Locating Donor Drive for Western Digital

[Duane G]

Wanting some clarification.

I have a WD600UE laptop drive.

The part number is: WD600UE-32KVT0

The DCM is FNTJBNB

Does anyone have the breakdown of what has to match for a PCB versus
what has to match for a head swap.

Some say 5 characters need to match on the DCM code (reading from
right to left) for head replacement to work. Is this correct and will
others work. I would like the break down on what each character in
the DCM code means. Some have 7 characters and some have more.

I don't belong to a lot of the hard drive broker sites because during
trials I was spammed to death and they tend to rip people off when
they are doing a recovery. Anyways have not been able to find one
that matches both the part number and DCM, so I was looking for some
clarification.

[Gary Huestis]

The following came from:
http://www.harddrive-repair.com/hard-drive-parts.html
There is also information at
http://forum.hddguru.com/western-digital-pcb-swap-rule-t8951.html
And
http://forum.hddguru.com/western-digital-pcb-swap-rule-t8951-20.html


MATCHING DONOR WESTERN DIGITAL HARD DRIVE PARTS:

Western Digital MDL: WD2000BB-16DWA0

MDL: WD2000BB
This indicates the Model Number of the Drive and Memory Cache

BB Meaning 2MB there are also JB for 8MB and so on... this needs to be
the same if you are ordering parts.

Firmware
Firmware: 16DWA0

This is reference to the hard drives firmware number, this can be used
for a PCB Swap but if unsuccessful you will need to physically replace
the Firmware chip from the original drives PCB to the Board. See Pick 3

Head Replacement

DCM: CVJAA
This is very important when replacing the internal read write heads of a
drive. The last 5 digits of the DCM number will need to match the
original drive for compatible heads, But most importantly I have found
that you can match this DCM number across several models e.g. WD200BB
and WD200JB will Work... this is also the same between the silver top WD
and Black top WD will still be compatible. I have also had the odd
drive that is larger than the drive I needed with the same DCM and more
heads than what I need but I found the extra heads where deactivated and
still worked.

COUNTRY: Malaysia
People are not always aware of the fact that same model drives can be
made in different country's and this can also be a factor in sourcing
donor hard drive parts

PCB Replacement
PCB: (Printed Circuit Board)
You will need to match the first two sets of numbers printed on the IDE
Insert of the PCB This will match the compatibility of the PCB with your
drive
If you can match these sets of numbers to the hard drive Firmware number
then you will have a high chance of a compatible part.

Good luck!
Gary