I suspect the PCB on a 16T gold hdd is defective. Where can I buy a replacement PCB?
I want to recover data on it.
Does the drive spin up? If so, then the PCB is most likely OK.
If you have damaged your PCB by using the wrong AC adapter or wrong modular PSU cable, there may be a simple, no-cost, DIY fix.
If you do replace the PCB, you will need to move the “ROM” chip(s) from patient to donor.
I did buy an identical drive and swapped the PCBs but neither drives work. So I swapped them back and the new drive works.
The old drive does spin up, but depending on what machine it is connected to, it then does different things. One one PC, it says unrecognized partition. On another PC, it makes clicking sound every few seconds and the drive is never recognized by windows.
How to identify the ROM chip? What do they store? I think I probably have to try a data recovery service.
Upload a photo of your PCB and I’ll show you what to do. That said, the problem sounds like a head or media fault, not PCB related.
“Adaptives” – why PCB swaps don’t work in modern HDDs:
