Newbie here.
So my imac wouldt turn on. I pressed power button a few times and heard a pop and then smelt burnt smell. Unplugged it and let it sit.
Now im trying to recover data. I removed hard drive and got a SATA cable. When I plug it in the light flashes on then off and that is it nothing. I cant hear anything.

The model number is WD1001fals-403AA0

Not sure what to do from here?
I have seen that i might be able to replae the board on the HD but not sure?

Thanks

If you hear absolutely nothing than it is possible that the board may be fried. Can you take a picture of the component side of the PCB. You will need a Torx T8 to take off the board.

Unfortunately you cannot just swap the board from another like drive and have it work. ( unless you get very lucky it is the same rom version). If it is a bad board you would need to swap the rom information over to a donor board.

But it is possible that this PCB has a TVS that has fried and it could be an easy fix to get the drive up to recover your data, but not for continued use.

There's a chance that the issue is just a blown TVS diode on the drive. That model typically has PCB number 2060-774640 which has TVS diodes on both the 5V and 12V rails.

Get yourself a multimeter and check for resistance across these two components. If either one reads dead short measured in both directions, it can simply be removed.

Just be sure you're running on a clean power supply, preferably plugged into a UPS battery, since removing that will expose other components to power surge damage.

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Data Medics - Data Recovery Service

Thanks DM, I could not find one handy to take a picture and show. Usually the one I see damaged the most is the one on the far right at the edge of the PCB

Ok here is a picture. Also I tested resistance and it works oneway but not the other is that correct? Or am I doing something wrong?

@SSStang, are you saying that both diodes test the same way?

Can you give proper resistance readings for the diodes and zero-ohm resistors?

http://www.hddoracle.com/download/file.php?id=5420&mode=view

You can read the instructions in my FAQ:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/TVS_diode_FAQ.html

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

So I guess I was doing something wrong. Read instructions and I get resistance on both diodes.

Not sure where to go from here.

Thanks for the help

Power Up In Standby (PUIS)?

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Just to avoid misunderstandings, can you post the measures you read from both diodes ?

Replace the PCB and move the ROM chip ?

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I don't think so, the op says

you should check again the measurements of the TVS or change pcb + ROM