If you are trying to find a donor PCB board for a board swap, we have done our best to compile an authoritative list of matching criteria to use when selecting your donor board. Remember that these are general guidelines and that there is an exception to every rule. Sometimes you get what should be a “perfect” match and it still will not work. Remember to always perform a visual inspection to compare the donor to the patient. Sometimes boards with the same numbers may have slightly different layouts and therefore may not be compatible.
You can buy donor drives and boards from a number of online sellers who specialize in data recovery parts such as donordrives.com, donordevices.com, and hddzone.com. eBay is a cheaper option (and often the only option for rare boards), but people selling these boards often do not know how to test them and therefore are selling malfunctioning boards. We always suggest buying two boards, especially when shopping on eBay, to lessen the chance that the first board you ordered is bad. And when on eBay, buy from two different sellers!
If you are not a data recovery professional and your data or drive is important, do not attempt a board swap by yourself as you will likely lose your data! This information is for educational purposes only and we are not responsible for what may happen if you use it!
This guide ONLY applies to conventional spinning-disk drives, not SSDs, or SSHDs (which have additional SSD memory which must be safely cleared/dumped or moved along to the new board as well)
Western Digital Marvell
Each WD board has a number etched or painted onto it in the form of 2060-XXXXX-XXX REV XX. Matching the XXXX-XXX section before the Y should be sufficient for most cases. Matching REV if possible is preferred. Note that some Marvell drives do not feature an external 8-pin ROM (ROM is integrated with processor), so the ROM chip cannot be swapped separately. Also, some Passport-series drives store encryption-related data in an MCU chip which cannot be moved like a normal 8-pin ROM chip. ROM chip is usually located on U12.
Note that some modern Passport drives such as Splyglass 2 family with self-encryption function will not work with simple ROM swap because encryption keys are stored in MCU.
Seagate
Seagate drives come in two architectures. Barracuda drives (much older) have a dot in the FW version listed on the label, F3 drives do not (anything post 2008). Many Barracuda drives do not require ROM swap.
Each Seagate F3 board has a number etched onto it starting with 100 followed by a REV X. REV is not normally needed for a match, but if you can find one with the same REV then it is preferable. Important note: Some Seagate drives, particularly modern ones, or ones labeled SSHD, have cache or user area data stored on the board. Swapping ROM on these boards without taking special precautions will lose that data.
Hitachi/HGST
You must match the first and second line of the PCB sticker. This should inherently cause the number etched onto board which starts with 110, 220, or 320 to match as well.
Toshiba
Most Toshiba boards have an 8-legged firmware chip which must be swapped, some have integrated ROM like WD which means the entire controller must be moved.
Match the number etched onto the PCB in the format GXXXXXX.
Maxtor
ROM swap typically not required. Match by drive model and code listed on label instead of PCB.
Samsung
ROM swap typically not required but may be in some cases where 8-legged ROM chip exists. If number etched onto board starts with 100 it should be treated as a Seagate drive. Match drive model instead of PCB.
Fujitsu
ROM swap not always required, 8-legged ROM indicates you should swap chip. Match drive model and number etched into/printed on PCB starting with CA.