Data recovery/PCB conversion

[jackiebean]

Hey everyone, I have an interesting situation with a notorious WD passport external drive. Years ago the casing, which had another smaller board inside connected to the drive, shorted out on the connector and I could no longer read the drive. It's able to spin up, and I know it still works, but I'd like to salvage it and recover the data on it. And also convert it to SATA

 

So my search led me to a vendor called HDDzone. They specialize in replacement PCB for HDD. And I consulted them to find a compatible replacement that converts the drive to SATA instead of the mini USB.

 

It's a simple swap of the BIOS chip from the original to the "new" SATA PCB, but my problem is, they face different directions. One faces north/south on the PCB and the other faces east/west. So which way do I turn the chip from one board to the other?

Can I safely try one way and then the other? Is there any danger of wiping the chip if it's facing the wrong way? The vendor won't answer the question. They keep telling me to refer to a tutorial that only shows exactly identical boards. Anyone know?

Edited August 22, 2021 by jackiebean
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[Electronics Wizardy]

Id send it off to data recovery if you want data, there is a good change something will go wrong here.

 

But the chip has a dot on it to tell you where pin 1 is, and the silk screen also has a notch to tell you which way. 

[emosun]

those two pcbs dont match in a whole lot of ways more than that single chip so either use the correct pcb or send it into data recovery instead of trying it yourself. 

[jackiebean]

They don't match for a reason, but they are both compatible with the drive itself. I guess I need a magnifying glass. Thanks EW.

 

Emosun, I'm not scared of screwing the drive up. But the data would be a bonus. Worst case it's going to show empty and I'll just use it in a sabrent enclosure.

 

Actually I don't need a magnifying glass. I can see clearly in the picture it has to rotate counter-clockwise. So I just have to get some solder, a decent mini iron, and some flux. Already have the heat gun, etc

[mariushm]

There's some text on the chips. That text contains the part number. You can use that part number to find the datasheet for that part, and the description for each PIN.

There's a DOT either on the circuit board or on the chip, that points to PIN 1 of the chip unless it's mentioned in the datasheet differently. So... read datasheet.

 

Basically, get datasheets (google is your friend) for both chips, make sure the pin descriptions are the same / the pins are in the same order , and you'll know how to rotate the chip so that pin 1 on your first chip goes where pin 1 of second chip was.

 

Keep in mind that board on left has one eeprom chip (u12) , the board on the right has TWO eeprom chips - one of them is for the sata to usb bridge chip (that chip that has symwave written on it).

You would check the traces going from that U8 chip and see on both sides because traces may go from top surface through a via to the bottom side and towards the chips.

It could be (it probably is) the U12 on the board on the right has same role as chip on the board on the left, but in this new design they use a different footprint, same chip in different packaging.

For data recovery, it's not an issue, as you could simply have 6-8 short wires (let's say 1 inch max for each wire, and have the original chip hanging in air soldered to those wires, but someone that does recovery for money has spare eeprom chips and would use a eeprom reader/writer to read the data from one chip and write it to a chip that has that footprint you can buy from electronic component distributors for a dollar.

 

[jackiebean]

8 minutes ago, mariushm said:

There's some text on the chips. That text contains the part number. You can use that part number to find the datasheet for that part, and the description for each PIN.

There's a DOT either on the circuit board or on the chip, that points to PIN 1 of the chip unless it's mentioned in the datasheet differently. So... read datasheet.

 

Basically, get datasheets (google is your friend) for both chips, make sure the pin descriptions are the same / the pins are in the same order , and you'll know how to rotate the chip so that pin 1 on your first chip goes where pin 1 of second chip was.

 

Keep in mind that board on left has one eeprom chip (u12) , the board on the right has TWO eeprom chips - one of them is for the sata to usb bridge chip (that chip that has symwave written on it).

You would check the traces going from that U8 chip and see on both sides because traces may go from top surface through a via to the bottom side and towards the chips.

It could be (it probably is) the U12 on the board on the right has same role as chip on the board on the left, but in this new design they use a different footprint, same chip in different packaging.

For data recovery, it's not an issue, as you could simply have 6-8 short wires (let's say 1 inch max for each wire, and have the original chip hanging in air soldered to those wires, but someone that does recovery for money has spare eeprom chips and would use a eeprom reader/writer to read the data from one chip and write it to a chip that has that footprint you can buy from electronic component distributors for a dollar.

 

Interesting. I actually consulted the vendor and they have a database that indicates these two are compatible with the drive. But it would be nice to write the data from the original chip to the donor. The reason the one board has two EEPROM is exactly because it's the bridge for the USB to SATA. The SATA doesn't need the complexity. The connectors to the actual HDD are identical. Thanks for the information. I'm not in any hurry to do this. I'm still going to try finding someone equipped to swap the chips but if they refuse to i think I can do it myself. I'm much less leery about this than cracking open a laptop to clean it.

[Electronics Wizardy]

53 minutes ago, jackiebean said:

Interesting. I actually consulted the vendor and they have a database that indicates these two are compatible with the drive. But it would be nice to write the data from the original chip to the donor. The reason the one board has two EEPROM is exactly because it's the bridge for the USB to SATA. The SATA doesn't need the complexity. The connectors to the actual HDD are identical. Thanks for the information. I'm not in any hurry to do this. I'm still going to try finding someone equipped to swap the chips but if they refuse to i think I can do it myself. I'm much less leery about this than cracking open a laptop to clean it.

Also they might be different firmware versions or revisions, even if model is the same, and still may not work.

 

If you just want a working drive, A new hdd is probalby much cheaper than this hassle.

[jackiebean]

Actually it's not really that expensive. The PCB was cheap, the drive is already paid for, and i already have or can get the tooling i need without breaking the bank. I'm curious to see if I can actually do it. I have plenty of drives. I like a challenge. So yeah. If I pull this off it will just be a fun experience. No harm done really. If I don't, not a huge loss. I still have about 7 drives just sitting around waiting to be put in a PC or an enclosure. And a couple I'll put on ebay for retro builders. 

 

I have all kinds of weird ideas like if I can pull a PCB from an old 80 gig SATA and slap it on another drive of the same brand with higher capacity that's PATA but the same series. Just for kicks. Call it experimental. Am i going to miss the 80 gig if I fail? Probably not. The biggest drive it can even go on is a 240 GB. But anyway.