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Data recovery and disk repair questions and discussions related to old-fashioned SATA, SAS, SCSI, IDE, MFM hard drives - any type of storage device that has moving parts
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Have I destroyed my HD and everything on it?!

April 9th, 2017, 13:29

Hi, I have a 5tb WD External HD full of media and a couple of months ago I managed to pick up the wrong power lead (which looks almost the same and was already plugged in and on).

Distracted I was trying to plug it into my external HD and after a couple of seconds realised I had the wrong lead. I got a smell of burning (never good) and after plugging in the HD with the right power lead it doesn't boot up.

I took the HD out of the External chassis and put it in another one, although this is somewhat older - the HD powers up but it asks me to format the HD. I wonder if it's just the controller board thingy that's fried and the reason the HD can't be read in windows in the chassis I have put it in, is because the controller for that maybe doesn't support 5tb? (It was originally for a 1tb Samsung from like 7 years ago).

Hope this makes sense to someone!

Re: Have I destroyed my HD and everything on it?!

April 9th, 2017, 14:16

The USB "bridge board" inside the case will have encrypted the data, so you'll need another identical board to decrypt the data, or repair that one.

Re: Have I destroyed my HD and everything on it?!

April 9th, 2017, 14:26

Ahhh okay. So, would I have to contact WD themselves for a new one or is it something I can buy from somewhere else? Thanks.

Re: Have I destroyed my HD and everything on it?!

April 9th, 2017, 14:34

WD won't help you unfortunately.

Post a good quality photo of the duff board here.

Re: Have I destroyed my HD and everything on it?!

April 10th, 2017, 9:59

retromattic wrote:Ahhh okay. So, would I have to contact WD themselves for a new one or is it something I can buy from somewhere else? Thanks.

Isn't easier to let Sean (pcimage) to take care about your data? He is also from UK. For some funds he will return happyness to you back, without let you struglle to do recovery research by own?

Re: Have I destroyed my HD and everything on it?!

April 10th, 2017, 12:13

DR-Kiev wrote:
retromattic wrote:Ahhh okay. So, would I have to contact WD themselves for a new one or is it something I can buy from somewhere else? Thanks.

Isn't easier to let Sean (pcimage) to take care about your data? He is also from UK. For some funds he will return happyness to you back, without let you struglle to do recovery research by own?


Yep, we can do that too for a reasonable cost :-)

Re: Have I destroyed my HD and everything on it?!

April 10th, 2017, 14:50

DR-Kiev wrote:
retromattic wrote:Ahhh okay. So, would I have to contact WD themselves for a new one or is it something I can buy from somewhere else? Thanks.

Isn't easier to let Sean (pcimage) to take care about your data? He is also from UK. For some funds he will return happyness to you back, without let you struglle to do recovery research by own?

What "struggle" and "research" is involved in procuring a replacement bridge PCB? Otherwise a repair may involve bypassing a MOSFET switch with two wires. I can show the OP how to do that, in which case the cost could be nil.

Re: Have I destroyed my HD and everything on it?!

April 11th, 2017, 2:56

Here we go again....

Re: Have I destroyed my HD and everything on it?!

April 11th, 2017, 4:12

fzabkar wrote:
DR-Kiev wrote:
retromattic wrote:Ahhh okay. So, would I have to contact WD themselves for a new one or is it something I can buy from somewhere else? Thanks.

Isn't easier to let Sean (pcimage) to take care about your data? He is also from UK. For some funds he will return happyness to you back, without let you struglle to do recovery research by own?

What "struggle" and "research" is involved in procuring a replacement bridge PCB? Otherwise a repair may involve bypassing a MOSFET switch with two wires. I can show the OP how to do that, in which case the cost could be nil.


I think everyone can be taught how to repair laptop, repair own car, or even how to cure a fever or other disease, there is plenty of such info in web and free advisers on forums. But what the point? If you can spend same time to apply your knowledge according to education, and earn same money, why you should overload brain with new knowlege for one time job , if someone can help you to do for reasonable price ?
I guess you do all works irrelevant to your profffesion by own, and this style of life you try to impose on others aswell?
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