Swapping out controller cards on a bad HD

[ToyYoda03]

My Maxtor 160gb hd caught fire some how and it appears that the only visable damage is to the controller card. I contacted Maxtor and they sent me a new HD which arrived today. The original plan was to swap the controller card out of the bad HD and swap the good one into the bad one. Well, I havent done this yet but the RMA replacement drive that they shipped me is different. Its a 200GB model according to the tag, not a 160gb one.

I checked the controller card, some of the serial numbers match up, some dont. The biggest difference is the memory chip, one is samsung (the new one) the old is some name I have never seen before.

Do you think swapping the cards will work? I really want to get my data back if I can.

I am still at school so I wont be able to swap cards until I get home.

 

[djnes]

I think it would be worth a try, but you should check with Maxtor first. If you void your warranty, or destroy the original one, they may not accept it back, blame you for the failure, and charge you for the new drive.

 

[Ice Czar]

Do you think swapping the cards will work? I really want to get my data back if I can. .

absolutely not

there is a different low level format between the 2 drives
while it is possible to swap boards, you really need to get not only the same basic model but the same board, if I recall correctly, Maxtor may actually be help-ful in telling you what model numbers will work (WD is useless in this regard)

so for instance (using one of my WD drives for numbers) a
WD400BB-00DEA0

might accept other WD400BBs
like 00BD0, 00FD0, 00GR0 but 00RE0, 00HG0 and 00WE0 wont work (made all those up)
but a WD800BB of whatever secondary code would not work

Ive seen this successfully done quite a few times, but research is definately required'
and "luck" dont cut it