Hi everyone, I have a Toshiba 2.5" drive that won't spin nor make any noise at all. It isn't recognised by the BIOS.

I think one TVS diode might be the problem, but I'm unable to identify them on the PCB. Could it be that the PCB doesn't have any? Can someone identify the TVS diodes please?

I've checked continuity between 12V and 5V headers to ground, but it is open. If a TVS diode had acted, wouldn't I see a short between any of the +V inputs and GND?

If not the TVS Diodes, what else could I try before transplanting the PCB and ROM? Any help will be appreciated!

Thanks and regards,
German

There is a fuse near the +5V SATA pins.

Can you measure voltages at inductors L2 (4R7) and L3?

Is the motor trying to spin, ie is it a stiction fault?

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Hi fzabkar, I've checked the fuse and the inductors with the board disconnected (no power), and I've also checked the SATA power socket voltages.

After that, when I powered the disk again in order to measure L2 and L3 as you indicated, it suddenly started spinning! First it made a couple of clicking noises and I disconnected it immediatly. Then, when I connected it again it started spinning ok, with no clicking sound.

Now it always starts ok, spinning apparently well, but it is not recognised by the OS. I've tried several times, and only in one occasion the SO detected it alright ("TOSHIBA MK5056GSY"), but with no letter assigned. So I entered disk manager and it showed that the disk was not initialized and asked me to initialize it with MBR or GPT. I canceled, because I wanted to reconnect it again to see if it was detected correctly, but then I couldn't have it recognized never again. I've unplugged it and reconnected it several times, it spins ok, but isn't recognised by the OS...

I think maybe some contacts on the PCB are degraded and they do not make good connection... what do you think? What else should I check?

Shoud I try the PCB transplant? I can get a working donor...

Thanks and regards,
German

99.9% it has some firmware issues, nothing to do with PCB.

Probably glist damaged/corrupt/full

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+1
(and/or defective head/s)

Ok, so you think a PCB transplant won't help at all... is that right? Is there any way to revive/rebuild the firmware in these TOSHIBA drives? I only need to get some data out of the HDD, no need to repair it...

Thanks and regards,
German

PCB is not your problem, nothing you can do yourself, i`m afraid.
Firmware and / or heads needs to be taken care off to rescue data.

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