I found some good websites about PCB and PCB swaps:

http://www.datarecovery.com/parts_exchange.asp

http://www.hdd.ji2.com/blog/?p=17

I was also encouraged by a blog posted here, as he said that PCB swaps aren’t completely impossible. Looks I’d need to look into getting a donor drive to get the necessary parts for this one, which shouldn’t be *too* expensive.

The headstack replacement research went pretty well also:

http://hddguru.com/content/en/articles/2006.02.17-Changing-headstack-Q-and-A/

YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzRiKoD4nL8

However, there seems to be less support / success stories for replacing headstacks then there are PCBs. Seems like there isn’t really a “tried and true” method or product to get this done.

Now I’ve got to figure out if either one of these are possible, or if maybe there is a better option out there for me?… hmm.

I’ve done some digging and found a website where people seem to have some kind of idea on what they’re doing regarding DIY HDD repair. In a fit of pure desperation, I’ve even posted on Yahoo Answers to see if anyone will help me out with this.

Does anyone know if HDDguru.com is any good? It seems to be pretty legit, and a lot more extensive than some of the other websites out there, but I’m not a good one to judge at this point. I did a search about  Travelstar drives  in general on their site, and  it seems as though I’m not the only one out there having issues… an older post says that it might be the heads, or the PCB…. ???? (Forum thread here.)

Needless to say, I have no idea what those components are, but apparently I’m about to learn, since we all know I can’t afford to fix the stupid thing myself. So now, onto Definitions 101.

PCB: AKA “printed circuit board”,  where the power and data cables connect to an HDD. It contains the HDD’s CPU(??)  which controls all of the functions the hard drive performs. It’s used to mechanically electrically connect various HDD components on a drive.

CPU: AKA “processor” the CPU is explained as being the “brains” of the computer    (sidenote, the fact that the part of my drive that potentially is damaged is related to the CPU, it seems like I don’t have very high hopes of recovering anything… crap )

Heads: AKA “headstack”, are basically the part of the drive where all the data is written to.  It’s actually kind of hard to find out what these are, but I lucked out and found that this website has a REALLY helpful interactive graphic that shows what these things look like and where they are on the drive. (below!)

So from what I’ve found so far, it looks like I can assume that one of these 3 main culprits as the possible  cause of the crash… I’m going to keep searching to see if I can find better/more detailed information on them, and see what this might mean for my data recovery efforts.

I’m sure you all have been waiting with bated breath for an update about my sick hard drive (as have I), and I can now (happily? unhappily?) announce that my shady PC shop did not disappoint my expectations: they have no idea what’s wrong with it, and can’t fix it.

Figures.

They basically told me that he can’t get anything (incompetent), can’t give me an idea of where to go from here (unhelpful), and offers a coupon for me to come back next time for all my computer needs (mildly offensive, based off the epic failure that was my first try at this company).

I’m being a bit harsh… the guy was really nice, and very apologetic. He did tell me that it might be a mechanical issue, so I should call Ontrack or someone who might be able to help. He also told me that the drive itself is a 160 GB Hitachi Travelstar drive, model number HTS5416J9SA00.

He was kind enough to give me the contact info for them, and gave my drive back with a hearty “good luck!”.

Disheartened, I then called the provided number, only to run right smack into another brick wall. The guy on the phone smugly informed me that on top of paying for the service itself (he guessed somewhere between $800 and $2,000… specific, I know…), I would be responsible for shipping fees and diagnosis fees.

Is he kidding? That isn’t even an option for me right now… if any one of you have looked outside today, you can see that our country is hemorrhaging jobs and money… yours truly among those scraping to get by. The last thing I want to do is spend an exorbitant amount on this.

What choice do I even have now?

The only alternative I can see is figuring out how to do it myself… not a pleasant prospect, but if lame PC Shop guy is any indication, it can’t be that complicated, right??

I’ll be back with any useful advances I make…. and any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Will update when details emerge.

My tragic story is long and complicated, involving my laptop, computer desk, and an overzealous cat. Basically, I was in the middle of editing some pictures from a recent trip the other night, and my innocent laptop was attacked and it crash landed on the carpet.

When it fell it caused the whole thing to freeze up, so I had to manually restart it to get it going again. Unfortunately, my adventure stops there… instead of starting up, it decided to stop working and now won’t load past the Windows screen… it just stays on the “Loading Windows” thing forever.

My whole life is on that thing… photos I never got around to printing or backing up, music from today to “back in my day”, graduate papers, resumes, medical records, taxes, etc etc etc… I know, I know, I’m a bad computer user, since I don’t regularly backup anything.. but honestly, the computer is relatively new (the last 2 years), and who expects this kinda thing to happen?

All I know is that I NEED to get this thing up and running.

At this point, I don’t really know where to turn. I don’t know anyone who actually works on this kind of thing, and I don’t really know who to take it to… I’ve seen a few random small computer shop places around my area, maybe I’ll take it to one of those… if anyone out there comes across my sad tale, I’d really appreciate any advice.

I’ll keep you posted.