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
March 11th, 2014, 0:53
Good Afternoon Guru's
The following drive
is currently caput the reason why will be obvious the the power supply lead was crossed,
how / why still a mystery, sabotage.....

it does not matter. It happened. The result is a shorted VCM controller as per photo.
That is as far as I know, from what I can see nothing else is stuffed the drive was in A1 order prior to the short. Is it a proposition to replace the PCB or will there be other faults I am not aware of ? Given I know the reason it shorted I am hoping you will be able to advise on potential remedy. If it was a building i could fix, it isn't so i need your help. If you have a building problem then i could trade advice ! The serial number is
From what I can determine HD parts have one but need the board sent to them. How reliable is that service and / or is there one closer?
March 11th, 2014, 8:05
Ideally speaking if you can locate a matching board and swap the ROM to get going.
HD Part is also reliable.
At time burnt VCM also damages further.
March 11th, 2014, 16:35
Measure the resistances of the following components:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/bi ... diodes.jpgThe damage to the SMOOTH chip is on the side that generates the Vcore and Vio supplies, plus the negative supply for the preamp. Moreover, an overvoltage on the +5V supply can result in a damaged preamp.
As for PCB suppliers, there is also onepcbsolution.com. I don't know of anyone in Australia who provides a similar service for the same price or less.
Best of luck.
March 12th, 2014, 5:41
Thank you for the feedback, Rob and fzabkar, will a new PCB resolve the issues that you are referring to, or, are we talking inside the case ? Thanks for the other contact re PCB supply !
I think i am getting it 12 volts coming into what is supposed to be 5 volts.
March 12th, 2014, 17:45
If the TVS diode protection is blown, then applying 12V to the 5V input will most probably damage the preamp (on the headstack inside the case).
March 12th, 2014, 18:09
Dr. Farking wrote:Good Afternoon Guru's
The following drive
IMGP1630.JPG
is currently caput the reason why will be obvious the the power supply lead was crossed,
IMGP1615.JPG
how / why still a mystery, sabotage.....

it does not matter. It happened. The result is a shorted VCM controller as per photo.
IMGP1627.JPG
That is as far as I know, from what I can see nothing else is stuffed the drive was in A1 order prior to the short. Is it a proposition to replace the PCB or will there be other faults I am not aware of ? Given I know the reason it shorted I am hoping you will be able to advise on potential remedy. If it was a building i could fix, it isn't so i need your help. If you have a building problem then i could trade advice ! The serial number is
IMGP1626.JPG
From what I can determine HD parts have one but need the board sent to them. How reliable is that service and / or is there one closer?
I CAN REPAIR YOUR DRIVE, SEND ME THE RIVE TO HONDURAS, CENTRAL AMERICA POSTAL CODE 11101, YOU PAY SHIPPING AND RETURN , I HAVE PROFESSIONAL AND CUSTOM SERVICE, YOUR "PBC" NEED REPAIR URGENTLY!!
March 13th, 2014, 3:21
I'm with you on this one Spildit.
On one hand he's desperate to fix a worthless Seagate drive (another thread) and yet because he's fixed one PCB issue (to our knowledge), he's suddenly an expert offering "professional and custom service"!!!
March 13th, 2014, 3:30
Well Ive fixed 3 hard disks this month so I must be an absolute legend now, send it to me, I don't have tools, but who needs them, and I have fixed 3.. yes you heard me THREE! drives this month!!
1 was a fluke, I almost totally screwed it up, one was a broken connecter -had to use a microscope for this one, that's how elite I am, and the last one was fixed by magic .. after the guy gave it to me I copied data off, so I guess just fingers of gold

Really, just a good soldering iron, a TTL adapter and a jar of sarcasm and can easily fix anything

-BTW not out to offend anyone, just some harmless fun and banter
March 13th, 2014, 9:38
Well, on this subject, I am wondering why the diode did not protect the components, my only Idea is that the power supply rammed so many amps down it it blew the diode, also from the SMOOTH chip being burned like that I surmise the Preamp chip inside the drive itself is probably damaged too. How the hell could a red wire be mixed with a yellow?
I believe a professional data recovery is now needed, unless you have backups.
Shane
March 28th, 2014, 11:49
I literally had this exact problem on my WD 1TB drive and I tried swapping PCBS and rom chips and it did not work. I sent it to a professional service and after diagnosing that it needed to be opened, they replaced the heads and called me this morning saying there's nothing else they could do. They said they saw no visual damage to the platter, but could not read the disk. Something about possible having corrupt starting sector or something. I'm not entirely convinced they did everything they could, but they are shipping my drive back and I will post here with the status...I've learned a very hard lesson about backups
Curious, what power supply is that?
edit: Here is a link to mine thread
viewtopic.php?t=27797
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