Controller board for Samsung 80 GB Spinrite SP0802N HDD wanted. ::

[Apptech]

Wanted: Electronics board from a Samsung SP0802N "Spinrite" 80 GB hard
drive.
About 2004 vintage.

I have friends who, despite my repeated warnings that all hard drives always
fail *, have had a HDD failure & inadequate backups. How inadequate is yet
to be seen.

The PC power supply failed in some walking wounded manner and produced
substantial voltage fluctuations which damaged a number of components in the
system, including the hard drive. There is some prospect that the controller
board was damaged but that the HDD proper is still OK - I've recovered a
drive before now by simply swapping controller cards (although this has
failed for me in more cases than it has worked in).

If anyone has either a dead version of this drive or perhaps a working one
that is too small to be worth using (only 80 GB after all :-) ) then I'd be
pleased to discuss the possibility of obtaining its brain.

If someone local had one this may be able to be done on a trial and return
basis - on the understanding that the trial may destroy the controller. FWIW
- on the perhaps 10 or so occasions where I have unsuccessfully tried
swapping controllers I've never seen the trial unit damaged.
YMMV :-).

If replying to this via PICList would you please also send me a copy
directly. (apptechnz@...)





  regards


                  Russell McMahon

* ALL Hard drives always fail. Lifetimes vary - typical range is minutes to
a decade or so, with median probably in the 3 year range by now. I've seen a
new Toshiba laptop drive 'gone by lunchtime' on its first day of use.
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[Vitaliy-14]

Russell McMahon wrote:

> Wanted: Electronics board from a Samsung SP0802N "Spinrite" 80 GB hard
> drive.
> About 2004 vintage.
>
> I have friends who, despite my repeated warnings that all hard drives
> always
> fail *, have had a HDD failure & inadequate backups. How inadequate is yet
> to be seen.
>
> The PC power supply failed in some walking wounded manner and produced
> substantial voltage fluctuations which damaged a number of components in
> the
> system, including the hard drive. There is some prospect that the
> controller
> board was damaged but that the HDD proper is still OK - I've recovered a
> drive before now by simply swapping controller cards (although this has
> failed for me in more cases than it has worked in).

I wanted to mention that if replacing the controller board fails, you should
try swapping the platters. Professional data recovery services do this in a
cleanroom environment, but in an emergency it is possible to perform this
type of surgery in one's home as well.

Searching for "Samsung SP0802N" on Google Shopping brings up a ton of
results, from $49.

Wish you success in your endeavor,

Vitaliy

PS What kind of backup system do you yourself employ?

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[Apptech]

> I wanted to mention that if replacing the controller board fails,
> you should try swapping the platters.

I've never taken recovery to that level before. The time may come. I have
one HDD from some years back which MAY contain photos from a Taiwanese
trip that I have found no backups of. (I may have a DVD backup thereof - not
yet checked thoroughly). (I have copies of the "best" but not the complete
set. Usually my backup procedures seem good enough, so far.

> PS What kind of backup system do you yourself employ?
Varies with material.
I distinguish roughly between 'photos' and 'the rest'. Photos are an
onsession, not (largely) a business but their retention is high on my
priority list.

Some mix of.

1 Usually [tm] - manual mirror of files to another PC on LAN.
2 Subsequent manually started backup to external USB hard disk.
3 Selected files on DVDs (usually photo records of trips)
4 Some few files sent by email for storage by a friend in another city.
5 GargoyleMail attachments.
6 Online photo storage of selected and less selected photos (Fotki stats
advise that I have 494 albums, 63754 photos, 33.87 GB uploaded since October
2005).

Considering possibility of internet transfer to a dedicated HDD in another
city - but unlikely to happen any time soon.

Considering dedicating a PC on LAN to backup with system located in
total-loss-fire-proof enclosure. May even happen.

1.2  I prefer manual initiation for various reasons. Does leave system at
risk of my reliability.

3. On trip (business or holiday) I tend to produce GBs/day of photos.
Increasing file sizes make this increasingly so. Files are sucked to laptop
at least daily and then written to portable HDD. Files are left on camera
card until card full. (Download modifies archive bit so only new images get
downloaded). May also write to DVD but less likely with this system. When
travelling over distance portable hard drive resdies in a pocket - usually a
front leg zipped pocket on 'cargo pants'. If I can get out alive my photos
have a fair chance of surviving as well.


Russell
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