Hard Disk Repair | DataRecoveryUnion.com

Advanced Format hard drives is a new technology which can be attributed as a milestone in the class of hard drives. The older format hard drives used to have a 512-bytes physical sector size and this has been the case since the invent of the hard drives in 1956. Advanced Format changes the physical sector size from 512-byte to a larger chunk of 4096-bytes while the logical sector size remains 512-bytes. This is attributed as a milestone as it will tremendously increase the performance of the hard drive for larger files while smaller files will perform slower than normal.

So how does this Advanced Format more efficient than the legacy 512-byte one? Let’s take a birds eye view at how this format works. When sectors of the hard drive are read, they are read sequentially by the head of the hard drive and the head reads after every 512-bytes of data. While Advanced Format hard drive head will read after every 4096-bytes of data combining eight 512-byte chunks into one sector which increases the speed of the head as it has to read less no. of time (8 times less theoretically).

This Advanced Format (AF) is still very new and is not supported by all the Operating Systems. If we take a look at Windows Operating System, only Windows Vista and Windows 7 support this Advanced Format. There are software and drivers for other Operating Systems like Windows XP for Advanced Format to work.

With the performance advantage, Advanced Format hard drives have some issues with the the mismatch of physical and logical sectors. I have already told you that the AF hard drives have the physical sector size of 4096-bytes and logical sector size of 512-bytes. The problem comes when you partition the hard drive and the logical partitions don’t align with the physical sector sizes. This is not a big problem but still can have some effect on the performance of the hard drive.

If you have an Advanced Format hard drive and are facing performance issues, you can test the alignment of the partitions of your hard drive by using a free tool called Disk Alignment Test. You only need to download the tool and run it. It will automatically detect and scan the AF hard drives installed in the system. The software comes in both command line and graphical user interface. You can select whatever you are comfortable with. If you are using the graphical tool, the partition with red color is the one which is not properly aligned. If you see a red partition in your hard drive, you should go to the next step otherwise relax because you are not a victim of alignment problem which this new technology causes.

If you see the red partition, then you have to identify the manufacturer of your hard drive. Most manufacturers who manufacture AF hard drives have tools to fix this problem. You can search their respective websites for the fix for this problem. Otherwise you can use a universal fix tool called Paragon Alignment tool which will fix this problem for you.

Guest post by Usman who runs his own Technology Blog.

Hard Disk Repair

Hard Drive ROM Chip Swap/Replacement (Video)

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM13 years ago2 years ago03 mins

Note: If your data is so important, please make sure to look for a professional data recovery firm for recovery.

About Hard Drive PCB

The main purpose of the hard drive PCB is to deliver power to the hard drive, maintain velocity and rotation of the spindle, and manage all inside operations through its firmware. Basically, hdd PCB is the brains of the hard drive that all machinery are closely dependent upon.

Hard drive PCB boards Swap/Replacement, why?

Hard drives that do not turn up after the power has been supplied can be diagnosed as PCB crash. As data recovery service is very costly, sometimes we would prefer to change hdd pcb ourselves.

How to swap hard drive PCB?

Remove the PCB from both hard drives with star screwdriver. Change the damaged PCB with other one. If your HDD still can’t spin or can’t be recognized, you should also change the BIOS chip on it. If there is no similar 8 pins BIOS chip on the PCB, it means the BIOS chip is included to the Main Chip IC, need some tools to read it from the original pcb and write to the replacement board, or swap the main chip. It is more complex to replace the Main Chip IC than exchange the BIOS chip. You can find a electric shop help you.

You need to change the ROM chip from original board to the replacement board, in order to make the replacement board compatible with your HDD when you swap burned PCB if your PCB have ROM chip.

Where to buy hard drive PCB online?

Online hdd pcb shop such as HDDZone.com provides all kinds of PCB: Seagate, Western Digital, Maxtor, Samsung, IBM, Hitachi and Fujitsu. They can always help you to find the marching PCB for your hard drive.

Hard Disk Repair

100535537 Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 PCB

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM13 years ago3 years ago03 mins

Swap Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 PCB board 100535537 to recover your data from damaged HDD due to PCB failure. 100535537 is the board number on this PCB. If your HDD’s PCB has problems, the drive usually cannot boot up or there may be an inaccurate display in the BIOS of the hard drive’s information. Also power may not get to the hard drive and as a result it will not spin up.

There are two types of this Seagate 100535537 PCB:

1. Seagate 100535537 Barracuda 7200.12 PCB Circuit Board Details:

Board Number: 100535537
Main Controller IC: V60131
HDD Motor Combo IC: SH6968B

2. Seagate 100535537 B5502C20 Barracuda 7200.12 PCB Circuit Board Details:

Board Number: 100535537
Main Controller IC: B5502C20
HDD Motor Combo IC: SH6968B2

Note: Hard drive failures are NOT always caused by circuit board failure.

Possibilities of Seagate circuit board failures:

Hard disk doesn’t spin up. Either no sound or a short, quiet tickling sound can be heard.
Hard disk does not spin up. Buzzing sound can be heard.
Hard drive spins up fine, but is not recognized in device manager or in BIOS. Hard drive recognized with default manufacturer value (like 0GB capacity, wrong SN or Model).
There is a burning smell can be sensed coming from a hard drive or pcb circuit board.
You can see a burned component on the circuit board.
Hard drive makes a clicking sound.
Extremely slow reading.
Hard drive, after some time disappears from Device Manager and from the system. May also be running very hot.

Seagate 100535537 (V60131) Barracuda 7200.12 PCB Photo:

Seagate 100535537 (B5502C20) Barracuda 7200.12 PCB Photo:

Buy this Seagate PCB board online: PCB 100535537 (V60131)
Buy this Seagate PCB board online: PCB 100535537 (B5502C20)

Hard Disk Repair

Western Digital PCB Board 2060-701450-011 REV A

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM13 years ago2 years ago03 mins

Swap Western Digital PCB board 2060-701450-011 REV A to recover your data from damaged HDD due to PCB failure. 2060-701450-011 REV A is the board number on this PCB. If your HDD’s PCB has problems, the drive usually cannot boot up or there may be an inaccurate display in the BIOS of the hard drive’s information. Also power may not get to the hard drive and as a result it will not spin up.

Western Digital 2060-701450-011 REV A PCB Board Details:

Board Number: 2060-701450-011 REV A
Main Controller IC: 88i6745M-TFJ1
HDD Motor Combo IC: L7206 1.2
Manufacturer: Western Digital

Note: Hard drive failures are NOT always caused by circuit board failure.

Possibilities of WD circuit board failures:

Hard disk doesn’t spin up. Either no sound or a short, quiet tickling sound can be heard.
Hard disk does not spin up. Buzzing sound can be heard.
Hard drive spins up fine, but is not recognized in device manager or in BIOS. Hard drive recognized with default manufacturer value (like 0GB capacity, wrong SN or Model).
There is a burning smell can be sensed coming from a hard drive or pcb circuit board.
You can see a burned component on the circuit board.
Hard drive makes a clicking sound.
Extremely slow reading.
Hard drive, after some time disappears from Device Manager and from the system. May also be running very hot.

Western Digital PCB Board 2060-701450-011 REV A Photo:

Buy this WD pcb board online: Western Digital PCB Board 2060-701450-011 REV A

More Western Digital IDE PCB

Hard Disk Repair

Western Digital 2060-701424-007 REV A PCB

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM13 years ago2 years ago03 mins

Swap Western Digital PCB 2060-701424-007 REV A(Printed Circuit Boards) to recover your data from damaged HDD due to PCB failure. 2060-701424-007 REV A is the board number on this PCB. If your HDD’s PCB has problems, the drive usually cannot boot up or there may be an inaccurate display in the BIOS of the hard drive’s information. Also power may not get to the hard drive and as a result it will not spin up.

Western Digital 2060-701424-007 REV A PCB Board Details:

Board Number: 2060-701424-007 REV A
Main Controller IC: 88i6545-TFJ1
HDD Motor Combo IC: L6284 2.2
Manufacturer: Western Digital

Note: Hard drive failures are NOT always caused by circuit board failure.

Possibilities of WD circuit board failures:

Hard disk doesn’t spin up. Either no sound or a short, quiet tickling sound can be heard.
Hard disk does not spin up. Buzzing sound can be heard.
Hard drive spins up fine, but is not recognized in device manager or in BIOS. Hard drive recognized with default manufacturer value (like 0GB capacity, wrong SN or Model).
There is a burning smell can be sensed coming from a hard drive or pcb circuit board.
You can see a burned component on the circuit board.
Hard drive makes a clicking sound.
Extremely slow reading.
Hard drive, after some time disappears from Device Manager and from the system. May also be running very hot.

Western Digital 2060-701424-007 REV A PCB Photos:

Buy this WD pcb board online: Western Digital 2060-701424-007 REV A PCB

More Western Digital 2.5″ Laptop PCB on HDDZone.com

Hard Disk Repair

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 Circuit Board 100496208

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM13 years ago3 years ago02 mins

Swap Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 PCB Circuit Board 100496208 to recover your data from damaged HDD due to PCB failure. 100496208 is the board number on this PCB. If your HDD’s PCB has problems, the drive usually cannot boot up or there may be an inaccurate display in the BIOS of the hard drive’s information. Also power may not get to the hard drive and as a result it will not spin up.

100496208 Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 PCB Circuit Board Details:

There are two types of this 100496208 board:

Name: ST3320613AS
Board Number: 100496208
Main Controller IC: lsi-B5504A
HDD Motor Combo IC: SH6964BD

Name: ST3320613AS
Board Number: 100496208
Main Controller IC: V723A
HDD Motor Combo IC: SH6964BD

1. Seagate 100496208 lsi-B5504A Barracuda 7200.11 PCB Circuit Board:

2. Seagate 100496208 V723A Barracuda 7200.11 PCB Circuit Board:

If you need this pcb board you can order it online on HDDZone.com

Seagate 100496208 lsi-B5504A Barracuda 7200.11 PCB
Seagate 100496208 V723A Barracuda 7200.11 PCB

More: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 PCB Circuit Board

Hard Disk Repair

Which Solid State Hard Drive should I buy?

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM13 years ago4 years ago09 mins

Not all SSDs(Solid State Drives) give the same performance so here are some good and bad, listed by controller chip used plus drives that use the controller.

Best SSDs to buy
These are all known good SSDs that give reasonably high performance and are resilient to performance degradation. The most popular ones are listed first.

DISCLAIMER: This is just a list for performance. If you want a problem free drive the best choice would probably be the older generation Intel G2 (purchased new). New Intel 320 has a firmware bug. New SandForce drives ALWAYS have firmware bugs. Heck, older SandForce still have firmware bugs (AFAIK occasional wake from S3 bug was not 100% fixed). And of course OCZ drives should always make the buyer wary, due to the volume of complaints. Also, most (but not necessarily all) problems are discovered and fixed within the first 6 months of the release of a drive model. If you don’t want to pay to be a beta tester, don’t buy a drive that is brand new on the market.

SandForce SF2200/SF2500 series controller based drives
OCZ Vertex 3, Vertex 3 Pro, Agility 3, Solid 3
OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G
Corsair Force Series 3, Force GT
Marvell controller based drives
Micron C400
Crucial m4
Micron C300
Crucial RealSSD
Intel 510
Plextor PX-M2
Corsair Performance 3
Intel controller based drives (oldest G1 doesn’t have Trim support)
Intel 320
Intel 311 (Larsen Creek, AKA the 20GB SLC for SSD caching)
Intel 310 (mSATA form factor)
Intel X18-M, X25-V and X25-M (look for “G2” after capacity in part number)
A-Data ASINTS series (Intel G2)
Kingston 40GB V Series (pseudo G2, no Trim firmware from Kingston but may be capable of cross-flashing Intel firmware with Trim)
Intel X18-M, X25-M and X25-E (look for “G1″ after capacity in part number)
Kingston SSDNow M series and E series (straight rebrands of Intel G1 drives?)
Dane Elec SSD kits (uses Intel X18-M and X25-M G1 drives)
SandForce SF1200/SF1222/SF1500 controller based drives
(Currently one of the top controllers to get, yes Trim is supported, very good on compressible data)
OCZ Vertex 2, Agility 2, Vertex LE, Vertex 2 Pro, Colossus 2
Corsair Force
OWC Mercury Extreme
Mushkin Enhanced Callisto Deluxe
Mushkin Enhanced Callisto DX2 (uncapped IOPS version?)
G.Skill Phoenix, Phoenix Evo, Phoenix Pro, Sniper Gaming
Patriot Inferno
A-DATA S599
Micro Center G2 Series (A-DATA S599 rebrand)
Indilinx Martini controller
OCZ Vertex Plus
Samsung 2nd gen controller based drives
Samsung 470 series
Corsair P256
Toshiba T6UG1XBG controller
(Trim is supported, very aggressive garbage collection so works well with OS or controllers that don’t support Trim)
Kingston SSDNow V+100 series (note the + in name, different controller than V 100, newer firmware than older V+)
Kingston SSDNow V+180 (1.8” version)
Kingston SSDNow V+100E (full disk encryption)

Best SSDs to buy for operating systems that do not have Trim support –
This means YOU with the WinXP/OSX/etc
(Trim currently requires Windows 7 and a SATA controller that supports AHCI mode)
Kingston SSDNow V+100 (Toshiba T6UG1XBG, same as Macbook Air)
Intel SSDs
Sandforce controller SSDs

Not as good SSDs to buy
Not as good as the best, but still better than spindle drives and decent choices if price is right. Translation: If it is significantly cheaper than the “good” SSDs.
Indilinx Barefoot controller (DEMOTED – was good except newer controllers got better)
OCZ Vertex, Agility, Solid 2, Vertex Turbo, Agility EX, Vertex EX, Vertex Mac Edition, Colossus, Z-Drive, Colossus LT
Patriot Torqx
Super Talent UltraDrive ME, GX, LE
Corsair Nova, Extreme
Crucial M225
G.Skill Falcon, Falcon II
Imation M-Class
A-Data Nobility
newer Jmicron controller (JMF618/612)
WD Silicon Blue
A-DATA S596 Turbo
Patriot TorqX TRB (JMF616, 32MB version half channels/writes)
Kingston SSDNow V series (JMF618, except 30GB model)
Kingston SSDNow V 100 series (JMF618, no + in name)
Toshiba T6UG1XBG controller (maybe a rebranded “new” Jmicron)
Kingston SSDNow V+ series
Kingston SSDNow V series 30GB (only this size)
newer Samsung RBB controller
(mediocre performance, hit/miss on Trim support)
Samsung PM800, SS805
OCZ Summit
Super Talent MasterDrive SX
Kingston SSDNow V+ series (older ones)
Corsair P series
Phison
Patriot TorqX 2
Patriot PS-100

Do not buy
Indilinx Amigo controller
(slow/crippled version of Indilinx Barefoot controller, meant to be really inexpensive not really fast, regular Indilinx got demoted so Amigo gets demoted too)
OCZ Onyx
older Jmicron controller (JMF602, JMF602B, JMF602B x2)
(huge performance problems, no Trim, terrible random writes)
OCZ Core, Apex, Solid, Core V2
Super Talent MasterDrive RX, PX, OX
G.Skill Titan
Kingston SSDNow V series (older ones)
older Samsung controller
(just bad performance all-around, no Trim)
many OEM SSDs found in name brand notebook computers in years past
Samsung FlashSSD
Corsair S series
G.Skill FlashSSD
Plextor (except latest PX-M2)

PCIe card SSDs
These get their own section for now. They come with some caveats that they are incompatible with some motherboards, and of course can’t be used in a notebook. However, if you are looking for huge capacities with huge performance and have the huge wallet to afford them, these are the ones to get.

OCZ RevoDrive (PCIe x4, twin SandForce 1200 in internal RAID)
OCZ RevoDrive 2 (PCIe x4, quad SandForce 1200 in internal RAID)
OCZ Z-Drive (PCIe x8, quad Indilinx Barefoot in internal RAID)
OCZ Z-Drive R2 (PCIe x8, eight Indilinx? Barefoot? in internal RAID, using removable NAND modules that look like SODIMMs)
OCZ IBIS (PCIe x4-to-HSDL controller, basically HSDL is like a PCIe x4 connector using a cable, the “drive” is a quad SandForce 1200 in internal RAID that looks like a normal 3.5″ HDD with an HSDL connector)

Hard Disk Repair

Western Digital PCB 2060-701393-002

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM13 years ago4 years ago02 mins

Swap Western Digital PCB 2060-701393-002(Printed Circuit Boards) to recover your data from damaged HDD due to PCB failure. 2060-701393-002 is the board number on this PCB. If your HDD’s PCB has problems, the drive usually cannot boot up or there may be an inaccurate display in the BIOS of the hard drive’s information. Also power may not get to the hard drive and as a result it will not spin up.

Western Digital 2060-701393-002 PCB Board Details:

Board Number: 2060-701393-002
Main Controller IC: 88i6545-TFJ1
HDD Motor Combo IC: L6283 1.3
Manufacturer: Western Digital

Note: Hard drive failures are NOT always caused by circuit board failure.

Swap PCB 2060-701393-002 will not solve the problem below:

1. The hard drive will power up normally (no ticking noises, errors etc) but will not be recognized by the computer;
2. The hard drive will power up normally and be recognized correctly but will report a size of 0 bytes;
3. The hard drive will power up but report SMART errors on boot;

Western Digital 2060-701393-002 PCB Photos:

Buy this pcb board online: Western Digital PCB 2060-701393-002

More Western Digital SATA PCB

Hard Disk Repair

What Are SSD-Optimized File Systems?

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM14 years ago11 months ago06 mins

Prior to SSDs, or solid state drives, all data was stored on magnetic spinning hard disk drives (HDDs). Many computers still have HDDs, but this is changing due to the better performance of SSDs. For instance, HDDs have moving parts, are more susceptible to breakage, are louder, heavier, and provide irregular performance when it comes to accessing data. SSDs fix all of those problems.

A cheap example of a solid-state drive is a thumb drive used to store a gigabyte or two of data. It is becoming more and more cost-effective to create larger SSDs to hold data due to their increased speed and performance. However, there is one problem: SSDs typically don’t last as long as HDDs unless the file system is optimized to accommodate them. They can’t handle as many write/erase functions as HDDs, meaning they don’t last as long. If an SSD is being used as a hard drive, files may be written and erased hundreds of times per day, making it necessary for operating systems to take certain precautions for solid-state drives.

If a file system is optimized to work with solid-state drives, the SSD can last as long as a hard disk drive of similar caliber. As more and more netbooks and computers are being built with SSD file storage hardware, it is becoming more and more necessary for the operating systems on these machines to have SSD-optimized file systems.

Who Are SSD-Optimized File Systems For?

Anyone whose machine uses a solid-state drive such as people involved with web hosting, streaming video, equities trading or another high-data-volume pursuit should be sure that they have a SSD and that their file system is optimized. While few netbooks, laptops and desktop computers produced for mass consumption have solid-state data drive hardware, there are several notable ones. These include:

* Asus Eee PC
* MacBook Air
* Lenovo Thinkpad
* Toshiba Portege R600
* Intel X-25E Extreme

As you can see, these include both low-end netbooks and high-priced laptops. As SSDs become less expensive to produce, analysts predict that more new computers will use SSD hardware. Many a dedicated server may also use SSD file storage due to the increased need for speed. Readers should check with their computers’ manufacturers to see if their machine uses an SSD file storage system, and should optimize their file systems accordingly. Non-optimized file systems run the risk of burning out the SSD prematurely, making it impossible to write or erase data and necessitating the purchase of new hardware.

Advantages of SSD-Optimized File Systems

* Operating system’s processes are better suited to solid state drives
* Make SSD hardware last longer

Disadvantages of SSD-Optimized File Systems

* May require an upgrade

Examples

The following operating systems represent SSD-optimized options you can take if you want to ensure that your system is its most efficient.

* Windows 7
* Sun Microsystems ZFS
* FreeBSD
* A variety of Linux systems
* Mac OS X 10.7

Conclusion

As stated before, not everyone needs to have SSD file storage. Currently, SSDs are still about ten times as expensive as comparable HDDs, though their performance improvement is arguably enough to offset the cost. As costs go down, more and more systems will be built with SSD hardware.

Given the fact that the big two OS providers, Apple and Microsoft, are switching to SSD-optimized file systems for their flagship products, many people won’t even have to worry about having an SSD-optimized system in the future. However, if you are still using an older operating system but plan to upgrade to newer file storage hardware, you should definitely consider switching to an SSD-optimized file system as well. Solid state may be on the horizon for mass consumption, but it is not yet fully here.