This is al hypothetical and I was just thinking of this waiting in line for something . . .
Let's presume we have a hard drive with damaged PCB, but non-damaged ROM on PCB.
What is stopping the FI from reading the ROM, then emulating it in software and universal hardware combination?
I presume the "universal PCB" would be feat to create. But, is that it?
Note that I am not talking physical damage to the mechanical parts . . .
I think you will find that the variations are just too large. I gather that a hard drive, although logically like a floppy disk with tracks and sectors, has evolved into a much more complex track design. recording methods, speeds, encoding all vary considerably. As the media is not transferable, there is no necessity for standards. I like the idea, but I don't think it is viable.
I once developed a controller board for floppy disks that worked this way and allowed for almost any floppy encoding system, but data rates and capacities were much smaller. Also, as floppies haveto be transferable, the drives were normally standard (with the exception of Commodore, Apple, Sirius and Videc)