swapping hard drive logic board

It is more likely to be mechanical damage rather than logic board - unless you can see damage to the board.

Swapping logic boards rarely works as many parameters stored on the board are drive unique.

If the data is important, call a specialist

yea my friend dropped it, hes only concerned about the quickbooks data he last backedup 3 weeks ago , hes cheap and doesnt want to spend 1000$ just to retrieve it

As noted by a previous poster, logic board failure would be more likely to occur with electrical disruption. If the laptop was dropped while running and there was no anti-shock mechanism (and even if there were, they don't work miracles), you are more likely to have a mechanical failure. Any attempt to restart the drive could result in further destruction of what data might be recovered.

He needs to consider what is cheaper, his time to re-enter the last three weeks of Quickbooks data, or the recovery, which MIGHT not recover anything.

If you decide to try the logic board, and I'm not recommending it, you would need not only the identical make and model, but the revision level as well. Even then, you may get nothing for reasons already mentioned.

Sorry I can't be of more help but I'd hate to see your friend throw good money after bad. If it isn't important enough to pay a data recovery expert to look at the drive, then he's answered the question as to how to proceed; re-enter the data.

I have had two successful recoveries of hard drives from swapping a good primary controller board (PCB) for a damaged one. The first instance was my hard drive (a 3.5 inch Western Digital external hard drive) and the second time (a 2.5 Western Digital laptop drive) for a friend who knew of my first recovery. In both cases, the files on the drives were useful or sentimental, but not worth the $800-$1200 the data recovery companies wanted to perform a data recovery.

As the earlier responses noted, if the problem is a physical drive issue, this type of procedure will not help you. If it is an electrical problem with the PCB, then a PCB swap MIGHT work. There are no guarantees.

A PCB swap is not as simple as finding the "same hard drive" and swapping the controller boards. The problem is the hard drive manufacturers change the PCBs they use and the firmware very regularly. The circuitry on a PCB from the same model hard drive manufactured even a few months later may not look at all like the one you are trying to replace. Even if looks the same, a different firmware might prevent it from recognizing the drive you are trying to repair.

The first step to a successful PCB swap is to review the damaged hard drive to determine as much information about the PCB as possible. You are looking for hard drive model number, but more importantly 1) the place of manufacture, 2) the date of manufacture, and 3) any firmware number that you may find printed on the PCB. In both of my successful recoveries, I went to ebay and started looking for matching drives. Most auctions will not list all of the information you will need, so you have to politely email a lot of sellers. It took about 3 weeks for me to find the first matching PCB (after a couple of misses) and about month in the second case. The replacement PCB that worked for the 3.5 inch drive was manufactured about 5 weeks after the damaged one and the 2.5 inch PCB was manufactured 6 days before that damaged one. I did have two failed attempts in the first instance where the swap did not work and I had to keep trying. At first, I did not realize the importance of the manufacture date.

The best resource I found for getting information about PCB swaps was at a site www.deadharddrive.com. Check out the forums at that site for a lot helpful information and success stories.

thank you all for your responses , i will run the options by him in the morning, i told him already his chances are slim for this type of recovery without a specialist

There's always this site by Scott Moulton

http//www.myharddrivedied.com/

Swapping the board will not recover the data.

If the drive was dropped in use then the disk heads will almost certainaly impacted into the disk surface and no longer work.

The clicking is the drive is attempting and failing to find the system track.

This is where it stops being an amateur job.

At best you will need to swap the drive head assembly. This will have to be accuratly matched and then fitted by someone who (really) knows what they're talking about.

Do not attempt to do this yourself. You will just further damage the data to a point where not even a proffesional data recovery company will be able to help.

illwill,

Everyone seems to be telling you something different - most are telling you something incorrect.

Because the drive was spinning when it was dropped, the spindle will be seized due to the read/write heads (sliders) being stuck to the platters.

The more this drive is played around with, the more chance there is of causing further damage.

There is every chance recovery will be straightforward for this - especially if it is a Toshiba hard drive.

Duncan

Jez…..

You have two choices.

1. Do you REALLY REALLY want the data back
2. It's a loss but i can live without the data.

1. Send for professional recovery, if your head is 'clicking' re-seeking , the more you play with it /power it up… the greater the damage, it's gonig to cost you several thousand US$

2. Buy a new drive and reinstall, put it down to a bad experience, use the old drive to take apart for experience and "see" what the damage is or return it under warranty.

Tips on various bits of advice.
1. It is rare and getting rarer that a PCB can be directly replaced 11 , EVEN if the PCB revision AND firmware are identical.
When the drive is comissioned in the factory, the pcb is "matched" to the disk assembly , due to differences in the electronics , this comissioning information is stored ON THE DISK or sometimes in NVR on the pcb. Each Electronic assembly is unique (a bit like people, same basic design , but never identical)

2. When a drive is physically droipped, the recovery house FIRST dissasembles the drive to check the damage BEFORE they power it on, then they decide if the PCB can be swapped, or if it needs a re-build.