT OPEN! In my experience I see so many hard drives destroyed by helpful neighbors when the problem was not situated internal of the hard drive assembly. Just because it clicks doesn't always represent an internal failure.
Swapping the electronics runs the risk of further damage, especially if the revision number of the PCB is different.
You will have a greater success of data recovery with less risk if the original electronics is repaired.
Hard Drive Repair
& Data Recovery Information
The Printed Circuit Board controls many functions to operate the hard disk drive, There are 5 main features of a the electronics that can be unique to each drive that is likely to fail, the first being:
POWER INPUT
The most problems we see here are mostly human era... forcing the power plug in the wrong way
Unfortunately apart from a few notebook PCB's the is no protection fuse to prevent PCB Damage
There is also risk of power surges making it through to the electronics as well
FIRMWARE
Firmware is unique to the PCB this controls calibration and track information so it is very rare to be able to interchange the same model PCB with one that has another firmware revision... so what this means, if your board shorts out the firmware unique to the drive, you will be in trouble. Of course a good main stream data recovery company will be able to replace this and manually reprogram this chip
SPINDLE IC
This controls the speed and rotation of the spindle rotating the platters internal to the hard drive assembly or HDA
These intend to get very hot at times and can often short out… The most famous of models to this was the good old quantum LCT, particularly the TDA5247HT Chip; this would go up in smoke and leave a pin hole or a very big mess on or over the IC
MICRO CONTROLLER
These rarely fail unless there has been an extreme hit by power such as a lightning strike that may cause voltage through the IDE Cable. If this does fail you would normally find visible damage
TRACKS
Internal track are the thin Copper ribbons that run through the board that connect each component these can be easily damaged bay any of the above case scenarios, but one of the most common that I have seen is Corrosion
Below is a great Example of how quickly chemicals in the air from industrial workshops or even sulfa in the air from volcanic regions can cause havoc... but for most residential computer hard drives its condensation that damages a PCB
In this example this PCB was only 6 months old
WARNING IF YOU CHANGE A PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD WITH A NON MATCHING PCB... SUCH AS DIFFERENT FIRMWARE, LAYOUT, OR MICRO CONTROLLER NUMBERS, YOU WILL RUN A HIGH RISK OF FAILURE AND FURTHER DAMAGE!
Yes there's a high chance...
YOU WILL SEE SMOKE!!!!!!
If you have an exact match to the PCB you want to attempt swapping, the risk will be minimal but what allot of people don’t realize, is that code can change overtime even with exact matching parts.
What this means is... if you were to purchase two NEW exact hard drives at the same time from the same batch and then swapped there PCB's to each other, you would most likely be successful!
Try that same scenario 6 months after heavy use... and results will could be very different
There's a high chance that each PCB has made themselves unique to each drive!
How can this be?
Its called SMART Technology where the hard drive is designed to reconfigure itself during operation to maximizing performance and protecting data. If a sector is read slow but functional the drive will remap this sector as bad and move this sector creating changes to track and sector information in firmware
Now this new reconfigured information is unique to the drive, and can cause this PCB to be incompatible with any other drive of matching numbers.
As a data recovery engineer it is always best to repair the Original electronics of a failed hard disk drive
That way you get maximum results with very little risk, Most high end data recovery companies have the expertise to replace many, if not all components on the PCB.. but not only physically but replacement, but this may also involve new components and reprogramming.
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