Toshiba USB to SATA Guide

pclab

Moderator
Taken from DFL forum:

Users can use this donor SATA PCB-G3918A to convert the Toshiba USB PCB G3959A to compatible SATA PCB.
It’s not easy to find separate SATA PCB G3918A, users usually need to buy a whole hard drive for PCB swap which is costly. Now we have got 15 pieces of separate SATA PCBs of G3918A, after selling out these 15 pieces, no more.
 

notoriousg

New member
Good day guys, can someone explain what do i need to do to replace my G3448A board with G003235C? Is it plug and play or do i need to resolder the ICs? Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance and have a good day.
 

Jared

Administrator
Staff member
You need to transplant the 8 pin ROM chip that's typically labeled IC602 next to it. That contains the drive specific configuration pages to make the PCB compatible.
 

notoriousg

New member
So i basically desolder the IC602 from my board which is G3448A and solder it on the new SATA board G003235C? There are 2 ICs on the G3448A IC606 and IC602. Do i need only the IC602 soldered on the new board to make it work?
 

Jared

Administrator
Staff member
notoriousg":tfn1qr8g said:
So i basically desolder the IC602 from my board which is G3448A and solder it on the new SATA board G003235C? There are 2 ICs on the G3448A IC606 and IC602. Do i need only the IC602 soldered on the new board to make it work?

Yes, you only need to move the IC602 from the USB board to the SATA one to make it compatible. No need to touch the IC606.

Just be careful removing/resoldering the chip. If you cook or break that chip it's game over for data recovery...forever!!! So you'll want to be sure whoever does it has proper soldering skills and equipment.
 

notoriousg

New member
Jared":1wjxa4xg said:
notoriousg":1wjxa4xg said:
So i basically desolder the IC602 from my board which is G3448A and solder it on the new SATA board G003235C? There are 2 ICs on the G3448A IC606 and IC602. Do i need only the IC602 soldered on the new board to make it work?

Yes, you only need to move the IC602 from the USB board to the SATA one to make it compatible. No need to touch the IC606.

Just be careful removing/resoldering the chip. If you cook or break that chip it's game over for data recovery...forever!!! So you'll want to be sure whoever does it has proper soldering skills and equipment.
Thanks for the info about the manipulation. We’ll see what happens when the new board arrives.
 

Jared

Administrator
Staff member
Just bear in mind that PCB replacement is not a fix all solution. Very often the problem lies elsewhere. We only track this info because we often must adapt from a USB PCB to a SATA one so we can interface with the drive and properly diagnose and repair the real issue using tools like PC-3000. We can do a lot more over SATA than USB.
 

Jared

Administrator
Staff member
Tweety":19oq8mpl said:
G4330A ----------> G4311A - I confirm compatibility

Thanks for the update Tweety. List updated and date updated as well (to keep Larry off my back :lol: )
 
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