Replacing PCB in Hard Drives

Recovery data from dead hard drives which do note that disassembling a hard drive is not recommended and can result to permanent data loss and further damage to your drive.  If your data is business critical, please seek professional help.

The green board on the bottom of the hard drive is known as Hard Drive Printed Circuit Board (HDD PCB).  The main function of the PCB is to supply power to the hard drive, maintain speed and rotation of the spindle, and control all internal operations through its firmware.  Essentially, PCB is the brains of the hard drive that all components are heavily dependent upon.  Hard drives that do not spin up after the power has been supplied can be diagnosed as PCB failure.

First, we should find the matching PCB:

Western Digital - same board number which is etched on the PCB, begin with 2060-
Seagate - same board number which is etched on the PCB, begin with 100…; If you can’t find the number on the PCB(Old Models), you should find the same Main Controller IC
Maxtor – same Main Controller IC
Hitachi – same information on the small white label.
Samsung – same board number which is etched on the PCB, begin with BF41-

Remove the PCB from both hard drives with star screwdriver. Replace the fautly PCB with replacement one. If you HDD spins up, but can’t be recognized, you should also exchange the BIOS on the PCB.

You should know the hard drive failures are not always caused by PCB failure. Swap PCB can not guaranteed to fix your hard drive.

Article by HDDZone.com - Replacing PCB in Hard Drives