Is there a way to bypass the smooth chip?

[CrazyDoctor]

Hi All,

I have maxtor hard drive which does not spin, the bios see it as 0 capacity and it can be seen easily that the smooth chip is burnt.

I've found this PCB on the internet, and the owner told me that firmware transfer does not required because the board has great compatibility.

Those are pictures of the board and the hard drive:

http://img63.imageshack.us/i/dsc03956w.jpg/

http://img101.imageshack.us/i/dsc03957b.jpg/

I bought the new PCB

https://us-dc1-order.store.yahoo.net/cgi-bin/wg-order?ysco_key_event_id=&ysco_key_store_id=yhst-44463692235217&sectionId=ysco.cart&yscoc=MBBN.bkmAUfVehwWQQO4fRdFdfCNzdxQaIXEzZdASYx_P_DOHX6kV0FG6.vnh8RvuK_kT16R6oh1L908hlQp3bo8LMz7tLumjNMzriRTPwJELUQAB.LY_Z9CxSy0VbVcosF._HtMIdI9Ig--&yscos=luNMkqomAUduW1hq3WdZfB_0p859WjVBlWRG7urOmyYZOBl4V.HicSkCbRcjoFQ57lRDfedZ92SiAEMk2v0N8pZ3uV6FI6dKeeXstIoeaccJC1g2PCryYKxIxuUA3YIVTdgtnaKtjlgbhQ--&yscob=mSVJ7OkmAUema_q70hxj2N2g6wP3tGK4HHePLOpsxPLJ6LtNvTJjQtsus4kPhdvFgYcH_Wrani7AkrOktiLH8EHfUPIVKeg58fj6avUiByW2GaMglKSJUEKop5ZLVaxazQ--

But the seller told me that the PCB should arive between June 9 and June 16.

I need the photos in the drive before the 11.6.

Is there any way to bypass the smooth chip and recover the data with out the new pcb?

By the way, what is the smooth chip? what does it do?

Mant Thanks!

(sorry for the spam)

[jaclaz]

SMOOTH is a brand, the chip does quite a bit of things:

http://www.dataclinic.co.uk/hard-disk-smooth-l7250.htm

AFAIK those are "CALYPSO" boards and do have some data stored on them, the good news are that they should be "size independent":

http://forum.hddguru.com/howto-how-replace-maxtor-calypso-iii-board-t5977.html

6Y080L0422051

if you have any functional Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 with the same RED numbers it should be a suitable replacement.

As a general rule being in a hurry and performing data recovery never went well together, though.

A more general rule is to READ when someone is so kind as to try and help you, this thread:

http://forum.hddguru.com/what-the-necessary-critieria-for-maxtor-pcb-replacement-t7695.html

already given to you:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=142756

contains ALL the info you needed, including a possible source for only the SMOOTH chip replacement and/or for a (cheaper than the one you found ) replacement PCB.

jaclaz

Edited June 6, 2010 by jaclaz