Hard Drive Failure: Advice and Tips Thread

[SAdata]

I plugged the wrong plug into my portable hard drive - so obviously a PCB Failiure. Any idea how I could go about fixing it

 

[ponder]

I plugged the wrong plug into my portable hard drive - so obviously a PCB Failiure. Any idea how I could go about fixing it

Make & model?

If it uses a usb to sata adapter board you might have some luck removing the drive from the enclosure & adapter and connecting it directly to a sata port.
If that does not yield results you could try removing the tvs diodes on the drives pcb and trying it via sata again.
If that does not work send it off to a data recovery company.

 

[SouthBit]

Yup, what ponder said. Remove it from the enclosure and try connect directly through SATA. If it doesn't spin up then you've damaged the PCB, could be as easy as removing a TVS.

If it doesn't spin up, upload a high res pic of the component side of the PCB.

 

[sajunky]

@AfricanTech: Couldn't send attachment, so it is a hard way.
1. Create text file and put it in MHDD SCRIPTS folder

; MHDD 4.5 script:
; WD Marvell translators regeneration
;
; Configuration sector 512 bytes,
; the first 16 bytes (hex), remaining all zero's:
;
; input file: mwtrrec.bin
; 0000 18 00 02 00 12 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
;
reset
waitnbsy
regs = $45 $0b $00 $44 $57 $a0 $80
waitnbsy
regs = $d6 $01 $be $4f $c2 $a0 $b0
waitnbsy
checkdrq
sectorsfrom = mwtrrec.bin
waitnbsy
regs = $d5 $01 $be $4f $c2 $a0 $b0
waitnbsy
checkdrq
sectorsto = i ; ( be )
; end

2. Create mwtrrec.bin binary file as per instruction, place it in mhdd.exe folder
3. Execute script
4. Power off

 

[AfricanTech]

@AfricanTech: Couldn't send attachment, so it is a hard way.
1. Create text file and put it in MHDD SCRIPTS folder

; MHDD 4.5 script:
; WD Marvell translators regeneration
;
; Configuration sector 512 bytes,
; the first 16 bytes (hex), remaining all zero's:
;
; input file: mwtrrec.bin
; 0000 18 00 02 00 12 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
;
reset
waitnbsy
regs = $45 $0b $00 $44 $57 $a0 $80
waitnbsy
regs = $d6 $01 $be $4f $c2 $a0 $b0
waitnbsy
checkdrq
sectorsfrom = mwtrrec.bin
waitnbsy
regs = $d5 $01 $be $4f $c2 $a0 $b0
waitnbsy
checkdrq
sectorsto = i ; ( be )
; end

2. Create mwtrrec.bin binary file as per instruction, place it in mhdd.exe folder
3. Execute script
4. Power off

Thanks - will try when I get a chance