Fujitsu MHS2060AT HDD Repair

[GeordieSi]

Hi all. My Fujitsu MHS2060AT 2.5" HDD has malfunctioned. It is no
longer visible in BIOS. I'm fairly certain the problem is electronic
and some surfing suggests it may be a dodgy controller chip. Has anyone
anyone any experience of repairing this (or a related) drive and could
share some tips? Regards.

 

[Mark]

Hi all. My Fujitsu MHS2060AT 2.5" HDD has malfunctioned. It is no
longer visible in BIOS. I'm fairly certain the problem is electronic
and some surfing suggests it may be a dodgy controller chip. Has anyone
anyone any experience of repairing this (or a related) drive and could
share some tips? Regards.

I had a MPG3204 go south. 24 hours in a poly bag in the freezer
sorted the problem enough to recover the very few non-backed up files
from it. Now replaced of course.

 

[Rod Speed]

Unlikely with that particular drive.

You might be able to get the data back by swapping
the logic card with an identical drive. That might not
work too, but if you cant afford professional recovery,
its something that isnt that expensive to try.

I had a MPG3204 go south.

The MPGs are completely different drives, with a well known problem.
One of the most notorious drives in history, generated a lot of legal
action.

 

[GeordieSi]

Thanks for comments. Got some info from a recovery company
(http://www.greenergy.com.sg/datarecovery/datarcfj.asp) which confirms
my thoughts. I can hear the hard disk spin (smoothly) at BIOS startup
but it is not detected. Can't really justify the cost of professional
recovery but I'm always keen to learn more about 'self-help'. Fujitsu
won't of course confirm that such faults exist on their controller
chips. May try swapping controller boards as suggested.

 

[Mike Tomlinson]

May try swapping controller boards as suggested.

Um. The link you quoted says:

"Do Not: Under no circumstances should you attempt to swap the
controller board on one of these faulty drives with one from a working
drive. IT WILL NOT WORK. This is because the information held on the
failed drive is unique to each drive. Changing the controller board may
very well cause a mechanical failure and render your recoverable data
unrecoverable."

Useful info for Fujitsu (and other) drives at:

http://www.dataclinic.co.uk/fujitsu-hard-disk-recovery.htm

 

[GeordieSi]

Wasn't an immediate plan until I'd decided how to go about it. I can't
see how a data recovery company could repair a controller chip so I
would have guessed that there is no alternative but to replace the chip
and or the board. This makes me think that with a little insider
knowledge it is doable. I may be completely off base with this idea but
since there are no obvious burnout patches I suspect the fault lies on
the chip. Thanks for the warning though. Simon.

 

[google]

Hi Folks ;-)

Seems to me the situation with your MHS2060AT can be resolved in about
30 seconds:

Question: Can you afford to loose all your data ?

if 'yes' then
(do you have considerable time available) and ( do you
enjoy experimenting)
if (still smiling and shouting 'yes' )
then
keep reading the advice, little of which appears
to coming from people working 24/7 in the data recovery business - good
luck, I'm sure everyone means well, but most of the advice is
counterproductive, and in some cases highly unadvisable.

if 'no' then
take a look at http://www.aurora.se

(or search Google for "MHS2060AT crash")

Aurora is a highly respected data recovery company with very
considerable experience
and, best of all, very reasonable prices for private people ( that's to
say, people that do not run their own companies)

Its worth a look or even a short email, don't you agree . . .

Erik

 

[Rod Speed]

Wasn't an immediate plan until I'd decided how to go about
it. I can't see how a data recovery company could repair a
controller chip so I would have guessed that there is no
alternative but to replace the chip and or the board. This
makes me think that with a little insider knowledge it is doable.

Yes, but thats unlikely to be JUST a board swap
when they dont have that warning for the other drives.

I may be completely off base with this idea but since there are
no obvious burnout patches I suspect the fault lies on the chip.

There are plenty of logic card failures that dont produce anything visible.

 

[GeordieSi]

I guessed things would be a little more tricky than a simple switch
over. From what I can gather the boards firmware must be identical.
This would be the first challenge. I then probably have to set the
replacement board back to factory defaults which would mean find the
correct pins and voltage to apply (if indeed there is such a
procedure). I know I may be a little foolhardy but I also believe that
I can learn a lot about how hard drives work from this experience. I
have also noticed what appears to be test points (labelled TP1 etc).
This might help me to narrow down the cause of the problem. Cheers for
the warnings.

 

[GeordieSi]

Many thanks for the plug ;-) I haven't got my new hard drive yet so I'm
not sure how much data I lost since my last backup. If I've lost
anything vital I may need to get professional help. On the other hand
I'm very curious about how things work, especially when these 'secrets'
seem so closely guarded. Getting genuinely useful information is tricky
but if the professionals (such as yourself) know it, it must be
available. Anyway, thanks for the advice - I shouldn't really take up
too much bandwidth in this newsgroup.

 

[Rod Speed]

I guessed things would be a little more tricky than a simple switch
over. From what I can gather the boards firmware must be identical.
This would be the first challenge. I then probably have to set the
replacement board back to factory defaults which would mean find the
correct pins and voltage to apply (if indeed there is such a procedure).

The warning appears to be saying that it aint that simple.

I know I may be a little foolhardy but I also believe that I can
learn a lot about how hard drives work from this experience.

I doubt it.

I have also noticed what appears to be test points (labelled TP1 etc).
This might help me to narrow down the cause of the problem.

I doubt it. You need to know how they are used.

 

[Odie Ferrous]

Hi Folks ;-)

Seems to me the situation with your MHS2060AT can be resolved in about
30 seconds:

Question: Can you afford to loose all your data ?

if 'yes' then
(do you have considerable time available) and ( do you
enjoy experimenting)
if (still smiling and shouting 'yes' )
then
keep reading the advice, little of which appears
to coming from people working 24/7 in the data recovery business - good
luck, I'm sure everyone means well, but most of the advice is
counterproductive, and in some cases highly unadvisable.

if 'no' then
take a look at http://www.aurora.se

(or search Google for "MHS2060AT crash")

Aurora is a highly respected data recovery company with very
considerable experience
and, best of all, very reasonable prices for private people ( that's to
say, people that do not run their own companies)

Its worth a look or even a short email, don't you agree . . .

Erik

Hang on - you're a data recovery company, and you *sell* new Maxtor and
Western Digital drives?

What experience do you have in your field?

These are shockingly unreliable drives. Or do you want repeat business?

Perhaps there's method in your madness after all.


Odie

 

[Mike Tomlinson]

Wasn't an immediate plan until I'd decided how to go about it. I can't
see how a data recovery company could repair a controller chip so I
would have guessed that there is no alternative but to replace the chip
and or the board.

I have recovered data from a Fujitsu MPG series drive which stopped
being recognised in the BIOS by freezing the controller chip (the large
Cirrus Logic chip on the board.) It was necessary to use several cans
of freezer spray to keep the drive going until I had copied off all the
data the user wanted, including her thesis...

This was not cheap; freezer spray is expensive!

If the drive has been left long enough for the chip to actually burn
out, it will need attention from a data recovery professional.

 

[GeordieSi]

Thanks Rod. I know I've still got a long way to go. I've managed to get
the overview of the circuit boards. I've managed to trace the component
parts from the numbers on the circuit boards and have a better
understanding of how they work than I did yesterday. I've managed to
get some rough Ideas of voltages these boards can take. Maybe I'll
simply not find out any more info and won't be able to work out how to
go any further but I'd like to give it a shot. It's just that if if the
fault lies on the board I would have thought that even data recovery
firms would have a difficult job identifying and fixing the problem
without swapping components. What I find curious is that if these
companies have the know-how where did they get it from - do they buy it
from the manufacturer or have to figure it out for themselves?

 

[Rod Speed]

Thanks Rod. I know I've still got a long way to go. I've managed to
get the overview of the circuit boards. I've managed to trace the
component parts from the numbers on the circuit boards and have a
better understanding of how they work than I did yesterday. I've
managed to get some rough Ideas of voltages these boards can take.
Maybe I'll simply not find out any more info and won't be able to
work out how to go any further but I'd like to give it a shot. It's
just that if if the fault lies on the board I would have thought that
even data recovery firms would have a difficult job identifying and
fixing the problem without swapping components. What I find curious
is that if these companies have the know-how where did they get it
from - do they buy it from the manufacturer or have to figure it out
for themselves?

They have to figure it out for themselves.

 

[coast]

My Fujitsu MPF3204AT died 3 years ago. Every reference site I got to
said don't swap controller boards including the Data Recovery web
sites. No No Don't...Don't !

Of of course this made me want to. It took 3 years to find a hard
drive with the same controller board on ebay. I needed the same
manufacturing date and the same firmware revision number. I swapped
controllers just last night and my old drive came to life and I
transferred my old data onto my new drive. It worked with no problem
at all.

I am not any kind of hard drive expert but knowing now what I know I
would say if you can find an exact match (manufaturing date and
firmware), more than likely you will be ok.


My data did not constitute a $500.00 US cost to the Data Recovery
people but it is nice to get the old data back for a cost of $60.00 US
Delivered

Hope this helps.
Don

 

[Rod Speed]

My Fujitsu MPF3204AT died 3 years ago. Every reference site I got to
said don't swap controller boards including the Data Recovery web
sites. No No Don't...Don't !

Of of course this made me want to. It took 3 years to find a hard
drive with the same controller board on ebay. I needed the same
manufacturing date and the same firmware revision number. I swapped
controllers just last night and my old drive came to life and I
transferred my old data onto my new drive. It worked with no problem
at all.

I am not any kind of hard drive expert but knowing now what I know I
would say if you can find an exact match (manufaturing date and
firmware), more than likely you will be ok.


My data did not constitute a $500.00 US cost to the Data Recovery
people but it is nice to get the old data back for a cost of $60.00 US
Delivered

Hope this helps.

Thanks for that feedback, too rare in my opinion.

 

[GeordieSi]

Thanks for the info. I'm going to give it a try too once I have found a
matching board. Had also found this site for those that are interested:
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/blue-sky-jp/norrie/FUJITSU_MPG3409AT_EF_AE.htm