Header — Data Recovery Perth
(08) 6180 6959 [email protected] 7 Days a week from 8:00am – 10:00pm
(08) 6180 6959
Failed Electronics | Data Recovery Perth

Hard Drive Data Recovery › Failed Electronics

Failed Electronics

The most common symptom of the failure of the PCB electronics of a hard drive is that it simply receives no power.

  • PCB repair
  • ROM transfer
  • BIOS chip
  • No charge to quote

The drive receives no power at all

If the drive does nothing when powered on, or shuts off intermittently, the PCB may be at fault. Stop trying to power it and call before further attempts cause more damage.

Why boards fail

Age of the power adapter is usually the cause

Most drives I receive with failed PCB’s have died due to faulty power and commonly this is due to the age of power adapters on portable hard drives.

Hard drive PCB’s have over voltage protection on them which is designed to fail so as to protect the motor and heads. That protection is doing its job — the board sacrifices itself so the mechanics inside the drive survive, which is why the data is usually still fully intact.

Repair Process

Five steps on the bench

  1. 01

    Confirm the PCB is the fault

    Confirm that the PCB actually needs to be replaced. If the drive does nothing when powered on or shuts off intermittently, the PCB may be at fault.

  2. 02

    Locate a suitable replacement PCB

    The board has to match the drive family and revision, not just the model number.

  3. 03

    Purchase the replacement PCB

    Donor boards are sourced and held so a repair isn’t waiting weeks on parts.

  4. 04

    Transfer the BIOS chip

    The ROM holds drive-specific data. Without moving it across, the replacement board cannot address the platters correctly.

  5. 05

    Connect, test and transfer

    Connect the replacement PCB. Test and transfer data to a new drive.

Hard drive PCB with the decryption chip and BIOS labelled
The decryption chip and BIOS on a portable drive PCB
When it isn’t simple

Some drives will not allow a ROM transfer

On some hard drive models eg Western Digital and Seagate the transfer of the ROM chip from the failed hard drive electronics to a working PCB is not possible. This is due to the fact that there is not a separate 8 pin chip containing the ROM on the PCB. Modern Western Digital hard drives have the ROM firmware located in the Main Controller integrated circuit of the PCB.

PCB with a separate ROM chip Separate ROM chip — standard transfer
PCB with ROM embedded in the main controller No ROM chip — specialised tools required

The pcb on the right does not have the ROM Chip and will require specialzed tools to perform the ROM transfer.

Request a Quote

(may require physical examination)

This field is required.

Address

Call: (08) 6180 6959

  • 126 Whatley Crescent, Maylands
  • 7 Days a week from 8:00am - 10:00pm