So here's the story: I got a new 1tb hard drive to replace the WD5000AAKS in my iMac with. I did the swap successfully, and then realized I needed an enclosure or adapter to transfer data over to the new drive. Being thrifty, I got a $8 sata-to-usb adapter thing on eBay.

When I plugged the WD5000AAKS into the adapter for the first time, the logic board started smoking and got very hot very quickly, and the drive didn't spin up. I unplugged it immediately.

I threw the piece of junk adapter away and went out and bought a proper SATA enclosure, thinking maybe I wasn't completely screwed yet, but the drive only emits a very high-pitched sound now and doesn't spin up (the PCB doesn't get hot either).

I did some googling and saw that swapping the PCB could be an option, but I've seen an equal number of reports saying it is and isn't possible. Am I going to have to pay for professional data recovery? Is a PCB swap possible at all?

If the problem is worse than a shorted TVS, then you'll need a pro to recover the data.

_________________
http://www.datasaversllc.com

What exactly is a TVS? If a shorted one is all that would result from an inappropriate power supply being plugged in (which is what happened), is it a relatively easy fix?

I will try to get a photo of the PCB.

Search this forum. This topic has been covered a dozen times or more.

_________________
http://www.datasaversllc.com