Question Data Recovery with no bios chip - Seagate

[rick0001]

Hello,

I have Seagate Momentus ST9750420AS 750GB 2.5" SATA HD PN: 9RT14G-031 with damaged bios chip. Is data recovery still possible?

 

[DSzymborski]

Hello,

I have Seagate Momentus ST9750420AS 750GB 2.5" SATA HD PN: 9RT14G-031 with damaged bios chip. Is data recovery still possible?

It's still possible, but now it likely involves a platter swap, of which there's little chance of a typical user doing successfully. If you value this data -- but not enough to keep proper backups -- then it's either seek a professional lab or bust. And it won't be cheap, along the lines of the price of a decent PC.

 

[fzabkar]

A platter swap will achieve nothing in this case. It's only done if the spindle motor is damaged or seized.

There may be a little hope for DIY if one of the corner pins is damaged:

https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=44504

Can you show us a photo of your chip? Do you have a device programmer?

 

[rick0001]

A platter swap will achieve nothing in this case. It's only done if the spindle motor is damaged or seized.

There may be a little hope for DIY if one of the corner pins is damaged:

https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=44504

Can you show us a photo of your chip? Do you have a device programmer?

 

[fzabkar]

If that's a horizontal crack, then I don't think that the chip can be recovered. Instead, you'll need to find one of the few people who can regenerate the ROM contents for this old model. In any case, expect to pay $$$thousands.

 

[rick0001]

And if it's not a crack, can it be recovered?

 

[fzabkar]

I don't know. The bruised edge looks superficial, but I can't tell what you did. Am I correct in assuming that your HDD doesn't spin up, and is this the result of transferring the chip to a new PCB?

 

[rick0001]

It is the result of a transfer. But it did not spin up on either old or new PCB with this chip. It spins up with same model PCB with a different ROM chip but of course does not get recognized by pc.

 

[DSzymborski]

A platter swap will achieve nothing in this case. It's only done if the spindle motor is damaged or seized.

There may be a little hope for DIY if one of the corner pins is damaged:

https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=44504

Can you show us a photo of your chip? Do you have a device programmer?

I had assumed that the BIOS chip was damaged while dealing with the unknown issue. Naturally, if that's the *only* problem, a platter swap wouldn't do much.

 

[fzabkar]

@rick0001, did you damage the original PCB as a result of some misadventure? Was it overvolted? Otherwise, if the drive failed in normal use, then it is possible that there is a checksum error in the ROM contents. I have repaired several such faults.

 

[rick0001]

Drive failed in normal use

 

[USAFRet]

Drive failed in normal use

One of the MANY reasons why backups are a good thing.

 

[fzabkar]

Drive failed in normal use

Then you should try to read the ROM with a device programmer.

Something like this ...

https://www.amazon.com.au/DSD-TECH-SH-U09C5-Converter-Support/dp/B07WX2DSVB

You could read the chip in-circuit using a pogo pin adaptor. You must select the one with the correct size:

https://aliexpress.com/i/1005005440441395.html

 

[rick0001]

Let me try that

 

[USAFRet]

Let me try that

How critical is the data that used to be on this drive?

 

[fzabkar]

Make sure you dump the ROM at least twice and then compare the two dumps.

Here is a tool to parse the dump (F3RomExplorer):

https://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?p=18531#p18531

Be aware that even a good ROM will have checksum "errors" in certain segments. These are benign and normal.

 

[rick0001]

How critical is the data that used to be on this drive?

Pretty critical. I have a backup but it's fairly old.

 

[rick0001]

Make sure you dump the ROM at least twice and then compare the two dumps.

Here is a tool to parse the dump (F3RomExplorer):

https://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?p=18531#p18531

Be aware that even a good ROM will have checksum "errors" in certain segments. These are benign and normal.

Thanks!