Hi again,
I am posting a picture of the PCB for the drive.... hopefully someone can give me some pointers or advice on what I could try to do next?

Thanks!

 

Hi mouse9911,

Maybe the problem lies on the USB enclosure interface and not the hard-drive. I encountered an issue in the past where a client said his external hard-drive wasn't working. I took the hard-drive out of the USB enclosure, used an adapter to plug it to the computer, and the computer detected the HDD device fine. Turns out the culprit was the HDD enclosure. Try plugging your Hitachi 5k500 to an HDD adapter and plug it to the computer and see if the system detects the HDD.

 

Hi DBCooper,
Thanks for the reply! I have tried to plug it in directly. The BIOS wont recognize it on one computer i tried, it just doesn't pick it up.
On the other computer I have it does not pick it up on the first boot, but when i restart the computer with it plugged in, it stalls on the boot up (when detecting drives).
Any ideas? Anyone? I am just about fresh out
It spins up when plugged in directly but does not do anything.

 

Also I am not sure if this helps, but I forgot to mention this came out of a simpletech signature enclosure.

 

Try MHDD and see what it tells you about the drive status. It sounds like the SA information on the drive is having problems since it won't show up in bios not something you can do much about without DR tools that cost more than sending to DR for repair. You can get free diagnosis by most DR firms before you proceed with recovery if the data is worth the expense.

 

Thanks for the advice! I am going to try MHDD right now.
I was wondering, would a PCB board swap with something of the same MLC work? Or is there a problem with this idea?
Thanks again!

 

I was wondering, would a PCB board swap with something of the same MLC work? Or is there a problem with this idea?

Only problem is you don't have the equipment to save the rom info SA modules etc to write to the new board. Some places sell the boards and you can send them your board and they will do that for an additional fee. Do a search here I can't recall the link at the moment. It may work but nothing in DR is absolute or guaranteed to work.

 

MHDD didn't detect the drive, or did but just listed it as a 0 on port 8 and when I tried the port I couldn't successfully execute any (reasonable) command on the drive.

 

Can I pull the ROM over 3 pins? I read about pulling from 8 pin chips this way. Seems like a reasonable idea. I was going to back it up and program the new one. has anyone tried to do this in place before? Or should I just transfer the chips you think?

 

Sorry, I should have been clearer before. I rushed a response and regret it now.

1) I wanted to ask if it's possible to read the EEPROM inplace by connecting to only the three regular pins that are needed to read EEPROM normally?
Something like this HOW to read your XBOX's EEPROM and GET the HDD KEY WITHOUT removing the chip Or Modding the XBOX - AfterDawn: Forums
Has anyone tried doing this without using the professional readers/programmers?

2) Does anyone know what the EEPROM chip and NVRAM chip usually store? Does the EEPROM store the ROM programming for the chip and the NVRAM store the configuration for the chip (number of heads,etc)?

3) If I wanted to do a PCB swap does anyone know if I would need to transfer both the chips? Does it even make sense to transfer both the EEPROM and NVRAM?

4) Is it possible to read the NVRAM and back it up as a binary image?

Thanks again for all the wonderful help! And sorry for the last post, I rushed it and I should not have

 

1.Well this is not an Xbox but I think you want to know if something similar exists for this specific family of Hitachi drive ? Not that I have seen and do you have the electronic skills to build the device in the link ? not a first time project

2.This series uses the nvram chip at U6 (Not a typical rom chip) it holds a lot of info on the drive and the SA tracks on the drive platters hold the rest of the info. Some problems with 1 or both area's on the drive are the cause of your problems. Or it can be a media (scratch on platter due to head problem) and not able to read the SA track.

3. Just the 1 chip at U6 but do you have the correct soldering station to do this and not fry it ?

4.To answer your question 4 yes but I answered this already. you have to have the equipment already on the market for DR companies to read this. PC3K $10K

At the end of the day you may be able to get this recovered for $800.00 - 1200.00 from many of the DR firms out there. Is it worth that to you as you can see it costs a lot of money for DR firms equipment annual maintenance costs for recovery hardware, tools, insurance,rent etc. I assume its not which is why you are here attempting to do this on your own to save $$$. The DR guys are not going to give out their info because some of it is based on a NDA agreements and that is how they make their living and a lot of it is learned on the job. Some of the simpler recovery job info is already out there on many drives and many use them every day with success. Again I stress this is not an easy DIY job. I hope this puts some perspective on this for you.

 

Hey! Thanks for the reply and sorry for my delay in response!
I have been busy, I got a Aoyue 852A hot air rework station. I also got another drive with a board code
0A55840
DA2130B
XOR828
OPCK
the old board had code
0A55840
DA2130A
X14822
05WD
I swapped the chips at U6 and swapped the boards on the drives. Which means I have,
A) Old drive, New Board, Old U6 chip
B) New drive, Old Board, New U6 chip
I still have the same problem with the old drive [A] (even with the new board and old U6 chip) , spins up but will not get picked up in BIOS. The new drive works with the old board or the new board.

Anyone have any ideas? I know it is hard to open up the drives, because you need a clean room? I can take a few weeks and make one if need be I would really like to recovery my data Thanks!

 

It can be a lot of things but I can't tell from here without it being connected to DR Recovery setup to tell me what the drive is reporting if anything. It may be a problem with the SA track modules damaged and need repaired which you don't have the equipment to pull that off. I would want to know that before I crack the cover open no sense in doing that if you don't know the health of the SA track. Example if the SA is damaged and you swapped heads you still have made no progress as the SA is still damaged nothing gained. Like I have posted before the board swap sometimes works and others like your case it doesn't.

 

Hey Networks,
Thanks again for the reply. Where is the SA area physically located? I assumed it was on the board somewhere, not in the U6 chip? I thought I with the board/chip swap the SA area would be also swapped with the new SA?
Thanks again!

 

The SA is on track0 of the hard drive. This info is already in my posts above. Certain very important information that is specific to your hard drive and the layout of the data is on U6 . The other modules are on the hard drive in the SA area. This is how most all of the hard drives are setup these days. You have to have both in working order for the drive to function properly. Of course good heads and preamp and correct motor speed are also required.

 

Thanks a bunch for the replies (sorry for asking again about the SA, I misunderstood it before)! I am going to start saving up for a data recovery kit. I was looking at a few (PC3K,Data Compass)? Can you maybe recommend one? I was looking at SalvationData datacompass, is this product any good? I would like to recover this drive and others (since I will be investing into buying it ).

 

To fix SA and other issues PC3K from ACE Labs! It really is almost 10K and training is another 3.5K plus travel etc. I am not impressed with SD products/support. DC is used to image drives but you need PC3K to fix drives in order to image them. To image drives I recommend the Deep Spar Disk Imager "DDI" its approx 3.5K SD has their Disk Doctors as well you can go that route "at your own risk" Hitachi hdd repair-Hitachi repair-HDD Repair Tools for Hitachi-SD It costs approx 800.00 plus shipping from China. Then you have to figure out how to use it or spend approx 4K on training with them as well.

 

Neither the SD products, nor pc3k are 'push button' solutions. A simpler to use interface is used by Atola insight, but it is not as flexible. ANy of the three however require a good understanding of what you need to do and where it needs to go. The SD products work, they are probably just the toughest of the three to use, and not nearly as flexible as the PC3K