[SOLVED] Best place to buy replacement PCB - 006-0B40385?

Oct 13, 2020
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Hey my WD 14tb external drive has had it's PCB blown - wrong power supply 🙁 Looking now to at least attempt a recovery by replacing the PCB.

Apparently the drive inside is a rebranded HGST drive and it's a white label when i shucked it.

Wondering what the best way is to get a PCB given i'm not sure what the actual drive is underneath if i was to get a donor drive.
Any help is much appreciated, got a whole lot of my life on this drive - Looking to backup much better in future.
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Solution
Use a multimeter to test the TVS diodes and fuses. I suspect you will find that the 5V diode is shorted and the associated fuse is open circuit. The measurement instructions are in my FAQ. A digital multimeter should cost ~US$5.

TVS_diodes_fuses.jpg


If a diode is shorted, you can remove it with flush cutters. If the fuse is open, you can flow a blob of solder over it. If you get this far, let me know and we can do some simple checks to confirm that there is no other damage.

These are the "ROM" chips that would need to be transferred from patient to donor, if you choose to replace the PCB:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/0B40385/ROMs.jpg
I got mine (for barracudas) from eBay.
Make sure they match the PCB you got.
You need to swap out bioses before they'll work.
I've checked ebay worldwide and there's nothing - how often do they get posted up - I heard because my drive is still fairly new that you don't get PCBs for new drives because it's not worth splitting them from their board.
 
I took the covers off mine. The heads looke fine and there were no scratches. So I figured it was worth looking at the pcbs. I ordered them. But I'm not happy with my desoldering set up yet. And the job keeps getting put on hold.
 
Hey my WD 14tb external drive has had it's PCB blown - wrong power supply 🙁 Looking now to at least attempt a recovery by replacing the PCB.

Apparently the drive inside is a rebranded HGST drive and it's a white label when i shucked it.

Wondering what the best way is to get a PCB given i'm not sure what the actual drive is underneath if i was to get a donor drive.
Any help is much appreciated, got a whole lot of my life on this drive - Looking to backup much better in future.
  1. Why isn't this just a straight warranty issue?
  2. Why wasn't there a backup of this important data?
 
  1. Why isn't this just a straight warranty issue?
  2. Why wasn't there a backup of this important data?
  1. It was suggested to shuck the drive and to try it in a toaster style dock to see if it would load up - This would invalidate the warranty - Also whilst WD would provide a new disk they wouldn't provide any data recovery so going straight to them wasn't an option
  2. Well with hindsight i'd loved to, only just researching now how to back things into S3 for the future.
 
  1. It was suggested to shuck the drive and to try it in a toaster style dock to see if it would load up - This would invalidate the warranty - Also whilst WD would provide a new disk they wouldn't provide any data recovery so going straight to them wasn't an option
  2. Well with hindsight i'd loved to, only just researching now how to back things into S3 for the future.
WD does have data recovery services. But they'd cost.

This is specifically why we preach backups so hard around here. Your data should never live on only one device.
 
Downvote on my comment questioning the wisdom of taking the cover off the drive and exposing the heads and platters?

Any clue about the actual tolerances involved here?
On the order of 3 nanometers. Unless this was done in a cleanbooth, airborne dust was introduced to the drive innards.
No matter how clean your house is, dust exists.
A single speck of dust or skin cell is orders of magnitude larger than that 3nm.

As said...good luck with that.
 
AFAIK, WD does not have its own data recovery services. Instead they refer you to their "partners" who use tools produced by Russian and Chinese hackers. In fact Seagate can repair and recover WD's HDDs.

To the OP, your drive appears to be a helium model.

evEu2jg.jpg


If so, then you have a bigger problem than mere contamination.

The real tragedy is that you could have repaired your PCB by snipping a shorted TVS diode and bridging a fuse. That would have cost you nothing.

TVS Diode FAQ:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=100&t=86

Sadly, you weren't even smart enough to show us the interesting side of the PCB, ie the side with the chips on it. If you had done so, then I could have helped you.
 
AFAIK, WD does not have its own data recovery services. Instead they refer you to their "partners" who use tools produced by Russian and Chinese hackers. In fact Seagate can repair and recover WD's HDDs.

To the OP, your drive appears to be a helium model.

evEu2jg.jpg


If so, then you have a bigger problem than mere contamination.

The real tragedy is that you could have repaired your PCB by snipping a shorted TVS diode and bridging a fuse. That would have cost you nothing.

TVS Diode FAQ:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=100&t=86

Sadly, you weren't even smart enough to show us the interesting side of the PCB, ie the side with the chips on it. If you had done so, then I could have helped you.

I mean i could get you the photo ? I'm just trying to be polite here. As someone who's relatively new to lower level workings of this i'm just asking for any help i can get.
 
See
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWPpq8UNjns

Trying to repair the HDD is quite common. And it's a good alternate to paying a lot for someone else to try - there's no guarantees.
There's also videos on replacing the PCB. I'm hoping to fix mine to retrieve and re-archive some of my old YouTube and home videos.
Poking at the arm with a screwdriver?
He references the dust aspect at 5:33.
Yeah, I think I'm safe in ignoring that vid.

Replacing the PCB is one thing.
Opening it up and poking around is quite something else.

The best alternative to paying someone to recover your data is to not have to do it.
Proactive backups. Free software and an external drive...done.
 
Whats the issue with it being a helium drive - all i've done so far is shuck it and remove the PCB for a photo? Are any of the fixes previously mentioned
Replacing PCB / Replacing diode out of the question ?
 
Whats the issue with it being a helium drive - all i've done so far is shuck it and remove the PCB for a photo? Are any of the fixes previously mentioned
Replacing PCB / Replacing diode out of the question ?
Sorry again. I was confused by @SteveRX4. He is the one the one with the helium problem, not you.

Yes, please show me a photo of the other side of the HDD PCB and I'll try to help you. The USB-SATA bridge PCB usually doesn't fail, but it would be good to see a photo of it, too.
 
Sorry again. I was confused by @SteveRX4. He is the one the one with the helium problem, not you.

Yes, please show me a photo of the other side of the HDD PCB and I'll try to help you. The USB-SATA bridge PCB usually doesn't fail, but it would be good to see a photo of it, too.
NO worries - I've attached a one in the post above - there should now be a front and a back photo :)
 
Yep i got that :) I'm more curious now about this TVS diode replacement. I've got a new 'exact' drive coming with the same PCB as a backup method but the TVS diode replacement looked interesting as it was a HDD that had a sustained exposure to a higher voltage and it could be the fuse has just blown.
 
Use a multimeter to test the TVS diodes and fuses. I suspect you will find that the 5V diode is shorted and the associated fuse is open circuit. The measurement instructions are in my FAQ. A digital multimeter should cost ~US$5.

TVS_diodes_fuses.jpg


If a diode is shorted, you can remove it with flush cutters. If the fuse is open, you can flow a blob of solder over it. If you get this far, let me know and we can do some simple checks to confirm that there is no other damage.

These are the "ROM" chips that would need to be transferred from patient to donor, if you choose to replace the PCB:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/0B40385/ROMs.jpg
 
Solution