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Do not swap hard disk drive HDD printed circuit boards PCB.
Under no circumstances should you attempt to swap the controller board on damaged / faulty drive with one from a functional drive. Replacing the controller board may very well cause a mechanical failure and render your salvagable data unrecoverable.
Switching boards won't work in most cases. The reason for this is that the drive information carried on it's controller board is unique.
We are well equipped to change any microchip on drive PCB, re-program ROM chip and restore disk bootable microcode. Even one damaged microchip may cause the drive failure or damage to the data. Normally, the chip replacement or reprogramming will fix the problem.
PCB flash memory chip contains a part of booting software, commonly known as a firmware. The disk service zone carries the other part of the booting code. Both parts are required by BIOS to properly identify and boot the drive. There are many firmware available. Therefore, the printed circuit board replacement may very well cause unrecoverable damage to the disk and the data when the replacement code doesn't match the original one. Please don't try to fix the drive yourself by replacing the PCB unless you really know what you are doing.
Before shipping your hard drive for data recovery be sure the failed /damaged hard drive has its original PCB on it. Regardless the condition of the PCB, e.g. missed/burned elements on it, the hard drive must have its own original one. |