Question Can I fix my shorted HDD by replacing the Board On It.

[NONSTOPPE9]

I have a WD Caviar Blue 5" 500gb. Which was damaged after the Molex was shorted by a faulty fan. The Hard Disk gets detected by the BIOS. and Windows detects it in Disk Management as "Unallocated Not Initialized" I tried initializing it but it didn't work. I think the board is faulty. Can I fix my Hard Disk If I replace the board?

 

[lvt]

Newer HDD won't work without the original Bios chip.

You will have to flash the Bios on the new board with the image from old Bios, or swap the Bios.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

You could try and find an exact HDD akin to yours and transplant the board but if that board transplant fails, you'd best leave it alone or pass it off to a data recovery specialist.

 

[fzabkar]

It would be unusual for a drive to still spin up if the PCB had been damaged by an overvoltage. In any case, a straight board swap, without "ROM" transfer, would be unlikely to work.

Are you able to retrieve a SMART report with CrystalDiskInfo or GSmartControl?

 

[fzabkar]

Don't bother looking for a matching HDD. Just find a matching PCB (p/n 2060-nnnnnn) and have someone transfer the ROM chip at U12. A supplier such as hdd-parts.com will include a ROM transfer in the price.