Is my Hard Drive dead?

[Doctor Volt]

Have just seen an exploded view of the NVRAM and noticed the legs dont go through the PCB and solder at the rear

The NVRAM sits on the PCB and is soldered. Just make sure that whoever is doing the unsoldering and soldering uses a heatsink on each terminal to keep the heat off the NVRAM Chip

[Doctor Volt]

trashbat said:

^ That's a good bunch of finds

To elaborate on what I was saying earlier, mismatched NVRAM - not bothering to swap the chips - shouldn't necessarily result in the drive not showing up in the BIOS. It probably won't let you access files, but it should appear. Drives still appear when they are mechanically knackered, after all. That's why I say it's probably worth trying without that stage.

As for swapping the chip, anyone au fait with working on small electronics ought to be able to do it. It's a normal enough job, in a fairly isolated bit of the board. Look for hobbyists, repairers or ask around on here - PH usually turns up the goods. Me, I'm strictly software!

Good point trashbat. BUT and its a big BUT thats why I have used CAPS

On the one hand I agree that the HD might show something by just replacing the PCB to begin with

On the other hand I dont know enough about the NVRAM file structure Data and how it affects the operation of the HD

This isnt something many people do once in a lifetime, so it would be really good for Woody3 to know beforehand if the Hard Drive will still show up with the donor NVRAM and also, will a donor NVRAM corrupt the Hard Drive file structure - I dont know about any of this, hence the big BUT

There is something else to bear in mind, if just fitting the donor PCB as is (IF SAFE TO?), most of the work needs to be repeated to then replace the NVRAM Chip, the less times the board is fitted and removed the better, in out in out shake it all about, could create another fault on something

Only my thoughts and the way I work. I would enjoy doing the job Woody3 but I am very far away

I hope you get sorted

[Martin4x4]

Free online storage

2GB of free space from Dropbox

Google Drive

I use both of these and they are trouble free and easy to use.

Another is Microsoft One Drive, but personally never used it.

https://onedrive.live.com/about/en-gb/

[Woody3]

Thanks for all the research you chaps are doing.

The new board has arrived.

From reading the above, I'm going to try somewhere local will hopefully be able to swap the chip over. Is the chip called a BIOS chip or NVRAM chip? Or are they the same thing?

Doctor Volt - how far away are you from me?

Should I try the board as is first? Or should I wait until the chip is swapped?

Thanks again! All of your help is much appreciated!

[Doctor Volt]

Woody3 said:

Thanks for all the research you chaps are doing.

The new board has arrived.

From reading the above, I'm going to try somewhere local will hopefully be able to swap the chip over. Is the chip called a BIOS chip or NVRAM chip? Or are they the same thing?

Doctor Volt - how far away are you from me?

Should I try the board as is first? Or should I wait until the chip is swapped?

Thanks again! All of your help is much appreciated!

I am thousands of miles away

As I posted above, I see the job as all or nothing, even if you try the board as is, it is very doubtful you will be able to do anything with what you see on the drive as the file structure will be in the original NVRAM, fitting the board as is may also corrupt the file structure but I dont know enough about this, I did mention it in an above post and was hoping someone with much HD knowledge would post here and enlighten us all

NVRAM (Non Volatile Random Access Memory) is best used rather than BIOS

[trashbat]

I tentatively agree. There's little to be gained in doing anything without the chip swap.

I think that if you swapped the boards without swapping the chip, you would get a drive that appeared in the BIOS but sat there clicking away. I don't think any harm would come of it. However what do you gain from this? So it's not worth the risk of me being wrong.

You could connect up the new board without a drive attached, making absolutely sure that nothing comes into contact with the PCB of course, and you MAY see it appear in the BIOS. All this would tell you is that you haven't been sold a duff board. However I don't know for sure that it would appear.

[Woody3]

Ah, no problem. I was contemplating posting it to you, but don't fancy the postage bill to overseas haha!

Just waiting for a call back from a local company regarding swapping the NVRAM over.

I shall report back with my findings as and when they happen.

[Doctor Volt]

It will be good to know how the job panned out

[buggalugs]

There's no 'file structure' on the board and they don't have removable flash chips anyway. Just bang the board on and plug the thing in. What else are you going to do with all this junk?

Actually I just read some of those links and they do sound quite convincing.

Edited by buggalugs on Monday 16th February 19:39

[Doctor Volt]

buggalugs said:

There's no 'file structure' on the board and they don't have removable flash chips anyway. Just bang the board on and plug the thing in. What else are you going to do with all this junk?

Actually I just read some of those links and they do sound quite convincing.

Edited by buggalugs on Monday 16th February 19:39

You really should not be posting like this when someone has a big problem - There is nothing convincing about your above post

View below link, engage brain and think

http://www.disk-imager.com/data-recovery-blog/?p=1...

[buggalugs]

Doctor Volt said:

buggalugs said:

There's no 'file structure' on the board and they don't have removable flash chips anyway. Just bang the board on and plug the thing in. What else are you going to do with all this junk?

Actually I just read some of those links and they do sound quite convincing.

Edited by buggalugs on Monday 16th February 19:39

You really should not be posting like this when someone has a big problem - There is nothing convincing about your above post

View below link, engage brain and think

http://www.disk-imager.com/data-recovery-blog/?p=1...

If it's a big problem he should put his old drive in a box and send it to Marshalla, not take a soldering iron to it. This is playing around and don't give the impression it's otherwise.

[marshalla]

buggalugs said:

If it's a big problem he should put his old drive in a box and send it to Marshalla, not take a soldering iron to it. This is playing around and don't give the impression it's otherwise.

Sorry, but no. I'm not touching that one. Too much mixed advice and fiddling with it already.

[CraigyMc]

marshalla said:

buggalugs said:

If it's a big problem he should put his old drive in a box and send it to Marshalla, not take a soldering iron to it. This is playing around and don't give the impression it's otherwise.

Sorry, but no. I'm not touching that one. Too much mixed advice and fiddling with it already.

If you're good at something, don't do it for free. I'm the same (and in the same field)

[Doctor Volt]

Doing specialist jobs for free is the way forward

I enjoy working for free and am sure there are many others similar to me

There are far too many people in this world that are on the make for doing very little

I regret that I am too far away from the OP to be able to carry out this procedure for free

Someone in the UK, please do this job as a goodwill gesture, the job is not even for a specialist

[Doctor Volt]

marshalla said:

Sorry, but no. I'm not touching that one. Too much mixed advice and fiddling with it already.

Dont be so negative

There has not been too much fiddling

Mixed advice and opinions are the way forward and do not alter the job in hand

Or are you taking the piss

[Woody3]

marshalla said:

buggalugs said:

If it's a big problem he should put his old drive in a box and send it to Marshalla, not take a soldering iron to it. This is playing around and don't give the impression it's otherwise.

Sorry, but no. I'm not touching that one. Too much mixed advice and fiddling with it already.

Hi Marshalla,

I'm not too sure what you mean about me fiddling about with my HDD (oo-er). It's been taken out of my laptop, and plugged into another to see if any data could be recovered. Besides that, it's been sat in a box on my shelf. Are you really unable to help?

[Doctor Volt]

Woody3 said:

Hi Marshalla,

I'm not too sure what you mean about me fiddling about with my HDD (oo-er). It's been taken out of my laptop, and plugged into another to see if any data could be recovered. Besides that, it's been sat in a box on my shelf. Are you really unable to help?

Be careful Woody3, this Marshalla geezer doesnt come across as confident to me, you need someone with a steady hand, Marshalla is concerned that the advice given above has jumped into the HD case and corrupted the data

You need someone good at soldering, not someone that posts a load of bks like those above

Good luck

Edited by Doctor Volt on Wednesday 18th February 09:00

[anonymous-user]

Doctor Volt said:

Woody3 said:

Hi Marshalla,

I'm not too sure what you mean about me fiddling about with my HDD (oo-er). It's been taken out of my laptop, and plugged into another to see if any data could be recovered. Besides that, it's been sat in a box on my shelf. Are you really unable to help?

Be careful Woody3, this Marshalla geezer doesnt come across as confident to me, you need someone with a steady hand, Marshalla is concerned that the advice given above has jumped into the HD case and corrupted the data

You need someone good at soldering, not someone that posts a load of bks like those above

Good luck

Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 18th February 09:00

No real need for that is there ?
I suspect that Marshalla's capabilities are way in excess of your, mine and most others. I have seen his posts in the past. He offers good advice and comes across as a genuine bloke if a bit techie.
You just come across as a bit .......unpleasant really

[Doctor Volt]

techiedave said:

No real need for that is there ?
I suspect that Marshalla's capabilities are way in excess of your, mine and most others. I have seen his posts in the past. He offers good advice and comes across as a genuine bloke if a bit techie.
You just come across as a bit .......unpleasant really

techie. Why did you have to go and post that load of bks

I was hoping to draw Marshalla into offering to do the job for free so as to prove what a good human being he/she is

[Woody3]

Can anyone ask Marshalla if he could revisit this thread for me please?

Tried pm'ing him, but I never seem to have any luck with pm'ing on here.

Cheers!