Hard Drive PCB Burnt

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lux

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I bought an external HDD a while ago from Game branded Verbatim. My little nephew got hold of it and somehow managed to damage the power button. I also managed to even further damaged the power button while trying to fix as i wasn't paying attention to what i was doing. :mad:

So i decided to use it as an internal HDD. :) (Turn out its actually a Samsung HDD despite the Verbatim branding.) Everything went smoothly until one day i had a power surge - blew my power supply.:mad:

After purchasing a power supply and putting things back together i realised that one of the drives wasn't being recognized in windows. On further investigating i realised a chip on the the PCB of the HDD is burnt. My question is this - Must i now use the HDD as an expensive door stopper or can i salvage the data from the drive by replacing the HDD PCB?:confused:
Secondly where can one get the PCB assuming its possible to salvage the data?

Its a Samsung model HD103SI 1TB HDD - Rev. A (1000GB/R54/32M)

Unfortunately i cannot paste picture attachments..
 
Do you have a pic?

It should be the 12v tvs diode (i think it's called)
It's a safety chip to protect the drive from exactly what happened. You will have to to remove that chip and it will work fine. You should replace it tho , but it will work fine without out it. Just won't have the protection if there ever is another power surge.

I had to do the same after I plugged the wrong power supply into my external and it fried the chip. I still need to replace it tho, just didn't get around to doing it yet but drive isn't being used so there's no real rush to do it just yet.

Upload a pic so I can confirm...
 
I believe i don't have enough posts. I mostly just lurk.. Lemme see if i can upload somewhere.
 
Sorry please ignore my earlier post. That is not a tvs diode. There are 2 tvs diodes (12v and 5v) in the upper right corner of the first pic though.
 
Just when as I though there might be some hope..
 
+1
Burned motor chip. You can't just swap compatible PCB. Have to also move eeprom chip or its data (seen in the place of the strongest light reflection).
 
Fook. I've got over 10 years worth of data on there!
 
sajunky said:
+1
Burned motor chip. You can't just swap compatible PCB. Have to also move eeprom chip or its data (seen in the place of the strongest light reflection).
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, why couldn't one replace the pcb with an identical unit in this case?
 
Segg said:
Out of curiosity, why couldn't one replace the pcb with an identical unit in this case?
Click to expand...

Because they write custom info to boards for each drive. No drive coming out of the factory is identical and they all have flaws. At times swpping pcb's could work but you have to get the serial#, date & revision as close as possible.
 
Segg said:
Out of curiosity, why couldn't one replace the pcb with an identical unit in this case?
Click to expand...
Firmware is loaded from the platters. Without data from eeprom microcontroller don't even know where to load firmware from and how. This data is created during factory formating and performance optimalisation.
 
ponder said:
Because they write custom info to boards for each drive. No drive coming out of the factory is identical and they all have flaws. At times swpping pcb's could work but you have to get the serial#, date & revision as close as possible.
Click to expand...

sajunky said:
Firmware is loaded from the platters. Without data from eeprom microcontroller don't even know where to load firmware from and how. This data is created during factory formating and performance optimalisation.
Click to expand...

True.


Your a bit unlucky there I was lucky only having to remove the diode and replaced it eventually.
 
With the motor chip burned like that the pre-amp (inside the HDD itself) might also be damaged, requiring a head swap if you want the data recovered. Not a certainty, but a possibility.

Get in contact with us, we offer free courier collection if you want it recovered. Can also give you a 'MYBB rate' ;)
 
I'm so tired of these single body sealed-unit HDDs failing (without fail) after a year. It's usually the enclosure that goes first.
Most of the stores will swop it out for you (if still under warranty), but to get your data you have to crack it open to get to the HDD inside. If you crack it open, you void your warranty and thus cannot get both your data AND a replacement drive. It's either/or. :mad: Grrrrrrrrrrr.

From now on it's separate HDD and enclosures for me. You spend more, but if the enclosure goes south, you just pop the drive into a new one.

Best of luck getting your data back OP! If SouthBit can't help you, I don't think anyone can.
 
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