Newer Toshiba Donor Matching

[Jared]

Has anyone done a lot of testing with crossing drive revisions with a totally different code after the / ?

I'm assuming the format of the revision code is (hardware) / (firmware) so it may not matter what's after the slash for matching heads. Anyone take the time to really figure this one out yet? I know on the older ones it didn't matter that much.

 

[Sam]

I've had quite a few and none of my donors have had exactly matching code after the /. In fact, I usually disregard everything on the Drive Rev line.
To find donor heads I just match the model and head map of course, make sure the donor drive spins with the patient PCB and make sure the slider topography matches. The donor matches I've found this way have been crazy (especially with Hitachis with different model # between donor & patient, different PCBs and NVRAM codes).
This method works especially well with finding donor heads for USB drives from SATA drives (and much cheaper). One example: 1TB MQ01UBD100 (USB patient) and 1TB MQ01ABD100 (SATA donor).

 

[Jared]

Yes, I generally always use a SATA donor for USB drives. In my option those are the same model with just a different PCB. In fact, you can get the same hardware revision code between the two. Nice tip about checking if the donor will spin with patient PCB, I've rarely tried that but it could be a good indicator no doubt.

I'm more just interested to know if the part after the slash only relates to firmware or has any correlation to hardware at all. My concern is more related to picking out a drive to purchase that's not already in-house to inspect sliders.

 

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

I've had quite a few and none of my donors have had exactly matching code after the /. In fact, I usually disregard everything on the Drive Rev line.
To find donor heads I just match the model and head map of course, make sure the donor drive spins with the patient PCB and make sure the slider topography matches. The donor matches I've found this way have been crazy (especially with Hitachis with different model # between donor & patient, different PCBs and NVRAM codes).
This method works especially well with finding donor heads for USB drives from SATA drives (and much cheaper). One example: 1TB MQ01UBD100 (USB patient) and 1TB MQ01ABD100 (SATA donor).

Hello sam,
I have experienced in few drives that if you try patient pcb on donor it can modify nvram code in very rare occasions .Please make sure you do take a nvram backup of patient before you try this .Atleast main mcu and motor controller should be matched before you try on donor head assembly like this we can always be sure we will fry nothing .Can you explain this a bit better "The donor matches I've found this way have been crazy (especially with Hitachi's with different model # between donor & patient, different PCBs and NVRAM codes). " .Yes using data drive heads on usb is something i learned here long time back but in reality .Never tried it though .Keep up the good work

 

[Sam]

Thanks for the tip Amarbir--I will keep that in mind.

As many experienced DR pros have found, there are other ways to find donor heads instead of strictly going off the accepted donor matching guidelines such as published on donordrives.com. Relative to most of the established DR pros, I have not been in the industry for too long so it was exciting when I started to discover this. I admit I may have the small advantage of a good relationship with all the computer repair shops in the area who drop their "bad" hard drives off to me regularly But these days if I don't have an exact match I find it's worth my time to experiment a little to find something in-house in the effort of being able to give my customer a cheaper quote (and better chance they'll approve it).

Here are a couple recent finds:

Patient:
2TB Caviar Green
WD20EACS-11BHUB0
05 Jan 2011
DCM: HANNNTJMAB

Donor:
2TB Caviar Green
WD20EARS-00MVWB0
21 Jun 2010
DCM: HBNNHTJMAB

Patient:
HTS721010A9E630
7K1000-1000
P/N 0J22423
MLC DA6326
NOV 14
PCB: 220 0A90351
PCB sticker: 0J14465

Donor:
HTS541010A9E682
5K1000-1000
P/N 0J15963
MLC DA4910
MAR 12
PCB: 220 0A90350
PCB sticker: 0J14457

 

[Jared]

[post]7784[/post] Patient:
2TB Caviar Green
WD20EACS-11BHUB0
05 Jan 2011
DCM: HANNNTJMAB

Donor:
2TB Caviar Green
WD20EARS-00MVWB0
21 Jun 2010
DCM: HBNNHTJMAB

Crossing models within the same WD family generally always works as long as the relevant part of the DCM is correct and the date is close. So this is no surprise to me.

[post]7784[/post] Patient:
HTS721010A9E630
7K1000-1000
P/N 0J22423
MLC DA6326
NOV 14
PCB: 220 0A90351
PCB sticker: 0J14465

Donor:
HTS541010A9E682
5K1000-1000
P/N 0J15963
MLC DA4910
MAR 12
PCB: 220 0A90350
PCB sticker: 0J14457

I seem to remember once or twice crossing 7200RPM Hitachi's with 5400 counterparts as well. It surprised me the first time I tried it and it worked. I've never actually kept track of which models it specifically was I used though. I've usually gone primarially off the date with HGST/Hitachi if I'm crossing families, as I figure that's the best chance they'll be using the same heads in multiple models.

 

[jol]

Patient:
NOV 14

Donor:
MAR 12

WOW

 

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

Damn ,
That were some crosses done boys .specially the hitachi heads keep it up

 

[pclab]

Hi Guys

[post]7756[/post] I've had quite a few and none of my donors have had exactly matching code after the /. In fact, I usually disregard everything on the Drive Rev line.
To find donor heads I just match the model and head map of course, make sure the donor drive spins with the patient PCB and make sure the slider topography matches. The donor matches I've found this way have been crazy (especially with Hitachis with different model # between donor & patient, different PCBs and NVRAM codes).
This method works especially well with finding donor heads for USB drives from SATA drives (and much cheaper). One example: 1TB MQ01UBD100 (USB patient) and 1TB MQ01ABD100 (SATA donor).

So, to match a USB Toshiba and to get a SATA donor, you just match model and headmap? What about date for instance?
The question is to purchase it (not in-house HDD)?
Thanks

 

[Jared]

Just switch out the letter "U" for the letter "A" and match it as you normally feel comfortable on the other specs.

I usually aim for the same REV up to the / and a somewhat close date. But, it just depends how much more it'll cost me to get a close match. If it's 3x the price, I'll take my chances with a drive that's not such a close match.