Which is all that a data recovery service would do. Of course, they have controller boards for every drive under the sun and an electronically safe environment, but nothing that you can't create for yourself at this level. Given that you have identified the point of failure so precisely, I agree that it is worth installing a controller board from a matching drive. Unless you can find a case history that identifies that controller boards are freely interchangeable for your model, assume that you need model match and revision match, which may be tricky given the drive's expiry.

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Really? I thought actual, proper data recovery companies (like DriveSavers) actually removed the platters from the drive and retrieved your data from it that way?

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