Swapping Logic board on HDD

[EquinnoxX]

Anyone know if you can swap a logic board b/w hard drives that were the same model but different sizes?

meaning i have this old deathstar that id like to revive but for donor drives all i can find are ones that are bigger/smaller than mine. i dont think it'd be a problem but i figured id see if anyone here had any experience first.

edit - i can find the newer rebranded hitachi ones, think i'd have better luck using the pcb from that instead?

 

[jpmkm]

I strongly doubt it would work. The control boards have firmware that is pretty specific to the drive. Different sized drives will have different numbers of platters, different platter density, etc, all of which must be accounted for in the control board. If you put a control board from a 120 gig drive onto a 75 gig drive, it will control the 75 gig drive as if it were a 120 gig drive, and will royally screw things up. I'm not sure about using a hitachi board. It might work, but I wouldn't bet on it.

However, if this was one of the 60 or 75 gig deskstars and it failed in the typical deathstar fashion, then there is most likely physical damage to the platters, and swapping control boards won't help.