I have a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1500 G Bytes in needed of a donor drive for data recovery. I have a few questions about what I should be looking for in a donor drive. My failed drive diagnosis shows the “read / write heads” stuck to the platters. I have enclosed an image of the hard drive taken in a clean room. My failed drive information:
Model Number: ST31500341AS
Part Number: 9JU138-568
Serial Number: 9VS0Q…
Firmware: CC3H
Site Code: TK
Date Code: 09331
From the above information what should be a match for a donor drive. I have been able to locate a similar drive but it does not match all of the criteria of my failed drive. I have found one drive that matches everything but the Firmware. Their Firmware is: CC1H and another with Firmware of CC4H. I also came across one that has a different Site Code. That Site Code is: SU.
So my questions would be will any of the drive work for what needs to be done or do I keep looking for an exact match? If you have any other suggestions I would be glad to hear them.
Thanks for the help. But the question I am looking to find an answer to is about the Firmware needed for a Head Stack Assembly replacement. Does the Firmware need an exact match? Could a Firmware: CC1H be used in place of a Firmware: CC3H? All other criteria are an exact match. So am I able to proceed that way?
I'm not a data recovery professional, but AIUI the firmware version is irrelevant. Only the first three characters of the serial number need to match when swapping the heads. That said, the HDD Guru community seems to think that the most recent models may have departed from this rule. Your 7200.11 should be OK, though.
