hi, i've recently fried two hard drives in exactly the same way my laptop and h/d power supply were mixed up and it seems the 19v was too much fro the fragile circuits on the externals. very stupid i know i know im not the only one to do this so i dontfeel quite as stupid as i did when i did it... ive checked out loads of different information on the net and i'm confident that i can tell the fault on the pcb. first of all my first h/d is as follows.

western digital wd2500jb caviar se

mdl wd2500jb - 00rea0
date 03 oct 2006
dcm dbbhntjahn

s/n wcank7335457
made in thailand

s/n on pcb sticker 2061 - 701292 - c00 ae xt 3e12 50ek 6 0001120 7 121

ive got a few old h/d's lying around from previous builds so i thought i'd dimantle them and check out for myself the internals just to get an overview of what makes them tick...(or click !).

so ive removed the pcb from the w/d drive and i can see that the tvs is split. i've checked the forum and i'm fairly confident i understand the nature of this component and so id like to try and repair/replace it. can anyone offer and advice on this. such as can i find a new reaplcement tvs..? or should i have to find an exact pcb match and swap tvs's ? ive seen that just removing the tvs could work however mine tvs is on the 12v side and a quick check on the back of the pcb shows that if i remove it, the circuit would be broken and so no power to the board.

my other h/d has the same fault however its a seagate 1t drive.

many thanks for any help this forum it is very informative.

simon

i found this does anybody know of a similar place for western digitals. or should i scour ebay..?

http://www.onepcbsolution.com/

hi Simon,
you can remove it and check. it should be work if only PCB problem.

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data recovery service[/b]

TVS is normally open, and shorts when it activates (explodes to protect other things)

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

ok ill remove it first and take it slowly i guess that's the smart way. if this doesnt work ill start eliminating other options until it becomes a pro job. !

ill plug ide and power from the pc tower and check if it spins up..

i've been quoted over £500 by the cheapest company i could find does anybody know of a slightly cheaper route..i cant afford this kind of money.

You haven't looked very hard then. who quoted you £500 for a pcb fault?

HDD Spaz is correct, £500 is WAY too much for a PCB problem.Hald that would be more realistic, and even that is a little bit steep. IMHO

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PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

i've called/ emailed quite a few companies in the last two months and their response has been anywhere from £500 - 750. do you think there is cheaper then. ??

tried these two..

i365
abc data recovery

any good..?

thanks i know that's what i thought. i have tried a few and they all said their prices started from around this kind of money. but would need to trace fault for which there was a charge... think it seems like i'm being fobbed off a little here..?

We offer no-fix no-fee and free examination (except in cases of opened drives and one that have been somewhere else).

Please feel free to ask around here for recommendations, or give me a call.

Cheers

Sean

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PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

Just remove the TVS. Put power to it without the HDA connected (Saves you frying the HDA) if you see more smoke your PCB is duff. If you have no smoke you may be in luck, replace PCB onto HDA and voila.


This is advice do not take it if you do not wish to risk your data ;o) I will not be held responsible blah bla blah....

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All went well until I plugged the drive in.

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All went well until I plugged the drive in.

just out of interest, if i plug the pcb into the tower, minus the hda of course, to test it once the tvs is removed.. is there a perticular output/resistance i can check, with my multimeter on the hda side of the board..?

hey guys just thought id post the pics from the pcb sugery..firstly it was a resounding success !!! dispite my limited knowledge, i made sure i had covered everything beofre i set to work but im pleased to say that it went without a hitch. i followed advice and eathed myself beofre removing the chip.and tryed the board on its own in the pc tower. the pc did not boot fully but id detected 'something ' on the slave side..so decided to connect the hd back to the pcb and booted again. it loaded fine and i could immediately found all my files...phew..! thanks everyone for your help. i now have a 1tb wd to trey and sort out but i cannot see a burned chip on the board so far but ill post anything on here. its likely that ill give it to a PRO THIS TIME.!!! HAHAH i think this one might be a bit harder !!!! just want a finall word to anyone else out thinking of doing this.. eeerrr probly best left to the experts.. i think i may have got lucky..????

There is no luck in data recovery, only magic!

hehe.. we'll i do consider myself to have magic fingers, sooo...

well done... saved you a few bucks/quid/funt/dinaries ;o)

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All went well until I plugged the drive in.