www.deadharddrive.com

[webmosher]

Hello,

I am hoping someone can clarify this, because there is some conflicting info on selecting Maxtor PCBs. Is suspect it may be model dependent. That's understandable, but I'd rather not go through a bunch of PCBs looking for the right one.

I know from reading that firmware and model are probably the two most important matches. However, other matches seem to always be posted on these drives. This is what I have seen so far:

• The CODE on the label is the firmware, and this is what matters. My problem with this is that one site I visited sold several Maxtor drives of various sizes under the same code. Does this mean a 300GB PCB will work in a 250GB drive? Based on what I have read, this seems unlikely.
  
• Certain digits in the TLA/Model number (above long bar code) need to match. This makes the most sense I have seen so far, as this number contains physical descriptors of the drive. However, it does not address firmware issues which I know are also important.
  
• Specific numbers on chip parts have to match. This is also useful, but this does not address firmware.
  
• Lastly, some folks seem to post numbers from the barcode on the PCB itself. This seems one of the best ways to match from my perspective, but it seems that this may be overkill.
  

Anyhow, in my situation I have a DiamondMax 10 250GB (6V250F0), Code: VA111630, TLA: 6V250F015641A. Do I actually need more than this to determine if a PCB will match? I have seen 5 digit board labels R7GVB (mine) and R6GVC for this model. The R6 seem newer (one on ebay is from July 2006, mine is Feb).

I've checked the usual suspects for boards. None seem to give me a perfect match, but if I knew I was looking at the right or wrong numbers, it would help alot.

Thanks,
Fred

[doug2060]

I wouldn't worry about dates etc.
If you can match up tose three it should work fine...