Hard drives manufactured in recent years store much more data per square inch of platter area. This increase in data density has meant more complexity and sophistication of each device.
To function at these high levels, hard drives are individually calibrated after assembly. The calibration parameters are stored on the hard drive, on the platter, on the control board, or both.
This customization means that the old trick of swapping one compatible control board with another in an attempt to read a dead drive no longer works due to the unique calibrations specific to each hard drive. The video has more explanation, and a demonstration of how a control board swap fails between two drives of the same manufacturer and model.
About Lee Sensenbrenner
Director of Product Marketing at Gillware, Inc.; former journalist and chief speechwriter for a governor; economics degree from UW-Madison.
