Gaming IDE HDD

[Tom Bombadildo]

Welp, hello again guys. I have another problem I need to fix for a friend of mine and I'm not exactly at a loss, but I'd just like a straight quick answer without a ton of googling (lolLazy). Anyways, according to a note left for me on a 160GB Seagate (already know its borked!) IDE HDD, the drive has a "short" in it and won't boot. So I plug it in to the only PC I have that has a (working) IDE port to see whats going on. Well, turns out the PC won't even turn on with power plugged into the drive. So I figure it's gone for good. But, he said he'd like to at least attempt to access and recover the data on it, however I figure it just won't be possible to do so seeing how no PC will boot if it's plugged in.

So give it to me straight, is it fucked for good? Any way I could attempt to retrieve the data? If not it's whatever cuz I don't care, but I at least want to let the customer know what's wrong and stuff...

 

[pyromaniac123]

Do you have an ide usb enclosure?

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

At this moment in time, no. However I have access to one, however I have no idea when I can get the thing...

 

[Click This]

It's not necessarily borked if you replace the PCB with another of the exact same model of hard drive. However, if anything inside the actual hard drive is shorted, it's fucked, unless you own a dust-free room and know how to swap disk platters.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Y'know what...I might actually have a HDD with the same PCB. I'll have to check it out.


EDIT: Fuck. I have a PCB that would seem to be the exact same, except it's SATA and not IDE. Would that...matter?

 

[Click This]

That I don't know, but it's worth a try.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Hmm...will have to give it a try tomorrow when I can find the right size torx bit...will post results if I manage to do so!

 

[raulpica]

Hmm...will have to give it a try tomorrow when I can find the right size torx bit...will post results if I manage to do so!

Ok, a few things beforehand:

1) SATA and IDE are most certainly not interchangeable, they have different Firmwares on it.
2) Every drive has a special internal configuration (on a small chip) of the heads, sectors and stuff. Without that precise config, your HD will most probably screw itself up, move the head in a wrong way, and kill every data on it. You need to desolder it with a hot-air station, then resolder it on the donor PCB.
3) For best success chances, get a PCB with the same Serial ID (or REALLY similiar), FW version, and model. Even a single number off might kill everything. More than it already is.

Keep in mind those, and tell your friend that if he really needs that data, he'd be better asking some specialized centre.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

I see...so nuts to my idea then. Thanks raulpica, I'll just tell him what's what and hopefully he'll still pay me for "figuring it out"...heh.