www.deadharddrive.com

2112 · Posted once Joined: 16 Sep 2005 Posts: 1

This is (or, rather, WAS!) a Western Digital Caviar 200GB EIDE drive; last night it was fine, this morning it wasn't recognized by the BIOS. The computer had not been powered off, is on a decent UPS (and we had no lightning activity last night); the other drives were all fine, once this one was removed (though the slave drive on this controller was not recognized either, while this one was plugged in).

The logic board has this identifier:

2060-001179-003 REVA

Other impressive text strings include these:
DATE: 08 JUL 2004
DCM: HSBACTJAA

And it's a "Product of Malaysia", in case anyone knows someone friendly over in those parts.

It's got nothing but family photos, emails, and so on -- not worth the thousands of dollars people are quoting, but a definite bummer to lose, so I'd love to try a new logic/controller board to see if I can get that stuff back.

Please let me know if you can help!

2112@yshs.com

techguy_877 · Active contributor Joined: 14 Oct 2005 Posts: 8

The Action Front data recovery service was running a message board that had some very good information about WD hard drives. They had lots of questions, and the techs that work on these drives were answering simple questions about WD controller boards. Unfortunately, some time in August 2005 they closed the message board.

The most interesting post to me (as I too have a failed WD controller board) was at:

http://forums.actionfront.com/printthread.php?t=635&pp=40

It is still available by direct link, even though the message board is closed. For the controller board swap to work, it seems you not only have to find a matching controller board, but also have to swap the firmware chip (found at U12) from the bad board to the good one.

There was another post in there by one of the AF guys that said the DCM number was not significant. The numbers to match were 1) the controller board number (in this case 2060-001179-003A and 2) the drive model number (in this case WD2000JB-00FUA0). These needed to be as close as possible.

I read somewhere else on the net that the first two numbers in the last six in model number (see above - "00") are not important and may have something to do with distribution. I have also read that the last two "xx" (see A0) may be related to the firmware. However, it seems something on the disks themselves are used for loading and need to be read by the firmware, making a the chip swap necessary even if the last two match your controller board.

You should be aware that drive model number alone does not mean the boards will match. When I first started looking, I bought one off ebay as the model numbers matched, only to find the controller boards were totally different.

It seems the path to success then involves getting a matching board and swapping the U12 chip.

I called Action Front to see if they would repair a controller board (rather than charge $500-$1500 to "recover the data"). It was clear from the AF tech posts they do this all the time in their "data recovery". The lady I spoke with said no as it was not "cost effective" for them to repair drives. In other words (my words), hold the data hostage even if the repair is simply switching a single firmware chip on a bad board to a good one. That is something that should not cost $500 when the drives sell for $200-250. From reading a lot of their online material, it did seem like the AF founder, a guy named Nick Majors, was really smart on data recovery techniques. If my data was worth that much I would probably use them. But it is not, so I am left to "do it yourself" solutions.

I hope the information here helps you recover your photos and emails.

techguy_877 · Active contributor Joined: 14 Oct 2005 Posts: 8

I should have also added the guy who repaired his WD1200JB board by replacing the firmware chip, posted a page of photos concerning the board swap at:

http://wd1200jb.freewebspace.com/

I found this very helpful as well.

techguy_877 · Active contributor Joined: 14 Oct 2005 Posts: 8

I just posted additional information about what has turned out to be a successful "do-it-yourself" data recovery at http://www.deadharddrive.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=60.

Do not give up hope, as it may be possible to bring your data back.

techguy_877

Guest · Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 4:51 am Post subject: Works

techguy_877 · Active contributor Joined: 14 Oct 2005 Posts: 8

The posts at that forum are still there. They have not been deleted. You can read them if you use the URL to browse. It is just that they are no longer allowing new posts and replies.

The information there was the key to my successful recovery. The board was already "offline" when my hard drive problem arose, so I did not have an opportunity to ask any questions. I just learned from those submitted earlier by others.

I am sorry if you do not believe that would be a helpful way to obtain good technical information about Western Digital hard drives.

Mike · Posted once Joined: 02 May 2006 Posts: 1

I believe that I have a dead circuit board. Does anyone know where I can purchase a PC board for this drive. The model is a WD1200JB -75FUA0 Any help would greatly be appreciated.

Thank You

Mike

shishe · Posted once Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 1

Hopefully this will bring some light/hope to you, if you are reading this is because like me you are having some problem w/ a HDD and like me don’t want to pay $2700 to recover 40 GB of data, what a rip off. My HDD is a Western Digital 80 GB w/ a motor controller chip burn, just like in the following picture. http://wd1200jb.freewebspace.com
MDL: WD800BB-00DKA0
DATE: 27 DEC 2003
DCM: HSBHCTJCH (firmware)
PCB (Primary Controller Board or Printed Circuit Board or Circuit Board or Logic board, whatever) #2061-001159-200 AB (white sticker and bar code by the IDE connector)
My try and errors:
1: I Tried a PCB from another WD800BB-00DKA0 but w/ deferent PCB # and deferent DCM # and it did not work.
2: I tried a PCB w/ same PCB # 2061-001159-200 AB from a deferent MDL # and w/ a deferent DCM # and it did not work.
3: I contact eBay seller (dariusale) they informed me that what is important is the DCM # (firmware) it is in a small 4 + 4 legs chip in position U12 on your PCB (see it on above picture) dariusale was able to write the firmware I needed on one of the many PCB he had, for $50 my HDD is working as new again.
Conclusion: Same HDD MDL # may have different PCB # and different firmware (DCM). Same PCB # may have different firmware (DCM) and can be found in different HDD models, so try to get the same PCB # with same DCM # or you have to exchange the firmware chip.

Karltron · Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 3:28 pm Post subject:

This place sells PCBs.

http://www.hdd-parts.com/

Sadly that's not going to fix mine...

wdmjys · Deadharddrive regular +2 Joined: 02 Oct 2010 Posts: 51

http://www.hddzone.com/western-digital-pcb-c-2.html

I received the PCB today. It is working fine, I am very happy.