Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 PCB?

[Twitch29]

Hi guys, I have a ST3500641AS that’s given up the ghost. One of 7 Seagate drives needing RMA. The others are the dreaded 7200.11...

I knew this drive was failing: Becoming noisier, intermittent problems hot-plugging using eSATA dock or internal trayless bay, and even Windows nagging me if it was left connected for any length of time. Due to the crazy hard drive prices I decided to get Christmas out of the way before ordering a replacement. Ordered the ST32000641AS on 11th Jan, old drive failed 12th Jan. Talk about bad luck. I know It should have been backed up long before but I was running low on space and stupidly though I’d get away with it as I only needed to access the drive once or twice a day for a minute or two.

As the drive was still detected in BIOS I spent a day messing around with various DOS utilities trying to recover the lost data. Nothing critical by the way, assorted stock photos, fonts and bits-n-bobs of software I’ve collected over the years. Disappointing to lose it but there’ll be no tears shed.

A couple of the apps were able recognise the partition and attempt to create a backup image. It was incredible slow going. After a few hours I estimated it would take a couple of weeks, gave up and tried the second app. Same thing, left it running for several hours and it had only done 2%. At this time a noticed there was an unusual smell. Checked the drive and burnt my fingers. The whole drive was very hot, but the main chip on the PCB was exceptionally toasty.

I then hooked up a couple of fans directly above and below the drive and tried again. This kept the drive cool to the touch. BIOS didn’t take as long recognising the drive and the apps were able to read data slightly faster but still not fast enough to be feasible. I only have the one PC and can’t be without it for a week or more.

Next I tried mounting the drive in Windows again and to my surprise the drive was recognised and eventually the partition was seen and directory structure populated. I immediately started dumping the data onto another drive. Left it running 24/7 for a few days and managed to save 120GB of about 450GB before it died completely. Drive still spins up and is recognised in BIOS but that’s as far as I can get.

Reading up, it seems that it is possibly a PCB fault. There are a few online retailers that have the correct replacement based on model, part number, firmware and number off PCB chip.

How likely is it to be a PCB fault? If it is, would a replacement fix it? I’m sure I’ve read somewhere that even with an identical PCB from the same drive running the same firmware, you still have to solder in one of the chips from the old PCB.

I would normally just buy one and try it, but am only working part time at the moment and the mortgage is killing me. Don’t want to splash the cash unless I have a reasonable chance of success.

Thanks in advance for all your assistance.

PS. Does anyone know of any good UK based PCB suppliers?

 

[Twitch29]

No takers yet then?

Have 4 weeks left on warranty, so need to make a decision some time soon.

Recently been playing around swapping PCB's to get a firmware upgrade done. My experience suggested that you do, at least in some situations, have to solder in one of the chips from the old board. Such a delicate operation is probably beyond my capabilities.

Anyone out there had any luck swapping PCB's on modern drives? Say no older than 5 years.

 

[exdeath]

PCBs don't make noises.

If you try another PCB just to be sure, it has to be the same firmware or the controller will refuse to touch the drive as a safety precaution when it sees the firmware signature on the spindle isn't the same.

 

[Skiprudder]

I've had about a 50-50 record with PCB swaps. Go on ebay, and find the exact same drive (same FW too). About half the time you can swap the boards and it'll work. half the time it won't. The drive may have internal issues or the PCB chip may require specific programming. However usually the cost to try this out is under $100 vs over $1000 to send it away for recovery.

 

[ananfty]

Try this pcb supplier hddzone.com(not UK based) with free shipping.

In most cases, you should exchange the BIOS/Main Controller IC before you swap hard drive PCB, in order to make the replacement board compatible with your HDD.