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hard drive resurrection [I'm desperate!]

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Rover:
It might be a big deal about the part number.  It might work if you had the exact same drive to try swapping PCB's with.  I actually did that once, but it was with 40 MB MFM drive in the 80's.  :-[

Carol Haynes:
If you contact the drive manufacturer they mey be able to supply you with a cheap/reconditioned matching drive to attempt to swap over the innards and offer advice on how to get it recognised. They may even be prepared to do it for you (for a price).

If you manage to swap the innards and get it running back it up immediately and scrap it - you can't work in a sterile dust free environment so the reliability of the cobbled drive will be pretty low!

f0dder:
Try getting a new PCB, sounds like the way to go. If you make it work, make sure to copy over your data as quickly as you can, because the drive probably won't live for long. Keep a fan blowing at the drive while doing the data copy, low temperatures help prolonging life...

Hirudin:
I did the PCB swap once successfully. It was with 2 40gb Deathstars that I bought at the same time. Both drives broke within a couple months of each other. I think the frankenstien drive is still working in my old TiVo! As far as getting IBM (now Hitachi I think) to give you a PCB, good luck. When my drive first broke I called them and inquired about swapping the PCBs, they told me there was no chance of it working. That was a couple years ago though.

Do the 2 PCBs look the same? Compare each chip if you have time. Here's an idea, scan each one and lay the 2 images on top of each other.
Seems like if every chip is the same it should work. If they are the exact same, and it doesn't work, it may not be worth-it to keep trying to make it work.

Even though it doesn't sound like you'll need the freezer trick, I'll throw this idea out anyway... When you take the drive out of the freezer, plug the IDE cable in, stick it into a zip-lock, and stick the drive between 2 blocks of dry ice. I bet something like has been tried before, so search around before trying it. Another thing that might be worth trying is to somehow seal the drive in a ziplock or something with the IDE cable sticking out (maybe cover the whole thing in clay/grease/rubber cement). Submerge the drive in a large container of water and freeze the whole thing (I wonder if there would be a danger of crushing the drive from the pressure of the ice?). Then hook the block of ice + HDD to your comp and copy until *something* breaks.
If you wanna get really crazy; maybe you could get some mineral oil (which is supposidly non-conductive), submerge the drive in that, freeze it (does oil freeze easily?) then copy to your heart's content.

... later ...

Actually come to think of it, the mineral oil wouldn't have to be frozen to keep the HDD cool, it would still be <32º, that should keep it cool enough until you get your data off. Make sure to plug the air hole before dunking it though.

superboyac:
I can't stomach to do the freezer or the mineral oil thing.  I'd rather just save the drive until I had enough money to have it professionally done.  And I don't think that's really the problem, because the drive does spin when I put the new pcb in it.

The pcb I got are exactly the same, I think.  That's part of the reason why I got it.  but I'll take a closer look to see if every little chip is in exactly the same place.  I'm hoping it's just a jumper issue, but I'm just dreaming, because I've double checked that like a zillion times.

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