Hey everyone, I screwed up and am looking for advice.

I was in a big rush to pack for my transatlantic flight, and put this internal HDD in my backpack unprotected. When I arrived home and placed it in my dock, it didn't spin up. That's when I looked at the PCB and discovered the inductor dangling there. (See the photos.) As far as I can tell it's the only damage. Would you expect such a broken inductor to prevent spinup? Any advice on how to proceed?

This HDD contains a lot of sentimental data from the past six months: RAW photos, original videos, and a few other things I don't remember. I have the JPGs, and the best videos have been uploaded to Youtube, but I am still eager to perform recovery if possible.

One bit of good news is that this drive is 1 of 5 which I ordered simultaneously from Newegg in Feb 2010. The other four drives are inside my NAS in RAID5. It would be annoying, but I could degrade the array to attempt a PCB replacement. But from what I can tell this procedure is somewhat controversial, since each PCB can store different calibration information for each drive.

The other possibility would be to attempt to resolder the dangling wire. Would this be likely to solve the problem, or is it critical that the inductor be fully intact? I assume the dangling wire attaches to the diagonal lead antipodal to the one still attached. I doubt my ability to perform this myself since the lead is so tiny and my soldering iron is normal-sized, but I know people in Europe who regularly solder things much more delicate than this. (I return on Wednesday.)

I would be very grateful for any advice!

Dont resolder the wire.
Couldnt you get another board and just swap the damaged component.

I would get an electronics person that solders under a microscope and is careful to do it.

To confirm, you suggest replacing the inductor?

Do you know if I could find the same inductor in an electronics shop, or will I need to sacrifice one of my existing HDs?

Also what about this PCB repair service on ebay? Seems very cheap.

Yes, thats right. I bet if you were lucky, one of us would post you one, or someone close would offer to do the job at a forum rate. I have one here, though it is a bit of a wait(FWIW it is on a Samsung 160GB, so you may not need the same actual disk drive to cannabalise from).

otherwise, I am almost certain fzabkar posted a link to a datasheet/source for an inductor... you could use that info, if they are different to yours, to track down the one you need.

I would first research inductor part numbers, then search for a datasheet for yours, then find a replacement candidate and datasheet, the compare.. finally order it and get it soldered on.

There is a book/resource called something like the SMD databook that is possibly helpful. Or go to a computer recyclers and have a look at the drives and buy one, or ebay.

Though there is the possibility that there is oher issues apart from the inductor, but this wont be known till later.

good Luck

You should be able obtain an inductor for a few dollars.

Try Digikey, Farnell, Mouser, RS Components.

ELL5PS / ELL5RS-A, Panasonic, SMD Choke Coils:
http://industrial.panasonic.com/www-dat ... 000CE7.pdf

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Thanks so much for all your advice! Unfortunately I have very little time to spend on this due to my travel schedule. I leave for Europe in one week, I'm there for almost a month, and then I spend a month in Asia.

Luckily there is nothing urgent on this drive. (I would have liked to share the videos to my family, but that can wait.) I'm happy as long as I recover the drive someday.

My options for procuring an inductor don't seem that promising (until fzabkar's post!)

1. Order from an online store (spend lots of money for express shipping to receive it before I leave)
2. Cannibalize a drive from my NAS (quickest, but very annoying)
3. Find it in an electronics shop (maybe difficult)
4. Purchase a PCB which already has one (maybe too slow for my schedule)

My options for repair seem to be

1. Try to find someone locally who can do the job by Tuesday
2. Bring the drive back to Europe and ask a favor of my friends
3. Send it in to a repair service (don't need to procure my own inductor!)

Since I have so little time to spend on this due to my travel, and the files aren't urgent, I feel inclined to use a repair service. The $60 for the service offered through ebay seems too good to be true. Don't they have to pay for the PCB and (in most other cases) spend a lot of labor time transferring the firmware and settings from the old PCB?

Now my main questions are:

• Where's a good place to send my drive? What would be the "forum rate"?
• Do I gain any significant advantage by having these other drives in my NAS which probably have the same manufacturing date?

You're making a mountain out of a mole hill.

PM me your address and I'll mail you an inductor.

Jon

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

No good deed goes unpunished . . .

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

That sounds really bad without context. Jono-ats said that first-class mail wouldn't deliver in time, so I assumed he wouldn't send it. I immediately ordered an inductor from Mouser with 2nd day FedEx shipping. In the meantime, jono-ats mailed his inductor via priority so that I'd get it in time.

So jono-ats is awesome, and I'll be able to choose from 2 inductors!

I have no knowledge about soldering small components like this, so I have no idea what's involved. (I don't even understand how the inductor leads attach to the PCB.) Will this be a routine procedure for anyone experienced with soldering under a microscope?

burninator,
Made mountains out of molehills.
Necessary to go to the nearest computer service. And ask to replace the throttle. Their full on other HDD. Among the trash master will surely find.
In extreme cases buy disc at the store.
Need soldering fan for such work, rather than a simple soldering iron.
Also easy to make this work on mobile phones master.

Your local TV/AV repair shop should be able to do this. The only thing I'd be concerned about is the size of the copper pads. Large pads tend to sink a lot of heat, so it's not something that an inexperienced solderer should attempt.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Hi, just signed up to add that I have done exactly the same foolish thing - does anyone know where in the UK I could get the 4R7 inductor or if necessary a replacement board, and is replacing the board something I could attempt myself (I have friends who are laptop engineers so could probably do it if it's tricky). Many thanks for any advice.

just search for same model on ebay, or look on ebay for some really cheap drives, then research each one by looking for good pictures of the PCB and see if the inductor matches. otherwise there are many PCB replacement services, search for "donor drives" for example.
or if you are lucky, post pictures and one of us may still feel generous. There is bound to be someone close to you. I don't know if Peterborough is close to Bristol, never having travelled to UK and too lazy to goog-map it but check out pcimage on this forum for possible help.

RS Components list the following Toko part as an equivalent for the Panasonic ELL5PS4R7N.

Toko D53LC series p/n A915BY-4R7M, 4.7 uH ±20%, 2.31A Idc, 31mohm:
http://www.toko.co.jp/products/pdf/inductors/d53lc.pdf

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/wire-woun ... s/7381208/

Cost 22p per unit, MOQ 5 pieces.

I would closely examine the dimensional data in Toko's datasheet.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

brilliant - thanks guys! and Peterborough is not that close to Bristol by UK standards, but given that the entire country would fit into Texas three times over (and assuming you're American) I guess it's all relative cheers

edit: oops, I see you are Australian - no offence intended still a damn sight bigger though...

Texas Schmexas. We have cattle stations bigger than that.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

well quite...

take offence? ha! I have had so much crap thrown at me over the years, that if any of it stuck would outweigh the crap from one of the Cattle Stations Franc was talking about.