Friday, November 18, 2011

Understanding What a Hard Disk Drive PCB is

By Jason Sloan


This article explains the significance of a PCB (printed circuit board) and the job it plays with the running of your drive. A PCB is the electronic part attached the the hard drive and is sensitive to power surges and dusty environments. Many hard drive recovery issues concern the PCB and needs a good experience of the different types of PCBs and ability to repair issues like this.

What is a Hard Disk Drive PCB?

A PCB or a printed circuit board, often referred to as a printed wiring board or etched wiring board, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect parts in an electronic device. The mechanical support and electrical connection is performed by means of conductive paths, conductive tracks or signal traces etched from copper sheets and laminated onto non-conductive substrate.

PCB's are rather more dependable and less expensive than the older wire-wrap and point-to-point construction technologies. The primary assembly and cost with PCB layout may be high but for high-volume production, PCB's are quicker and cheaper.

PCB fabrication is a multiple process involving etching, photograph engraving, multi-layer processing, drilling, masking and finishing. Finally, there's electrical testing to final-check its efficiency. If the PCB fails the final electric testing, it is replaced or corrected accordingly.

Where is the PCB found in my PC?

If you've tried installing a hard disk drive, you've already seen the PCB as that green board on the bottom of the hard drive. When the drive fails with no power, it is most likely because of a PCB malfunction. Many common computer problems cause the PCB to fail such as power rises and even dust contamination.

What does a Disk Drive PCB do?



The PCB contains the firmware of the hard drive and lets the drive understand how to operate and how to read data from the platters. Its particular functions include storing information regarding how many heads there are in the drive and how to access continue microcode for successful hard drive start up.

The information is put into each PCB right at the factory level and is designed to be particularly precise to a specific drive.

What are the symptoms of PCB failure?

When a hard drive fails due to PCB failure, the drive typically can't boot up or there might be an incorrect display in the BIOS of the hard drive's info. Also power may not get to the hard drive and as a result it won't spin up.

Am I Able To just replace the Hard Drive PCB?



The narrow customisation of the PCB to its hard disk makes finding the right PCB replacement awfully troublesome. Usually you have got to find a donor hard drive with the same firmware, model number, PCB part number and manufactured inside a few weeks of your bad hard disk; it can be like finding a needle in a haystack. Additionally, thanks to the unique adaptives, replacing of the PCB may cause further damages to the hard drive, for example its heads and the platters.

Advice on Drive PCB issues

If you believe you are having a hard drive PCB failure, don't try to operate the drive any longer and never switch the PCB with that of another drive. Get your hard drive to a specialist data recovery company.




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