I'm and idiot. I tried to transfer my Firmware Chip. Maybe Fried It. Now What?

[NeedsPractice]

I tried to transfer my BIOS/Firmware Chip from one PCB Board to another Donor PCB Board. It might be okay and yet it might not be okay. (I'm currently getting it looked at professionally) Let's assume worst case scenario. Is there someone out there that can extract my rom information from my platters and reprogram another chip and get all this working again? The hard drive is in perfect shape and spins up beautifully, I just had a bad pcb board. I know its a long shot but I thought I would ask.

Sincerely,
Idiot

[james_s]

I'm not even sure what you're saying, you asked about a BIOS chip but then you mention platters in a drive? Which is it? What exactly did you do? There is no relation between what is on the platters of a hard drive and what is in the BIOS ROM.

[Nusa]

I know what he's talking about...there's firmware on the hard drive PCB that's matched to the head assembly and motor type installed with the platters. Replacing the PCB with a donor is practical, but often requires transferring the NVRAM chip with the firmware on it. Whether that PCB was ever the original problem is another question entirely.

Let's assume worst case scenario.

Worst case is you throw lots of money at it, it doesn't work, and you write it off and forget about whatever was on that drive.

Second worst case is you save your money and write it off now.

The right professionals do have some options for data recovery, but it's not going to be cheap. How much $ is your data worth to you?
I'd recommend this place if you want to go that route: https://www.rossmanngroup.com/data-recovery-service-nyc/

[magic]

What exactly have you have done to that poor ROM?
ICs are somewhat tough, problem like a broken leg should be salvageable.

[NeedsPractice]

I'm not even sure what you're saying, you asked about a BIOS chip but then you mention platters in a drive? Which is it? What exactly did you do? There is no relation between what is on the platters of a hard drive and what is in the BIOS ROM.

Nusa is correct.

I know what he's talking about...there's firmware on the hard drive PCB that's matched to the head assembly and motor type installed with the platters. Replacing the PCB with a donor is practical, but often requires transferring the NVRAM chip with the firmware on it. Whether that PCB was ever the original problem is another question entirely.

Let's assume worst case scenario.

Worst case is you throw lots of money at it, it doesn't work, and you write it off and forget about whatever was on that drive.

Second worst case is you save your money and write it off now.

The right professionals do have some options for data recovery, but it's not going to be cheap. How much $ is your data worth to you?
I'd recommend this place if you want to go that route: https://www.rossmanngroup.com/data-recovery-service-nyc/

Yes, I have stumbled on that website before. I am waiting on my firmware chip back and my pcb board after professional installation from another establishment. If they receive my rom and say there is no hope and they can't even install it for me I will look to another professional recovery service.

The data is not life altering. Its a really nice to have but not mandatory, thank goodness.

However, I do have drives that have failed over the years that I would mind having the data back, I have just collected them and stored them away. I would mind sending them off one by one to see if it wouldn't be possible to get the data back. I mean I even have some from the IDE days with the old connections.

https://www.rossmanngroup.com/data-recovery-service-nyc/

Can this company do this that non traditional companies cannot? I mean if this firmware chip is fried are there other methods like I mention earlier, or should I just let go of this data? It just seems sad because the drive boots up perfectly. I mean if I order a new donor board and install it, its ready to go except it can't read it because it has the wrong calibration instructions. Maybe Gilware misunderstood me but they seemed like they didn't want to deal with a fried bios chip.

In hopeful news, my chip may still be salvageable, and all this is moot. I am waiting to see if that is so in the next few days.

What exactly have you have done to that poor ROM?
ICs are somewhat tough, problem like a broken leg should be salvageable.

I just transferred it from one pcb board to another. I used a rework station but may have over heated it. I doubt it but I could have. The odd thing is when I transferred it nothing happened. Maybe I didn't transfer everything that needed to be transferred.

[Microdoser]

I would first check that you have soldered it back on properly. I have used old chips on new boards and quite often, they just don't work right until I recheck the connections and maybe add a boatload of flux and run a soldering iron round the connections.

I have particularly found the LTC4040 (battery backup manager chip) is a difficult chip but then again, I have also found that as my skill improves, there are less 'difficult' chips.

For example, it would operate seemingly fine, operate the device, have correct voltages but not charge the battery. The connections looked soldered under the microscope but after running a soldering iron round all the connections it just worked.

If the chip has a central heat pad then make sure you press it down as you heat it. Always use at least twice the amount of flux you think you need...

[NeedsPractice]

I would first check that you have soldered it back on properly. I have used old chips on new boards and quite often, they just don't work right until I recheck the connections and maybe add a boatload of flux and run a soldering iron round the connections.

I have particularly found the LTC4040 (battery backup manager chip) is a difficult chip but then again, I have also found that as my skill improves, there are less 'difficult' chips.

For example, it would operate seemingly fine, operate the device, have correct voltages but not charge the battery. The connections looked soldered under the microscope but after running a soldering iron round all the connections it just worked.

If the chip has a central heat pad then make sure you press it down as you heat it. Always use at least twice the amount of flux you think you need...

Yes, I think you are exactly 100% right. When I installed the rom chip it would almost pop off every time no matter what I did. I tried to touch up with solder but was having no luck at all. I am not that good at that part. Therefore I sent it to a company that specializes replacing roms chips on pcb boards. I will see if they can put it on the board for me and send it back.

I just hope I didn't fry the board. Idon't think I did but I may have unless they can take tons and tons of heat. I mean I never really directed the heat right on the rom chip for too long and was trying to make sure I didn't overheat it. So there is that.

However, I definitely needed to solder the tips which I did not.

I'll see what they come up with and I hope it works. I'm sure they will do it perfectly. However, I might try as well when they ship the parts back to me if they are unable too.

[Nusa]

A drive spinning up is not the same thing as "booting". Anyway, here's one of a number of videos from that place.

[NeedsPractice]

A drive spinning up is not the same thing as "booting". Anyway, here's one of a number of videos from that place.

I agree.

Is that the place from New York?

I will definitely consider other options if this part of my journey doesn't work. I definitely think this drive is recoverable some how. Just need to get it into the right hands for sure.

[Microdoser]

When I installed the rom chip it would almost pop off every time no matter what I did. I tried to touch up with solder but was having no luck at all.

Did you add flux? If you are just using solder alone that might be your entire problem. I find that if I just use solder my success rate is about 10% on rework, if I use a boatload of flux as well that turns into 95% success rate.

It helps the solder wet (stick) to the metal on both sides of the connection, without it, you find that chips can just pop off and don't work...

[NeedsPractice]

When I installed the rom chip it would almost pop off every time no matter what I did. I tried to touch up with solder but was having no luck at all.

Did you add flux? If you are just using solder alone that might be your entire problem. I find that if I just use solder my success rate is about 10% on rework, if I use a boatload of flux as well that turns into 95% success rate.

It helps the solder wet (stick) to the metal on both sides of the connection, without it, you find that chips can just pop off and don't work...

I did not use a boatload, but I did use I thought a decent amount. I could have used a small amount butt I thought it was decent. Based on what you are saying I could have used a whole lot more. I will see what they do. Hopefully with PC Max 3000 software they can solder it perfectly and ship it back to me and everything works and this will be a moot point.

If not, I might try some things you have suggested or just ship it off to a professional recovery service as is. I mean the drive is in perfect condition. I would think someone could salvage this drive.

[Microdoser]

When I installed the rom chip it would almost pop off every time no matter what I did. I tried to touch up with solder but was having no luck at all.

Did you add flux? If you are just using solder alone that might be your entire problem. I find that if I just use solder my success rate is about 10% on rework, if I use a boatload of flux as well that turns into 95% success rate.

It helps the solder wet (stick) to the metal on both sides of the connection, without it, you find that chips can just pop off and don't work...

I did not use a boatload, but I did use I thought a decent amount. I could have used a small amount butt I thought it was decent. Based on what you are saying I could have used a whole lot more. I will see what they do. Hopefully with PC Max 3000 software they can solder it perfectly and ship it back to me and everything works and this will be a moot point.

If not, I might try some things you have suggested or just ship it off to a professional recovery service as is. I mean the drive is in perfect condition. I would think someone could salvage this drive.

Worst case if the platters are in good order, they can put them on a new spindle and read them at slow speed with known working heads and make an image of your drive that can be put on to an empty drive. Sometimes they just fit a working board into your drive and get it to read itself and dump an image (sounds like this would be the fix for this drive). Here's hoping they can just put the chip on and it works.

[james_s]

About 20 years ago I was given a few dead hard drives and I fixed one of them by just swapping the boards between two drives of the same model, didn't mess with the ROM at all and I used that repaired drive for non-critical storage for several years after that.

If the soldered IC is falling off the board then something is definitely wrong, a soldered joint should be strong enough that if you were to tug on the chip it would tear the pad off the board before the joint failed.

[magic]

I have done it too but these days some disks have small SO8 memory chips with some calibration data / whatever which need to be transferred to the new board if it's to work.

[NeedsPractice]

When I installed the rom chip it would almost pop off every time no matter what I did. I tried to touch up with solder but was having no luck at all.

Did you add flux? If you are just using solder alone that might be your entire problem. I find that if I just use solder my success rate is about 10% on rework, if I use a boatload of flux as well that turns into 95% success rate.

It helps the solder wet (stick) to the metal on both sides of the connection, without it, you find that chips can just pop off and don't work...

I did not use a boatload, but I did use I thought a decent amount. I could have used a small amount butt I thought it was decent. Based on what you are saying I could have used a whole lot more. I will see what they do. Hopefully with PC Max 3000 software they can solder it perfectly and ship it back to me and everything works and this will be a moot point.

If not, I might try some things you have suggested or just ship it off to a professional recovery service as is. I mean the drive is in perfect condition. I would think someone could salvage this drive.

Worst case if the platters are in good order, they can put them on a new spindle and read them at slow speed with known working heads and make an image of your drive that can be put on to an empty drive. Sometimes they just fit a working board into your drive and get it to read itself and dump an image (sounds like this would be the fix for this drive). Here's hoping they can just put the chip on and it works.

Exactly. So you recommend the NYC place to do this if it comes to that? Or should I use Ontrack? I asked Gilware and they were not interested. I would definetly be interested in this if the ROM is fried beyond repair. However, from an expert on another forum he said the roms can take some serious abuse and that might is probably okay. I mean all of the prongs are perfect and everything. I sure heated up the little guy but I think he is okay. If the place I sent it to puts the rom on perfectly and does a great solder job I am guessing we will all be good to go.

[NeedsPractice]

I have done it too but these days some disks have small SO8 memory chips with some calibration data / whatever which need to be transferred to the new board if it's to work.

Exactly, other makes and older drives you could use that technique, now newer drives especially seagate have to have that calibration information from the rom chip in order to let the os read the drive. Who knows why they do this. BS. I did buy some donor boards and pop them on the hard drive wishing, but of course no luck.

[NeedsPractice]

About 20 years ago I was given a few dead hard drives and I fixed one of them by just swapping the boards between two drives of the same model, didn't mess with the ROM at all and I used that repaired drive for non-critical storage for several years after that.

If the soldered IC is falling off the board then something is definitely wrong, a soldered joint should be strong enough that if you were to tug on the chip it would tear the pad off the board before the joint failed.

Exactly, a lot has changed since then. Check this out. Especially the Seagate seciton.

https://www.donordrives.com/pcb-replacement-guide/

[magic]

It's not for the OS, it's for the disk's firmware and it's some specific data about the particular mechanical unit / platters / whatever.
AFAIK the firmware won't be able to read anything from the platters if this ROM isn't present.

[Microdoser]

When I installed the rom chip it would almost pop off every time no matter what I did. I tried to touch up with solder but was having no luck at all.

Did you add flux? If you are just using solder alone that might be your entire problem. I find that if I just use solder my success rate is about 10% on rework, if I use a boatload of flux as well that turns into 95% success rate.

It helps the solder wet (stick) to the metal on both sides of the connection, without it, you find that chips can just pop off and don't work...

I did not use a boatload, but I did use I thought a decent amount. I could have used a small amount butt I thought it was decent. Based on what you are saying I could have used a whole lot more. I will see what they do. Hopefully with PC Max 3000 software they can solder it perfectly and ship it back to me and everything works and this will be a moot point.

If not, I might try some things you have suggested or just ship it off to a professional recovery service as is. I mean the drive is in perfect condition. I would think someone could salvage this drive.

Worst case if the platters are in good order, they can put them on a new spindle and read them at slow speed with known working heads and make an image of your drive that can be put on to an empty drive. Sometimes they just fit a working board into your drive and get it to read itself and dump an image (sounds like this would be the fix for this drive). Here's hoping they can just put the chip on and it works.

Exactly. So you recommend the NYC place to do this if it comes to that? Or should I use Ontrack? I asked Gilware and they were not interested. I would definetly be interested in this if the ROM is fried beyond repair. However, from an expert on another forum he said the roms can take some serious abuse and that might is probably okay. I mean all of the prongs are perfect and everything. I sure heated up the little guy but I think he is okay. If the place I sent it to puts the rom on perfectly and does a great solder job I am guessing we will all be good to go.

From what I have seen Rossman seems like the sort of place that would either fix it or tell you they couldn't. They wouldn't break it beyond repair trying. AFAIK they have a no fix-no fee thing too so...

[NeedsPractice]

Another Update:

Okay I got my ROM back. Well, I got my ROM back that is a New ROM. They said that my original ROM was too damaged, but they were successful at transferring the ROM information from my Original ROM to this NEW ROM. They checked twice that it was transferred over successful.

Well of course it did not work. The drive is seen in windows but barely. It is doing the same thing before like the original problem. Completely and 100% silent. (I think all windows recognizes is the bridge that it is connected to).

This is the weirdest part. I ordered some more PCB Donor Boards and if I put any of those on this hard drive the drive comes to life. It boots up twice or tries to read the drive twice and gives up.

What dose all this mean? Did some how the original ROM get corrupted and is permanently damaged?

Long Shot

They suggest the file system could be corrupted and that this is almost 100% fixable. Connect PC Max 3000 and either get lucky and extract the data by bypassing the software lock because the drive is in defensive mode or rip the data off raw but will take a while (same as bypassing the locked codes).

Recap:

1-Original PCB Board with Original BIOS in perfect shape (something happened):

-Drive would not boot up, completely silent, not moving or humming at all. OFF.

2-New PCB Donor Board with random bios that is already on the board (Testing):

-Drive boots up and tries to read but gives up and fails.

3-New PCB Donor Board with Original BIOS (I installed it myself, botched it up)

-Drive would not boot up, completely silent, not moving or humming at all. OFF.

4-New PCB Donor Board with New Rom (Installed by professional, bios information transferred over)

-Drive would not boot up, completely silent, not moving or humming at all. OFF.

…

What does all this mean? Something is corrupted with the original bios? How does the drive power up and try to read with a random donor board with whatever BIOS that came with it; but when it is connected with the original bios its dead as a door nail?

I will be getting back my original pcb board and original bios/rom. I’m sure the ROM is in ruff shape but the information has been transferred over to a new ROM. So that is good at least.

What are my options at this point? Is my data lost forever?

[amyk]

In all the posts you have made so far, you have not mentioned the name/model of the drive and the part numbers of the various ICs even once.

[NeedsPractice]

In all the posts you have made so far, you have not mentioned the name/model of the drive and the part numbers of the various ICs even once.

ST8000AS0002, 1NA17Z-569, RT18, 9666 J, Seagate SATA 3.5 PCB

PCB Specification:

Model: ST8000AS0002
Part Number: 1NA17Z-569
Firmware: RT18
PCB Sticker: 9666 J
PCB Number: 100769673 REV A

Here is a link for the photos:

Front:

https://ufile.io/89t3dg39

Back:

https://ufile.io/r8487cz0

[NeedsPractice]

Update:

I got my original pcb board back and my original rom. They did put my original rom on another pcb donor board and the drive does not boot up at all. I do not even think it is allowing power to turn on the drive.

I put my best donor board with a random rom back on the hard drive and get this.

https://ufile.io/45vfe3t3

The drive stays on and sounds great. However, I’m afraid to initialize because I know it will erase my data however, even if I do, I will get an i/o error and it wont do it.

…

They emailed me back and said they do not have my ROM Dump on file. I guess they do not want to work with me on that.

…

Please on please let me know what device exactly I can buy to get this ROM dump!!! I will post asap when I download it.

…

wow. I did not even know PC3000 or MRT Lab could not even fix the problem. What about going around the problem? Can either of these programs help rip the data off the drive RAW?

“Encouraging Sum” I completely and totally understand and respect this. What are we talking here?

I would love to have a healthy ROM Chip on a beautiful new PCB Donor Board.

…

“Some drives have a feature called Power Up In Standby (PUIS). If this is enabled, then the drive won't spin up until a certain command is issued. PUIS can be disabled with free tools such as HDAT2.”

How do I get this tool and software? Please help me troubleshoot this. I can buy tools and have them shipped to me.

…

“One other feature that may prevent your drive from spinning up inside a PC is SATA power pin #3. This has now been redefined as the Power Disable pin. However this does not appear to be present in your model.”

Do I need some software or hardware to disable this?

[Nusa]

My advice is to stop thinking about saving the hardware, and focus on how important the data is to you, in terms of $$. If the hardware happens to work when you're done, don't use it for anything you care about.

The answers to most of the questions you're now asking are easy google searches. You'll find that PC3000 and MRT Lab are both expensive pieces of software, north of $5000 each....I don't even have to do a search to tell you that.

As for "they", I suspect they did exactly what you asked for (save this ROM), not what you really wanted (save this drive). And now you're a squeaky wheel they don't want to deal with anymore. Can't blame them.

[NeedsPractice]

My advice is to stop thinking about saving the hardware, and focus on how important the data is to you, in terms of $$. If the hardware happens to work when you're done, don't use it for anything you care about.

The answers to most of the questions you're now asking are easy google searches. You'll find that PC3000 and MRT Lab are both expensive pieces of software, north of $5000 each....I don't even have to do a search to tell you that.

As for "they", I suspect they did exactly what you asked for (save this ROM), not what you really wanted (save this drive). And now you're a squeaky wheel they don't want to deal with anymore. Can't blame them.

HD-Front

https://ufile.io/lk1a7uhh

HD-Back

https://ufile.io/c3svwk11

Repair – Front

https://ufile.io/ez3jou40

Repair – Back

https://ufile.io/h77bd47a

Granted please note they said that the original rom was too damaged to transfer. They did this as a courtesy. I have another pcb donor board that has supposedly a new rom with my original bios information transferred over to it. However, you can see here the "condition” of the original rom. I am hoping all the information can still be transferred from this rom. Its not beat up too bad right?

Both pcb donor boards; the one with the original rom and the new transferred over with the information rom do not power up the drive at all. Zero, zilch, nada.

I can post photos of the new rom and new board if needed as well however, it looks good I believe. If the information was transferred over properly.