How to Replace a Hard Drive PCB for Data Recovery

[@jonathonbatkin6466]

I bought myself a heatgun and replacement PCB for a fried HDD. I swapped the BIOS chip over by following your video and to my utter suprise the drive span up and I got a 6TB drive back from the dead. I've renamed the drive Phoenix. Thanks :-D

[@jdigi78]

Happy to help!

[@bobbo2576]

@@jdigi78 what temp do you use

[@jdigi78]

@@bobbo2576 410 C

[@bobbo2576]

@@jdigi78 what does it mean when you change the bios chip but it still doesn’t recognizes the HDD. The drive use to work but had a burnt mark on the pcb. So I now swapped the bios. Still nothing. It spins and acts like it try’s to load.

[@MohammedZadjali]

Does the board have to be of the exact rev and number? I have another board that isn't the same board number and rev.

[@hughesm02]

Thanks for this. I was able to recover 4 years of images because of this video.

[@ashfakulalam2806]

Did you just swap the PCB board from a HDD of same model

[@ashfakulalam2806]

Will swapping only work

[@hughesm02]

@@ashfakulalam2806 you must also swap the chip from the old board as shown in the video

[@ashfakulalam2806]

@@hughesm02 will the HDD last long after changing the PCB. Or should I just backup my data immediately

[@bigdoggetom6549]

@@ashfakulalam2806 You should always backup your data ASAP

[@bruce_travel_pro]

What temperature (Celsius) dd you set the air at to remove & replace the chip?

[@mandrael]

I tested on a old HDD PCB and had good success with 310 C (hard drive worked). I just used flux and the same solder. I'm interested, too, what temperature you recommend. I heard too low is worse.

[@needspractice]

Well, looks like this is where my journey ends. For everyone that has been thoughtful and kind. Thank you. Looks like with the unexpected crash of this hard drive and the mistakes that I have made, I will not be able to retrieve this data. I will hold onto this drive-in case technology changes in the future or if I become independently wealthy and can afford a “professional recovery service”. To all the negative people out there. Humans are human. We make mistakes even when we know better. My father has been in computers for over 50+ years in the military. I know a lot about computers and backups. Life got in the way. I have a lot going on right now and the last thing I need is smart aleck comments about backing up data. Anyhow, I hope everyone has a wonderful day and wish all of you the best of success in life.

[@brownjeesus]

you alright bro?, you are not alone man shit happens, may God bless you

[@cruzecobalt2473]

Thank for the video. I was able to swap pcb's and rom chip successfully, and I'm copying the data at this moment. Thanks

[@LesChroniquesDeGeorge]

I saw the question was already asked but no answer? What temperature did you used ? Thanks

[@vegasmanic8609]

Liked and subbed. Thank you for the tutorial. Ive done several of these with success. A few minor notes, if you will allow. Zoom in...way in. The distance leaves some to wonder. The flux is really important when removing any component. You didnt mention it in the first chip removal, but did in the second. More flux at 5:09. You showed having to move the chip, flux will help the chip magnetize to the contacts. :) Very nice work though. Screw that sucker back on and hope for the best...or at least good. Thanks for posting.

[@RefractArt]

Would it help if the drives are identical? I just want to try my chances just swapping out the PCB.

[@jdigi78]

it would help, and most likely doesn't hurt to try

[@RefractArt]

@@jdigi78 Cheers, gotta try my options. I've sent one of the backups to a recovery company, and one is for myself to see what i can do. Basically lost 10 years worth of work after a pc case short.

[@vics_media]

Thank you for sharing, please advise if the new board must be the exact same model and type ?

[@jdigi78]

It should match as much as possible for guaranteed results

[@vics_media]

@@jdigi78 sometimes thats hard, I think I will just experiment and see

[@RearEntry]

great video, I wanted to know if I could still use the new pcb if I got rid of the old one that had the original bios. So far with the new PCB the drive spins but doesn't show on the OS. Thanks!

[@advang4820]

Other than number on PCB, must have to match the capacity as well? Like transferring BIOS chip from 10TB PCB to 4TB PCB, but both have same brand, numbers and type.

[@kevinrea7820]

When doing this so what temperature did you set your hot air gun to?

[@jdigi78]

About 415, but hot air rework temps vary greatly. Practice on some junk parts if you've never done it

[@ShootingSportz]

I have an old MAXTOR 20.4 hd, but I can't seem to locate the bios chip. I am wondering if I can just swap out the pcb with a donor one to get it to work?

[@jdigi78]

It might work, no harm in trying I suppose

[@justaguy4real]

2:30 what temp and airflow did you use?

[@jdigi78]

I don't remember, sorry. Look up a hot air reflow tutorial for more information. It's best to just practice on some junk electronics with similar sized chips and find what works best for your gear.

[@gendruwoo7213]

helo Sir, My hdd is spinning normally, but the device cannot be read by the bios, is there any possibility that the hdd can be repaired by replacing pcb and swapping bios ?

[@huzaimihusnikhusni6002]

i have the same issue...

[@Nemean320]

After a week of madness of acquiring/researching all the needed tools and PCB replacement, with faith but little hope I could make it work and recover my data, I'm hyped to share that it worked for me and its such a relieve to accomplish for somebody that has no experience with soldering, take your time doing it and I will definitely recommend to get one of the Chip Quick removal kits that includes the flux and alloy, it helps a lot to work neatly around the bios chip! Thanks to Joseph DiGiovanni for the guided video

[@jdigi78]

Congratulations on the recovery and learning a new skill. Soldering is a very useful one. Glad I could help out

[@vegasmanic8609]

Yes!

[@vegasmanic8609]

i also meant to say, find a few old ded hard drive pcbs and practice on them. Youll be surprised at how simple it gets, but get a hot air gun, with tips, 35 bucks, anywhere. It makes all the difference. :)

[@kwisclubta7175]

How many vids are you going to copy and paste this comment to?

[@MD-xi5vd]

Would you please put up a list of the tools that you used for this?

[@pinklightninggacha]

Flux, rework station that's just two the mat is a heat mat make that three the tweezers come with the rework station

[@monkbyblood]

Ahh yes the bios chip, that makes sense. I bought a replacement board years ago and never took it further than that, kept the drive with the hopes of recovering it. There is hope!

[@youarealooser121]

same

[@ihelpdogs]

@@youarealooser121 haha nice name. Question... i know you are a loser, but what is a "looser"?

[@agsechogd6406]

hey man, i have an identical hard drive but one is broken, the sata port is broken, so can i just replace the board from the identical hard drive without any special tools in order to recover data?

[@jdigi78]

You can try, it shouldn't do any harm. If it doesn't work you will need to follow what is done in the video

[@happylittlemonk]

Hi I need to do this myself so I bought a soldering kit. I do not have the heat blower but the hot-tip pen from the kit. I only get one shot on this so I do not want to do any damage. My questions are: - Can I use the hot-tip pen instead of the blower you are using. - Will the heat damage the chip in anyway - if I melt the soldering and it spreads and make the pins of the chip touch each other, will that cause a problem. You seem to do it very casually. - What is the cleaning liquid you used and why? - Can you advice me on how to do this with a hot-tip pen instead? Many thanks

[@jdigi78]

if you are going to use a soldering iron instead of hot air, I'd recommend chip quik. There are other videos demonstrating it's use

[@happylittlemonk]

@@jdigi78 Thanks for the reply

[@Dem0crazye]

Brother is there a chance the board would work with out swapping chips? My hard drives where water damaged so I am afraid of the what if.

[@needspractice]

I will be geting my rework station tomorrow. May I ask what heat setting is best for removing this PCB Board Firmware Rom Chip? It has a digital setting with three numbers on it so I would assume I could set it to the exact setting. I need both settings one for the soldering device and one for the heat gun part. It has two settings.

[@jdigi78]

Try 390C for both

[@HitEmUpru]

What temperature you set?

[@HOTRhuntinontherock]

Hi I have a hard drive it spins and works for just a few seconds, then stops sending data/info to my computer but it continues to spin, do you think this would solve my problem?

[@jdigi78]

From your description it can be 50/50. Worth a shot I think

[@HOTRhuntinontherock]

@@jdigi78 Thanks for getting back to me, seeing the disk is still spinning and there are no sounds (clicking) coming from inside of the drive I think I will give this a try.

[@cyih8u]

Wait, so do I need the solder also? In the beginning you didn’t mention that part.

[@jdigi78]

You should use fresh solder to attach the new chip, yes

[@Tony-nl6pf]

I don't have any equipment. Ordered the cheapest soldering iron on amazon for 7 bucks. Can this be done with just that? I practiced on the old motherboard and nothing seems to melt. I got the tiniest tip on the iron and put it to 450 but nothing would melt. Got the biggest flat tip and tried to heat up the entire component and nothing. I'm hoping the chip is easier than the one I practiced on.

[@jdigi78]

You should watch a soldering tutorial, you need to apply fresh solder to the tip to wet it so it makes good contact. Also to do this with an iron and not a hot air rework station you need something like chipquik, it stays molten longer so you can heat all the legs at once

[@user-wv8jo5iz3m]

Joseph, could you please write a few words about your equipment. What kind of tool (hot air rework station) did you use in the video? And what was the temperature? How large should be the air volume? i'm asking this because some hot air guns have air volume regulator. And i don't know what would could be the safe operational mode. Thanks for the video.

[@jdigi78]

I used a generic 852D+ rework station, I don't remember the settings I used but I imagine it was around 380-400c. You should practice on spare parts to just get a feel for the proper airflow and temperature yourself.

[@user-wv8jo5iz3m]

@@jdigi78 Thanks for the answer. I'm gonna try it on dead Seagate pcb. But it is kinda scary. i'm concerned that the same temperature would kill the good one / the new one pcb. But anyway thanks. Quick chip is very costly alloy...

[@meeko308]

I got my cord stuck on a chair and ripped the usb-c plug off my Western Digital ssd. It has the WD password protection. If I order the exact same board and swap the bios chip, do you think there would be any problems with passwords? It is set up to automatically recognize my computer when plugged in.

[@jdigi78]

I'm not sure how the encryption is implemented, but I'd bet it would work. I doubt it would hurt to try

[@meeko308]

So I got an identical board and swapped the chip. It didn't seem too difficult, and everything looks to be good. When I plug it in, it sounds to be spinning up normally. The computer recognizes it, but nothing shows in file explorer. No E drive. I can see it in disk management and says the drive is working normally, but I can't access anything. Any thoughts?

[@meeko308]

After about 20-30 seconds I can hear the drive make a different sound and it turns off or shuts down. I can still see it on the computer though... strange

[@jdigi78]

@@meeko308 does it have any partitions in disk management?

[@meeko308]

No. It just shows up by name under removable devices. I don't have it in front of me right now, but when I right click to view properties, under disk space it says "unknown". or "undefined".

[@802Garage]

If I have a Seagate drive with the click of death, do you know if it is possible the PCB is to blame? It spins up, clicks multiple times, then stops, and spins down. I'm trying to determine if I may be able to fix it myself or have to send the drive for recovery.

[@jdigi78]

clicking is likely caused by damage to the mechanical parts and won't be fixed with this method

[@802Garage]

@@jdigi78 That's whats I thought. Thank you.

[@Nooptema]

What temperature do you use?

[@manishvyas9742]

my 250 gb seagate hdd is detected in bios, but the same is not shown in windows ... i tried to re-solder the contact parts on pcb .. but not succeeded .... help & guide in this regard ... another question ... if i got another identical hdd pcb (with identical rev. no., firmware version, etc.), can i just swap the pcd and will it work or i also need to swap hdd bios/ram to target pcb ??

[@jdigi78]

In my experience you will need to swap the bios chip, you can try without doing that first and it shouldn't cause any damage

[@manishvyas9742]

@@jdigi78 Lots of thanks for your prompt reply ... i will tweak bios settings for my earlier part of my query ... thx for a informative video ..

[@Actorsplace]

Thank you for this! Question... I received a replacement logic board from China for a WD HDD but, on swap out before replacing BIOS chip, the drive motor would not spin up. Because there is a slight bit of damage to the board I am wondering of there are larger problems with the board or if this behaviour is to be expected prior to BIOS replacement? Or is the motor chip probably bad?

[@viktorvan-dam6719]

Great job , is bitlocker will be removed if I replaced the chip with new one ?

[@jdigi78]

You're replacing the board and transferring the chip, so it shouldn't effect any data stored on it

[@needspractice]

Another question: I bought this hard drive as an external usb storage device. It has failed. I took the hard drive out of the enclosure and put a Donor Board PCB on the hard drive without swapping out the PCB Firmware Rom Chip. I did this in order to see just how bad the damage was on the drive before sending it off to a “professional recovery service”. It appears to be in great shape and spins up nicely however, windows see’s the hard drive but cannot access the data. My main question is can I swap out the PCB Firmware Rom Chip from the original PCB Board with a rework station myself or do I need professionals do it(because I connected the drive without the correct Firmware Rom Chip; First)? Does advance programming or something else need to be done besides replacing the Firmware Rom Chip. Please advise and explain why/why not. I read on another repair website that Seagate drives have to have a professional swap out the Firmware Rom Chip if you connected the drive to the Donor Board without swapping the Firmware Rom Chip first. Does something special have to be done or am I reading this wrong? The website does say that you can do it yourself at your own risk if you feel comfortable.

[@dannyallen1938]

What make and model of heat gun are you using? I have the same issue and want to make sure I get the right one.

[@jdigi78]

I used a cheap generic hot air/soldering iron combo for this video. Any hot air solder rework station will work, remember to remove the part from the new board first as practice since you won't need that chip after the swap

[@andreastanu2367]

will this work if the drive is not spinning at all (before pcb replacement)?

[@jdigi78]

Less likely but yes

[@musicdaniels]

Hi, thank you for this video. Is it possible to avoid the swap of the bios chip by using a tool like ch341? The idea is to read bios data from the old bios chip and write to the new one.

[@ronarndt6722]

Yes, however, it depends upon whether the flash ROM (BIOS) is correctly recognized / selected within the flash programmer SW. I was able to do this on an older circa 2012 HDD, however, using two different flash programmer SW (on CH341a) I could not correctly identify the 25FU406C flash ROM on an HGST (Hitachi now WD) 1TB 2.4" as it appears WD has modified the flash ROM offset so when I attempted to use other common (LE25FU406BMA and W25P40) IC selections it only corrupted the test flash ROM so I will now have to attempt solder process. *** Warning ***I Strongly suggest you perform a backup of the donor HDD flash ROM (BIOS) first and re-flash back to the same donor BIOS and boot/access test (before) attempting to backup and flash the original BIOS to the donor BIOS else you could corrupt your original BIOS and it will become unusable (even with soldering process).

[@276matto]

This board like seagate st2000dm001. I need this. My external hdd is not working: not seen on pc, hdd turning low volume read/write head sound. sometimes happen sounds like scratch.. I think problem on board. What you think?

[@crazystuff9726]

Is that a hot air gun? I saw in another video that one should not use it to not destroy the board.

[@jdigi78]

They might have been referring to a heat gun which isn't temperature controlled or focused. A hot air rework station is exactly what you need for smd components.

[@crazystuff9726]

@@jdigi78 Thanks for the quick reply, as for as a understnad heat gun and hot air gun are the same thing. So I shouldn't be using either one, correct? I have a hot air gun for 30 dollars, made in china, 2 modes - 300 c and 500 celsius. What temperature should the solder station be put at?

[@jdigi78]

@@crazystuff9726 the key word here would be rework station, if your hot air gun has some nozzle to focus the heat like mine it may work okay. Get some old junk with smd components on it and give it a try

[@screaminbrod]

i have bought a replacement pcb and moved the bios chip from the old one to the new one, but it shows an i/o error. do you think i need to move other chips? any suggestions?

[@CollosalTrollge]

Gees man i really cant believe it, so the heat does not damage the component. If i dont have that heat gun how can i do it otherwise?

[@kevinthorn9672]

So you gotta swap the new bios chip pcb you got to the old pcb hdd thay didnt work?

[@jdigi78]

No. Old bios chip to the new pcb

[@kevinthorn9672]

@@jdigi78 ahhh ok and it should boot up and spin yea thats whats going on with mine wont spin at all idk if a diode at all also.

[@kevinthorn9672]

@@jdigi78 man i fucked my donor pcb chip I put flux hot air on it had tweezers and the chip broke off it smh and resadue on pcb..glad it was not my my pcb that had data fon 50 bucks down the drain omfg im so mad you make ot look easy the bios chip would not budge at all on my end and it broke.

[@jdigi78]

@@kevinthorn9672 try putting fresh solder on the pins before using the hot air. Use a higher temp. You shouldn't need to pull the chip off with force, the solder should melt and it'll fall right off

[@kevinthorn9672]

@@jdigi78 ya i killed the donor board other chips fell off also idk where i can send it for it to be done by someone else

[@jonjames3437]

Hi Joseph - thank you for the very clear video. I have a Seagate hard drive which I can "feel" spins up but the computer BIOS refuses to recognise the drive. The BIOS takes ages to load - a couple of minutes. I *think* the motor seems ok as the drive spins up. Do you feel that swapping the board (and the BIOS chip) would work? Or am I barking up the wrong tree? Many thanks, Alex.

[@jdigi78]

If your bios doesn't recognize the drive it's likely a bad board. I'd recommend swapping it

[@jonjames3437]

@@jdigi78 Thank you sir. I'll give that a go :-)

[@metinsaftan]

Hi i wanted to replace my PBC's bios but i broke my old bios leg. What can i do now can you help me?

[@hfakoor1190]

I need to do this. Mine is a WD 1 TB REV A 2060-771289-005. WHat other numbers need to match? Or is a PCB with this revision number bgood enough? Thanks

[@jdigi78]

If you can match those numbers that's good. Different revision numbers may work but always try to get the exact same one.

[@hfakoor1190]

@@jdigi78 Thanks for replying. What about the DCM (drive configuration matrix), LBA (logical block addressing) numbers etc. I'm able to fairly easily find matching revision numbers. One last question. Have you used the technique in the video more than once? In the video which numbers of yours matched?

[@jdigi78]

@@hfakoor1190 just match the model and revision of the PCB. I've done it a half dozen times with success on all but one drive.

[@HotShame0]

When i looked for pcbs to replace my hard drive pcb because i have broken sata pins which are lost. i saw the whole thing about replacing the bios too with soldering and whatever, i immediately quit. Then i watched your video and now im ordering the pcb. PS: the pcb has to be the same model number as your damaged hard drive pcb model number!

[@Videotubelord]

If Hitachi then 0J***** or 0A***** (first line of four) number on the sticker on the back of PCB.

[@zaancok15]

If my PCB sircuit HDD is broken, can using another PCB with PCB same serial and swap BIOS only, can worked? Thanks

[@jdigi78]

If you swap the bios chip then yes it should work

[@feliarana]

can you just get another board from the same drive and just use that ? I have an old hard drive that doesn't spin. One day it just popped and never turned on again. I'm trying to see if I can get the same board and try to replace it. It's this model: wd4000aaks 00tma0

[@jdigi78]

Yes just make sure it's the same revision number and everything, as close of a match as you can get.

[@dimwillow7113]

if a recovery software only sees 500 mb out of 320 gb..you think its the board or the mechanical disks inside the harddrive?

[@jdigi78]

Sounds like a mechanical issue or formatting issue. Either way replacing the board is not likely to fix it

[@nrobba86]

Hey, got a seagate HDD suddenly stop spinning. Starts spinning, 2 clicks, then stops spinning. Would it be worth trying this?

[@Videotubelord]

No

[@Michauu]

Will this work for external hard drive which was plugged into wrong charger, and now is dead?

[@jdigi78]

Most likely

[@jdigi78]

Usually large external drives that require a barrel plug have a separate enclosure pcb that can be replaced, and no chip swapping is required for this

[@waltergonzalezpaz5995]

Did you solved your HDD problem with that method?

[@dsconnct]

I just did this exact process but sadly my HDD is still not detected by my PC. I can hear my hard drive spinning but that's just about it. Can you please advise? Thanks so much!

[@jdigi78]

Does the drive show up in disk management? If the file system is corrupt it may not show up in file explorer.

[@dsconnct]

@@jdigi78 No it's not showing up in disk management. I'm pretty sure I did everything including swapping the BIOS chip. Any chance I can fix my drive some other way?

[@jdigi78]

@@dsconnct I don't think so sorry.

[@dsconnct]

@@jdigi78 Oh no...

[@beatkidblaze]

What exactly is the name of heat gun ur using? Need to buy one

[@Abu_Shawarib]

Any soldering station will probably do

[@hqdefault]

@@Abu_Shawarib Heat guns are better for surface mount parts. Unless you can find some kind of soldering tweezers.

[@thevandal8463]

I have unplugged an external HDD while i was locked on a screen "D: analysis and recovery: 100%" which started automatically on boot. Now connecting the drive freezes any process that tries to gain access to it(even Windows file explorer), and running chkdsk /f on It takes like 999 hours lol. What can be the problem, can swapping pcb be helpful in my situation? Thank you

[@jdigi78]

Could just be a corrupt file system. Try reading it on Linux.

[@Ivan-vv6nd]

I have one HD and i can not start hd because of problem with pcb Can i take bios from broken pcb and put on new (same HD ) pcb . And thet new pcb with replaced ( old ) bios instal in my HD

[@jdigi78]

yes that is exactly what you should do

[@daytonpyro]

just one chip to replace or could there be two or more?

[@jdigi78]

Not usually

[@amaanali607]

I had a external WD 3TB hard drive i got two months ago and it was having some connecting issues and then it stopped connecting completely like when i plug it in it doesn't act like it's plugged in. It does not spin at all and the light does not blink unless i bend the hdd usb port at certain point but even when the light blinks the hdd does not spin and acts dead. Please help me out here.

[@jdigi78]

might need a new usb port, swap the board on the drive like in the video or swap the usb connector itself

[@amaanali607]

@@jdigi78 i'll also have to swap bios after swapping the board right?

[@Michael-zr9yl]

Dude I've just ordered a hot air rework station, got an identical working drive with all the chip numbers the same.. so hoping this works for me

[@BV18BLD]

I have an segate expansion external hard drive 3,5 ; 2TB and when I plug the usb cable the sound of new drive plays and then nothing in my computer but in disk management it will show or in bios or in device manager ! my question is,if i will buy new pcb boart find after the qr code from the hard disk,it will work? thank you !

[@jdigi78]

does the drive vibrate or anything? if not the board replacement might work. Sometimes the drive will still attempt to show up in device manager etc because the usb controller in the external hard drive is still working fine

[@BV18BLD]

@@jdigi78 do you have whatsapp or smth to send you a video with the noise(I think normal) of the hdd?

[@jdigi78]

@@BV18BLD if it makes any noise at all it's likely powering up and the board is not likely the issue. Things to look for now would be "RAW" format in disk manager which means it is reading data but is corrupted. I'd consult a local repair shop before seeking any mail-in drive recovery options

[@geopapa80]

Any chance of success without a heat gun?

[@jdigi78]

Try low melt solder like chipquik, it stays molten longer allowing you to heat up all pins equally

[@geopapa80]

@@jdigi78 Thanks!

[@needspractice]

Recap: 1-Looks like my original bios was erased. 2-Looks like my original bios was only partially copied over to the new rom.: 512K worth. 3-I have one PCB Donor Board that boots up the hard drive and keeps it running but o/s can't read the data. 4. Data Recovery Place that transferred my bios to another PCB Donor Board, said they don't back up roms and they don't have my rom to email me. What are my options?

[@jdigi78]

Outside of contacting a big name recovery company, none. The rom contains important calibration data and it would take some serious equipment, software, and knowledge to be able to get the data with just the platters

[@needspractice]

@@jdigi78 Who do you recommend?

[@jdigi78]

@@needspractice I don't know, I've never sent out a drive for data recovery

[@SandWitch555]

is this more like data recovery thingy, probably its not worth wasting third of a new disk price for old pcb which might not even fix the problem?

[@mikeerickson4750]

It literally says "FOR DATA RECOVERY" in the video title.

[@yetkisizim]

I have two boards: 100617465RevB and 100617465RevA, is worth to change bios for the recovery data?

[@jdigi78]

if you already have them go for it, I've personally had luck using different board revisions but it won't always work

[@yetkisizim]

@@jdigi78 I tried to change once only whole board but pc did not see HDD... If i can find same revision i will try than, the data in it most important thing to me.

[@GoDxism]

What did you use at 2:54? Thanks.

[@jdigi78]

solder wick

[@deskharisma]

I have swapped the board and move the old bios chip to new one, it read on diskmanager but asked me to initialize and when i did it give error There's no rough noise or click on the drive Any solution?

[@jdigi78]

What was the original issue? Was the drive not spinning? Initializing the drive was probably not a good idea as it wipes the partition table. But the fact that it suggested you do that indicates a bad partition table was the issue to begin with

[@deskharisma]

@@jdigi78 my assumption was from the board due to it's very quiet (no spinning sound at the beginning), when i swap the board it spins and detected by computer but required initialization that won't work... So curious if you ever find similar case and that you might have any kind of solution? Thanks!

[@jdigi78]

@@deskharisma other than making sure the old chip is installed properly I don't think there is much you can do

[@deskharisma]

@@jdigi78 tried my best to install the chip but yeah i still can't make it works. Thank you anyway

[@sleepdose745]

my hdd got burned in the capacitor, is it possible to just replace the capacitor?

[@quangle-vv4zf]

Does the hard drive will work as normal after this repair ?

[@jdigi78]

Yes

[@quangle-vv4zf]

@@jdigi78 thank you

[@needspractice]

I have a Seagate Archive HDD (Seagate (STEB8000100) Expansion Desktop 8TB External Hard Drive HDD - USB 3.0 for PC Laptop). It was in an external enclosure. I have several external hard drives including a WD. I may have accidently used my WD power adapter for my Seagate Archive HDD. Nevertheless, my Seagate Archive HDD is no longer working. I bought several of these Expansion Drives. I opened another one and it is a Seagate Barracuda instead of a Seagate Archive HDD. I was just hoping to have a Donor for parts but no luck there. I went ahead and ordered from an online website the exact match PCB boards to see if I can get this hard drive working by myself. I am not looking forward to sending this off to a Data Recovery Service, but I am thinking about it. If someone could help me troubleshoot this a little beforehand to see if I can get this working without having to send it off that would be greatly appreciated. Here are my thoughts. The drive is completely silent, there was never a horrific ending to the drive. Like it is spinning up and crashing, knocking, beeping, whatever. Just one day I plugged it in and nothing. Now here is the odd part. It seems like something is barely connecting because in keeps connecting and discounting in windows. You hear the Windows Notification that it connects and then disconnects. Sometimes it stays connected and you can see in “Computer Management” under “Disk Management” the drive. It is like it is barely connected on a sub low level. What will happen is that in “Disk Management” a window will pop up and say you must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it. MBR vs GPT. Of course, after doing this, I get the error “The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error”. Disk 2, red down arrow, Unknown, Not Initialized Most of the time the partition data or the available space does not show up in disk management, but rarely it does show up, i.e., size of partition and available space to create a disk partition. However, even when that shows up it still gives me the error “The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error”. My thoughts are that the drive is fully functional, but I may have blown a diode or something. The hard drive was sitting in an enclosure and had an extra PCB Board that was a bridge between the power supply and the hard drive. This other PCB board on the external enclosure is working perfectly. I popped out another Hard Drive from another enclosure used it on the bridge and everything works perfectly. So, I am not sure how the Seagate Archive HDD failed even when the External PCB power supply which held it did not. This is what leads me to be that somehow the PCB Board is no longer working on the Seagate Archive HDD and this may be a simple solution. I ordered a new PCB Donor Board and was hoping all I must do is transfer the “Bios” and install the new Donor Board and everything works. My question is troubleshooting. Before messing around with my vital “Bios” chip. Can I just swap out my Donor Board to just see if power is restored and the drive spins up? I know I will not be able to access the Data however, I would be able to confirm that my other original PCB board is the main culprit. Then proceed to swapping the “Bios” chip on the Donor Board. Will swapping the PCB board without swapping the “Bios” chip cause any “Data” loss or damage the Seagate Archive HDD? Troubleshooting Steps -1 Order Donor PCB Board -2 Swap Original Board with Donor Board without Swapping Bios Chip -3 See if Seagate Archive HDD powers on whatsoever, spins, etc. -4 If powers on and spins up, swap out Bios Chip -5 If Bios Chip is swapped and drive is still not responsive begin consultation with “Data Recovery Service”. Another question is do I simply just send this off to a “Data Recovery Service” I would hate to swap out my Bios chip and make it more difficult for them to recover. However, if it is a simple PCB Board Swap and Bios Swap, I would prefer to do it myself. Please feel free to give me any other pointers. I am just trying to perform some basic troubleshooting tactics before sending this drive off for an expensive recovery. I just have a feeling that this might be as simple as a PCB Board/Bios swap because the drive was never dropped, and in perfect condition. It is not that old either. Thanks!

[@jdigi78]

There shouldn't be any data loss caused by swapping the PCB without the bios chips, if this is an external drive you can replace the USB3 to SATA PCB without needing to swap any chips. If that doesn't fix it though you may need to swap the PCB on the actual drive itself and its respective bios chip

[@needspractice]

@@jdigi78 wow, thanks so much for replying. Yes, I have three of these drives. I took apart two of them. I interchanged the USB3 to SATA PCB boards on the non working drive with no luck. The good hard drive works on both USB3 to SATA PCB boards but the non working hard drive does not. Therefore, I am thinking it is the PCB Board that is at fault. What are the odds that this is a PCB Board is the main issue and this can be resolved easily? I have a couple PCB boards on the way to play around with. I will practice first on a couple of dead drives (soldering, etc.) that I do not care about. However, I do want to be very careful. I will swap without bios chip first and then try with bios chip after practicing. I have read in extreme lucky cases you can just swap out the PCB board and it works. I doubt I will be that lucky.

[@wensgaming1633]

can i change the boarf from 500 gb to my 1 tera board?

[@jdigi78]

if they look like the same exact board its worth a shot. Otherwise don't bother

[@SirKhalidGaming]

Can this be a permanent solution or is it only temporary to recover the data?

[@jdigi78]

I suppose it would continue to work but I personally wouldn't trust it because I've seen some of the replacement boards come in pretty bad shape. If you're going to do that at least invest in a good backup solution

[@SirKhalidGaming]

ok, thanks for answering

[@vegasmanic8609]

No! get the data off, and scrap the harddrive! :)

[@Shiro-Foxy]

Hardrives even at high capacities are not very expensive compared to losing precious data. Just get a new one.

[@Highlight.cricketipl]

Is it necessary to swap bios?

[@jdigi78]

yes, it won't work otherwise

[@andresbudihardja]

i have drive can detect but not spin & incorrect function message after choose initialize disk use MBR in disk management

[@jdigi78]

This will likely not fix it

[@andresbudihardja]

@@jdigi78 how to replace main IC 88i6745-TFJ1 ?

[@youarealooser121]

Is that ball juice in the syringe

[@Djenka100]

what would happen if i just change one pcb for the other? is there any chance to work if i just swap it?

[@jdigi78]

yes it may work, and it shouldn't cause any data loss but it's no guarantee

[@Saradomian]

Do you still respond on here I need help to please, one of my hard drives gets powers it's pretty obvious because when I've got it plugged in it gets warm, but the platters aren't spinning and there's no vibration... DO i need to replace the whole PCB ALONG with a BIOS or just the PCB as a whole. Western Digital NAS 6TB 2014, Please help thanks!

[@jdigi78]

if it gets warm it could be a short on the pcb. I would swap the board, you will most likely need to swap the bios chip as well. if you're not comfortable with doing it ask a local computer shop if they can do it. Avoid chains like geeksquad though

[@Saradomian]

@@jdigi78 I'm in the united kingdom, i don't know what or who geeksquad.

[@Saradomian]

@@jdigi78 SO if my hard-drive is getting power, does that mean I still have a 90% Chance by replacing the pcb/bios chip, that my hard drive will work?? Even if the platters aren't spinning I was switching harddrive bays earlier on, my harddrive was working 100% fine never dropped or anything, i think it maybe fried circuit.. so i highly doubt it's the spinners Do you think with this being said that it could be the spoinners, i hope it's not!

[@jdigi78]

@@Saradomian it's hard to say, but if the pcb gets warm I'd say it will likely still work if you replace the pcb

[@Saradomian]

@@jdigi78 That doesn't answer, to much and give me hope.. Would you say the platters are fucked or stuck, what's the chances in that? because that's something 100% I dont want to really deal with if they are

[@needspractice]

Dude you are amazing man, hope you are successful and doing well. Another question. You can't use a firmware or bios or whatever transfer program like ch341 to simply transfer this critical information or program it into the donor board without doing the rework station swap is there? No worries if not, I already ordered everything I need from your video.

[@jdigi78]

Thank you! I'm sure the data could be transferred if it's erasable memory but the chip swap is much less technical

[@HollowPs]

I fried my 2tb Seagate barracuda from using wrong psu cables. I swapped boards with another drive I had and I felt the disk spin up so I bought a replacement board. Swapped over bios chip and it doesn't spin. Like what are the odds I got a bad replacement? Sucks man, I feel defeated.

[@jdigi78]

It's pretty likely actually. The boards are from junk drives so they are likely all untested. I'd say they're pretty likely to give a refund or just send you another if you tell them it doesn't work. Leave out the fact that you swapped the bios chip though. Probably a good idea to do the same spin test with the new board you purchased before swapping the chip

[@HollowPs]

@@jdigi78 Yeah I definitely should've tried to power it up beforehand, kicking myself for that lol. I ordered through AliExpress so I'm not gonna hold my breathe they'd send a replacement, but it was cheap enough that I might just buy 2-3 this time. One has gotta work right 😅 Forgot to mention the first time but thanks a lot for the video it was my first time doing something like this and it was very easy to follow a long with you 👍

[@1985dayanand]

Sir My Seagate HDD spins and stops for few minutes how can we recovery the data By swapping Platters and BIOS IC it’s possible to recovery the data

[@jdigi78]

I'm not confident it's the pcb but if you know what you're doing there is a low risk of damaging anything doing a pcb swap so you may want to try that first to rule it out. I'm not familiar with head swapping or any other form of HD repair sorry

[@IbranorIbrahim]

my ic feet broke. if i insert it back can it still function?

[@gareth7762]

Hi there, great video mate. This helped my uncle who's a dairy farmer. His HDD failed and we tried this after a few other things. I have another question though. I've a galaxy s6 that I currently can't access the storage on as the screen is not displaying and it's locked. When I plug it in it needs to be in debug mode to access storage but I can't because screen is blank and it wasn't set up before hand. I've got different software but Samsung's are encrypted so even though it's detected by windows I still can't get anything off it. I've tried to use a mouse but nothings working. It's basically like a usb I can't access. I think I might need to remove the flash or transplant into another s6. Any ideas? Thank you

[@jdigi78]

happy to help! I'd just replace the phone screen before anything else, if it really is just the screen broken. Swapping chips in a phone is very different because it's likely encrypted and may use other parts of the phone for that encryption.

[@angelthman1659]

But did it work? Were you able to access the drive?

[@jdigi78]

Yes, the drive ran just like nothing ever happened (originally it did nothing because one of the components was shorted out)

[@angelthman1659]

My drive appears to be spinning, recognized in disk utilities (mac), but it won't mount or repair. Any suggestions?

[@jdigi78]

@@angelthman1659 Macs can be picky about mounting failing or corrupt drives. I'd recommend mounting it in linux as read only or if it has windows on it use a windows machine. Linux would be ideal though

[@CedricMcCay]

I have the EXACT same situation. I don't even need to recover the data (Time Machine saved me), but I'd like to be able to use the 750GB as either a 2nd external backup or, preferably, an internal 2nd hd, with partitions.@@angelthman1659 Thanks for your question!

[@vegasmanic8609]

@@angelthman1659 Platter transfer. Not too difficult, but you need to wear gloves.

[@joseserrano7052]

Well im in the same boat now with a WD 5tb external hard drive Have all the items and need the bios swap, well see if i can find someone locally to do the swap and a good price. If not ill take my chances and do it myself 😂 doesnt seem that difficult at the end of the day with the right tools. Tried swapping it alone (knew it wouldnt work but doesnr hurt to try)but wont read anything

[@arifansari24]

hello sir my wd hard disk is pcb board dead how to recovery data ? how to fix hard disk ....please help me fast reply

[@jdigi78]

Watch the video?

[@rizalakhmad4282]

will I lose data after changing the hard drive pcb ?

[@LMB222]

no

[@Shiro-Foxy]

Highly unlikely. The data is on the platter disks internally, not stored on a circuit or chip like solid state drives. The circuit pcb is for making it function.

[@needspractice]

HD-Front ufile.io/lk1a7uhh HD-Back ufile.io/c3svwk11 Repair - Front ufile.io/ez3jou40 Repair - Back ufile.io/h77bd47a Granted please note they said that the original rom was too damaged to transfer. They did this as a courtesy. I have another pcb donor board that has supposedly a new rom with my original bios information transferred over to it. However, you can see here the "condition” of the original rom. I am hoping all the information can still be transferred from this rom. Its not beat up too bad right? Both pcb donor boards; the one with the original rom and the new transferred over with the information rom do not power up the drive at all. Zero, zilch, nada. I can post photos of the new rom and new board if needed as well however, it looks good I believe. If the information was transferred over properly.

[@needspractice]

Sad Update. I replaced my bios chip on two new donor boards with no luck on both of them. However, I don't think I was placing it right because I could never get a solid connection. It would always pop right off. Hopefully, I didn't destroy the chip because I know it will be party over if I did. I have sent the pcb board and bios chip to a repair facility for them to install the bios chip for me and send it back. Hopefully they still can but they might not be able to. The pins are still in great shape however, you can't read the numbering anymore therefore don't know which side to face the chip. yikes. I already contacted gilware and they said don't bother sending us the drive if the bios chip is fried. crazy huh. Aren't these companies suppose to be able to pull a rabbit out of a hat? I know its expensive and all. My question is i know i did everything wrong and its all my fault. Are there any options left? Can someone read the rom off the platters and reprogram a new bios chip and install it for me? Can someone do a platter swap in a clean room? Please Advise without kocking my head off preferably. Be somewhat gentle.

[@jdigi78]

There is no need to use the hot air to put it back on. just solder each leg individually with a normal iron to make sure it has good contact

[@jdigi78]

Also the chip usually has a dimple to indicate orientation

[@needspractice]

@@jdigi78 Aw, I do think I saw that. I still do not know which direction that dimple should be. Hopefully the company I sent it to will install it properly via solder.

[@needspractice]

@@jdigi78 For some reason that was hard for me. I had a sperate solder gun and solder but it just wasn't coming together. That is why I shipped it off. We shall see what happens and I'll report back. If they can't do it, I'll try to give it another go when I get my parts back. I still have the hard drive.

[@ChineseSe7en]

Just want to confirm. A PCB is just that, right? A circuit board? No data on it? Need to get mine fixed.

[@jdigi78]

No data other than the bios chip which contains calibration info for the drive head and platters

[@ChineseSe7en]

@@jdigi78 Thank you. As mentioned in video, its not as easy as just swapping the boards. There's no other fix?

[@jdigi78]

@@ChineseSe7en there are other things that could be the problem, but if the drive doesn't spin or you don't hear the head attempting to read the data it is likely the board. You can't just swap the boards without the bios chip. You may be able to take the PCBs to a computer shop and ask them to do this specific task, they may do it

[@mscpro]

It's a good job. Thank you for this video helped me to enhance my skill in Electronic mostly about soldering an ic part. Thank alot for share this video. [Greeting for Indonesia] ^_^

[@slammedniss]

Watching this gives me hope in being able to repair my own Seagate HDD. Not really sure I wanted the confidence boost haha.

[@Saradomian]

Did you repair it!

[@itrefresh]

tnx, but more important, did it work?

[@jdigi78]

yup, if your drive is doing nothing at all like mine was it's a power issue which a new board is almost sure to fix

[@shamaatae22]

what exactly need to match on the new hd to pull this off? cant find any reliable info with google. Model sure. Firmware also. "date code"? Need to know before i go buy some shit of ebay for $$$

[@needspractice]

Okay, I finally connected the bad drive directly to my motherboard to see if I could see it in my BIOS. Nothing. Can't see a thing. I connected one of the good drives and I could see it perfectly in my BIOS including the size of the partition. So how I can see this bad drive in Windows under Disk Management connected via a usb controller but I can't see it in my BIOS. When it is connected in Windows I can't do anything with it because it wont initialize, but something is connected. Oh wait a minute, I think windows is seeing the USB Controller and the USB Controller is telling windows something is here, however, when windows goes to access the drive through the controller there is no response. Honestly, what I am thinking is that this bad drive is getting zero power. I mean when I hooked up the good drive it immediately powered up and you could hear everything working, spinning, etc. When I hook up the bad drive, absolutely nothing happens, as if the drive never turned on. I think all the confusion is the USB Controller that was enclosed in the External Case is what is causing all of these confusion problems. If I connect the bad drive to the motherboard directly, zero, zilch, nothing. I don't feel anything, no spin, no clunking, not even it attempting to turn on. What does this mean? Possible bad PCB Board? Or the Drive more than like Seized? I would think that if the drive seized you would hear it power up some and try to do this and that. I am more incline to think the PCB is dead and nothing power/information/commands are even getting to the hard drive. What do you think?

[@jdigi78]

PCB is dead, swap it and the chip as shown in the video and it should be all good 👍

[@skylargarrett9865]

hey Joesph I really need some help with my bios swap

[@jdigi78]

what exactly are you having trouble with?

[@skylargarrett9865]

@@jdigi78 I have bad shaking problem condition with my hands I was hoping maybe you could do my bios swap

[@jdigi78]

@@skylargarrett9865 sorry I can't do that, I'd recommend taking it to a local computer repair shop and asking if they could do it

[@skylargarrett9865]

Yea 5000 to repair

[@jdigi78]

@@skylargarrett9865 They're trying to sell you a full data recovery. Try a small shop not a chain, and tell them exactly what you want "swap this chip with the one from this new board". At the old shop I worked at that would be a $50 job at most

[@needspractice]

Another Update: I just got my Donor Board. The drive spun right up and sounds great, no crashes or nasty sounds. It does try twice to read and then gives up so I think there is where swapping out the BIOS is going to work, right? I'll go ahead an order a rework station now to perform the procedure.

[@jdigi78]

Sounds like you're on your way to a successful repair so far. Good luck

[@markdoorley4100]

Don't know what I'm doing wrong. When it comes to removing the chips I can't get them to budge. I've got a soldering iron heated to a good temperature but when I use it with the tweezers I can't get the chips to budge, at all. You made it look so easy! Any ideas anybody? I'm just about at the giving up stage with this HDD.

[@jdigi78]

if you're using a standard soldering iron try a product like chip quik. it's solder that stays molten longer. Otherwise try applying fresh leaded solder to the pins before trying to remove, lead free solder found in consumer devices can be harder to work with

[@needspractice]

Another Update: Okay I got my ROM back. Well, I got my ROM back that is a New ROM. They said that my original ROM was too damaged, but they were successful at transferring the ROM information from my Original ROM to this NEW ROM. They checked twice that it was transferred over successful. Well of course it did not work. The drive is seen in windows but barely. It is doing the same thing before like the original problem. Completely and 100% silent. (I think all windows recognizes is the bridge that it is connected to). This is the weirdest part. I ordered some more PCB Donor Boards and if I put any of those on this hard drive the drive comes to life. It boots up twice or tries to read the drive twice and gives up. What dose all this mean? Did some how the original ROM get corrupted and is permanently damaged? Long Shot They suggest the file system could be corrupted and that this is almost 100% fixable. Connect PC Max 3000 and either get lucky and extract the data by bypassing the software lock because the drive is in defensive mode or rip the data off raw but will take a while (same as bypassing the locked codes). Recap: 1-Original PCB Board with Original BIOS in perfect shape (something happened): -Drive would not boot up, completely silent, not moving or humming at all. OFF. 2-New PCB Donor Board with random bios that is already on the board (Testing): -Drive boots up and tries to read but gives up and fails. 3-New PCB Donor Board with Original BIOS (I installed it myself, botched it up) -Drive would not boot up, completely silent, not moving or humming at all. OFF. 4-New PCB Donor Board with New Rom (Installed by professional, bios information transferred over) -Drive would not boot up, completely silent, not moving or humming at all. OFF. … What does all this mean? Something is corrupted with the original bios? How does the drive power up and try to read with a random donor board with whatever BIOS that came with it; but when it is connected with the original bios its dead as a door nail? I will be getting back my original pcb board and original bios/rom. I’m sure the ROM is in ruff shape but the information has been transferred over to a new ROM. So that is good at least. What are my options at this point? Is my data lost forever?

[@qadeertalpur542]

Bro my hard disk sata not working and my data is important

[@Dead_Goat]

Why not replace the entire controller?

[@jdigi78]

you are replacing the entire board, but you need to swap the bios chip from your old one

[@satorizero5448]

Thank you, I will try this