Hard Drive Bios Chip Swap - Replace HDD Motherboard For Data Recovery

[@TheCod3r]

Hey everyone. As requested I can confirm the customer successfully recovered his data once he received the logic boards back. SMS confirmation here -> ibb.co/5R3LtTh

[@laelcellier1673]

Actually, is replacing the board without the bios results in the drive being not able to read a single sector (reporting sector unreadable) or is there something worse in my case? I have a Seagate 1er164-302

[@scotty562]

Came to the comments hoping for this comment. Happy to see it worked out.

[@lordjaashin]

had a sandisk engineering sample ssd that was stuck at engineering sample firmware. took out the DFN (dual flat no lead) bios chip and flashed it with officially released firmware using ch341a programmer. soldered back the updated DFN chip back on and voila that ssd is working flawlessly now

[@TheCod3r]

That's awesome bud, it's amazing sometimes what a simple firmware can do 😁

[@therefix342]

I have 2 drives that have been waiting for me to do this for about 2 years haha! Great job!

[@leejoynivlay2287]

Does its work?

[@wattage]

Thanks for the great vid, Phil. I've gotta do this on one of my HDs, too. Now I know how. Thank you!

[@denierlexiese]

Swapped bios chips last month for someone. Unfortunately it ended up not being a bios chip problem. Hard drive was a 40GB - pretty old - bought clone hdd - pcb board revision matching ebay. Could swap both bios chips to good hard drive and it booted with either chip - old and new - but the dead hard drive would not boot. It did spin though - no grinding noise. Shelved the project for now. Tried linux tools to recover data via testdisk too to no avail.

[@SeanBZA]

Likely dead head amplifier in the actuator then, or a bad motor that is able to get to speed, but not maintain it correctly. Think I still have a good number of them around though. I have a few dozen old drives of various types and ages, just went through all of them slowly and ran SMART full test, and binned any that gave any reallocated sectors or pendings. Stripped the fails and got a nice collection of magnets out of them.

[@TheCod3r]

@@SeanBZA this is a bit beyond my knowledge to be honest but awesome to see that kind kind info being shared in the community, thank you 😊😀

[@SeanBZA]

@@TheCod3r Yes I have had limited success with board swaps, at least i got enough of the data off to a clone drive, because i found a drive of the same model and version to act as temporary donor. not going to work with modern drives, but worked on the old 10G drive.

[@denierlexiese]

@@SeanBZA The linux suite of testdisk and its variations have been my best bet thus far for saving dying disks . Did a pretty deep dive with various 3rd party windows tools and was not nearly as successful. Glad to see this bios chip swap video. @TheCod3r is more skilled at electronic repairs than I am and it shows it can be done, and how to do it well. Videos like this have given me confidence to swap smd chips on larger computer motherboards and save them from the trash heap.

[@fritzj6803]

Do you have a video on testing the diodes and capacitors on the PCB board?

[@train4905]

Exellent job sir,well done

[@SidVish]

Im a gamer 1st and only a casual observer when it comes to this sort of thing. Here to see what I can learn as Im fascinated by it. What you do is amazing shit. Great stuff.

[@IEMedia]

I’ve tried all day to do this but it wont come loose off the donor pcb, used some flux and the heat gun whilst holding with tweezers and it wont budge 🤦‍♂️ 😆 You make it look so easy man haha

[@NaitorStudios]

Is it possible to just reprogram the bios, copying one to another?

[@bartoszalfabet9734]

I'm not an expert, but in my case reprogram bios make a job. I was afraid of soldering the chip like fire. Just use programmer ch341a, ofc need first unprotect (take off write protect) chip. My hdd is WD Blue wd10spcx (Winbond 25X40CLVIG).

[@horangkaya3447]

Need help, after I swap the bios from old pcb to new pcb, my hdd error initialized, i have data, wd mypasspor 4tb, what wrong about replace the bios not working, pcb has same series..

[@luxolomkhatazo2666]

is the flux the same thing as solding paste ?

[@radius.indrawan]

it looks like the pcbs are not the same in layout, maybe a different revision? but some revs share the same bios anyway, so yeah, hopefully it's a success for the customer. great video btw.

[@TheCod3r]

Thanks bud, yeah I thought the same but as I explained to the customer because he sourced the parts and just paid me for a chip swap it was his responsibility but he did message me and told me the data recovery was successful so I'm super happy about the outcome 😀

[@radius.indrawan]

@@TheCod3r wow, that's great! glad to hear that. 👍😀

[@DuaneWasylyshen]

To me it looks like he's replacing a USB hard drive to a sata hard drive since some of those drives are USB only and a royal pain if that's the case

[@MicroMageRepair]

Ahh the good ol bios chips.

[@TheCod3r]

Yep never had one sent before but nice to get some different content I guess

[@RD-gm9wz]

When swapping the PCB over and the chip has the same details do I have to swap it still so the laptop recognises the hard drive? I swapped it over with the same hard drive and the hard drive was spinning but wasn’t recognised

[@mininggod2275]

have the same problem. with my hdd mobile drive freecom, usb contact was brokrn, now i need to. remove the bios ic chip to another pcb. is this isolating pasta you ve used at the beginning?

[@Kirurishii]

(rephrased the question) does replacing a bios chip bypass the drivelock? Once a locked drive is accesible, data recovery should be able to work I think?

[@Kirurishii]

No, it doesn't. The BIOS is cooked to the HDD.. so a drive with Drivelock, without having a password is final.

[@rndea100]

if the 8 pins on the chip broke can it be fixed

[@NaitorStudios]

What's the recommended temperature for a lead free solder?

[@heikosoeder]

Is it not faster to reprogram with a clamp?

[@TheCod3r]

No to be honest this is a job that could be done within minutes (if I wasn't filming) but the data is encrypted anyway so I don't think it could be read

[@heikosoeder]

@@TheCod3r ok thats an argument!

[@SwampWater]

Hi! Do you still do repairs? I tried to do this myself and failed miserably!

[@ATP-Flo]

Which heat do you use with your hot air station? Thanks

[@thetravelernumber1]

I want to buy soldering and unsoldering equipment for beginner preffer something easy to use any suggestions please Thank u in advance

[@ivankovac69]

[@brunocecile8453]

A question..if we change the board without swapping the bios..can the hdd be formated and used after?

[@TheCod3r]

Unfortunately not, the bios chip is married to the hard drive and is required to be able to access the drive

[@brunocecile8453]

Thx for the explanation

[@johnquintonrajanlouiessasi7488]

Can I use hard disk without changing the bios ic ,is it work or not I don’t need to backup data

[@TheCod3r]

If you're changing boards you'll need to swap the bios chip. Without the correct chip the drive won't work. If you don't need to backup data you might be better off just buying a new hard drive

[@gracielaleiva1212]

Hola una consulta te dedicas a recuperar datos

[@andresbudihardja]

how to replace main IC

[@Eapepe]

Hi, It is necessary to replace the bios, can I read the files of my wd blue wd10ezex 2015 with another similar logic board?

[@lucasmedina7231]

For better results you need to find the exact pcb model and swap (or flash) the bios. I don't recommend replace the entire logic board cause the bios have the information of the sectors to write or read, another logic board could damage permanently the data

[@lucasmedina7231]

That's was i learn from Internet, in some days i'll flash the bios of my hdd, if it works i'll tell you

[@Eapepe]

@@lucasmedina7231 how do i update the bios? Do you have any video explaining?

[@lucasmedina7231]

@@Eapepe search "CH341A", you'll find a lot of videos explaining the process

[@lucasmedina7231]

Che recién caigo que hablas español

[@ahsanafzal48]

Hello. Are you based in the UK.

[@thetravelernumber1]

Hi what did u use in 2.08 minutes

[@TheCod3r]

It's called flux mate. It helps the solder to flow onto the components and pcb

[@7ossamelsayed346]

bro i have 500gb wd green so if i swap the plater into another hard drive has same model ill be able to see my data ?? the pcp of my hard drive has a broken pads on sata connecter i can buy a new pcp but im not sure if the head is in good condition or not n the pcp is not cheap so if bought a new hard drive can i put the old plater on it n thats all ?

[@TheCod3r]

You can't swap the platter without a clean room mate, it will destroy the drive without fail. You'll need a data recovery company to recover data if it has a mechanical failure

[@7ossamelsayed346]

@@TheCod3r well i open my hard drive ber4 i know that u need a clean room :( is it ok ?

[@cyih8u]

Hey, could I send my pcb board to you to get the BIOS chip placed onto a new board also? And if so, how much would that cost me?

[@jstro-hobbytech]

Cool video but an odd request. The customer will have had to kept the rest of the hdd in some type of clean room apparatus like Louis Rossman has, or am I missing something?

[@TheCod3r]

No the pcb is on the bottom of the drive exposed to the elements anyway so removing it is as simple as removing a few screws :)

[@jstro-hobbytech]

@@TheCod3r cool, that's good to know. I haven't even held a hard drive in like 5 years. My pc is loaded with ssds haha

[@jstro-hobbytech]

@Tano I wasn't aware that the controller was bolted on. Thanks for the info. Honestly.

[@aboothahiru6354]

Can I swap WD HDD 160gb pcd with WD HDD 1tb PCB and vice versa??

[@guitarado]

i am not able to make it. I have received a new PCB and swap it with my old one. HDD just blinked and is buzzing... 2 clicks after couple of seconds. Does not appear in windows...

[@swisspeach67]

That's what this video is about. You need to desolder the BIOS from your broken PCB and put in on your new PCB

[@guitarado]

@@swisspeach67 i did so already and the same result. HDD is visible in Windows but not possible to initialise

[@Mymatevince]

👍

[@leeg4116]

I would have been first but I was gaming lol! Great video, last time I messed about with a chip that size it was a 12C508A going into either a PS1, A Jerrold cable box or a philips brand btcellnet phone lol

[@xx_ars_enic_xx2831]

Well if that works why can't we move the nord chip on a ps4 from one board to another and also sort out corrupted nor chip 🤔

[@TheCod3r]

The corrupted chip can be fixed but the chip itself has some sort of encryption to my understanding which ties it to the console ID. This was basically a chip swap because the chip from the broken board was needed to access the files on the drive, so swapping it to a working pcb basically does the same as swapping renesas from one pcb to another 😁

[@xx_ars_enic_xx2831]

@@TheCod3r much appreciated you are legend and love your channel ant get a nuff

[@sososisi5888]

Why you gonna replace bios ship your pcb is new one ??????????

[@Walczyk]

neat

[@justaguy4real]

Good video, but when speaking with a thick accent, might want to slow down to help sound more clear. I had a hard time understanding. I tried playing video at .75x speed but no help. Usually I have to speed them up hahahaa

[@jeffbunney4110]

Hi mate is there any way to contact you ?

[@TheCod3r]

Yeah mate contact info is in the description :)

[@jeffbunney4110]

@@TheCod3r yea mate sorry haha, I've emailed you the email address will be under Garys*****[e-mail], hope to hear from you soon 😃 keep up the good work

[@iFixConsoles]

Finally watched lol

[@TheCod3r]

Haha yeah 🤣

[@smig72]

Second :)

[@jasondoesthings919]

First

[@liddy85]

Last😋