Hi, I'm a complete beginner to data recovery and was hoping maybe someone could point me in the right direction. I have a 6TB toshiba external HDD (HD-TDA6U3-B), that I accidentally, carelessly plugged a 19v power supply into (it's a 12V drive), and after a spark and a burnt smell I unplugged the power supply to find that my HDD was no longer working. I did a lot of searching online and found that this seems to be a pretty common mistake people make and that a lot of the time it's a shorted TVS diode. I have a lot of important files on this drive and want to recover it, so I do plan on sending it to a professional if that's not the case, but in the meantime I would like to try a simple DIY repair if it actually is just a shorted TVS diode. I've attached some pictures of the USB bridge and what i suspect is the actual shorted diode. I've also tried removing the USB bridge and just connecting the drive to an HDD dock but it doesn't read or spin up. If anyone could help me out that would be greatly appreciated, and thanks for reading this long message!

Realized i should be posting pics of the disk pcb so i've attached that as well. The circled diode I'm pretty sure is shorted after checking with a multimeter. Just not sure 100% sure if it's the TVS diode.

Show us a photo of the HDD PCB. That's where you will most likely find a shorted 12V TVS diode and open fuse.

Edit:

Sorry, our posts crossed.

D201 is indeed the 12V diode. There is a fuse marked "S" directly below it.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

I would not use this USB bridge without professional repair and testing on another drive without important data.
.......
And biting out the TVS diode and shorting the fuse is a bad idea for long term use.

IMHO, the only point of concern with the bridge, other than the diode, would be the 5V converter. Often these ICs (IC4) are designed to withstand 19V, in which case the converter should still be functional.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Thank you for the reply! Would it be ok then to remove this diode in the same way that most guides explain removing a 5V diode? I was also curious as to whether this is common or not, for the 12V to be shorted instead of the 5V, just wondering for the sake of learning about the process. Also would I need to replace the fuse as well? Sorry for so many questions, and thank you for all the info you provide, I originally found this info through your hddoracle tvs faq, it's been a great help!

Yes, remove the 12V diode and replace the fuse (if they test faulty). However, before you do this, make sure that the motor controller IC has not been damaged.

If you want to recover the bridge PCB, remove the diode, then power up the PCB and measure the voltage at the 6R3 coil. It should be 5V.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

I ended up just removing the diode, replacing the fuse with some solder was able to boot the drive up in a dock and am currently transferring data to a new disk! I'm actually amazed haha thank you so much for the help, I really appreciate it!

This is what I warned about. After copying the data, no one will throw away this “repaired” disk.
And at the next overvoltage there will be fireworks or a fire.

No HDD manufacturer was concerned about fires before they started using TVS diodes, and even then some manufacturers (eg WD and Hitachi) still suffered from fireworks because they did it wrong. Moreover, fuses came much later. Until their arrival, a shorted TVS diode would just shut down the main power supply.

I think the OP in this case understands full well the ramifications of their quick DIY fix.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.