I have a LaCie, Desktop Drive , Design by F.A Porsche, 320GB, 7200RPM, High speed USB 2 Mac and PC, Plug and Play
It suddenly did not register on my computer, the reason being on inspection that a chip on the controller board melted/blown. The hard drive was tested and spins up, no clicking noises, sounds OK.

I have about 120 gb of info on it that I need to recover. Purchased an identical unit swapped boards...no luck.

Advise on reasonbale price recovery would be most welcome...minefield out there..Thank-you.

What is the actual drive itself? (e.g. Seagate, WD, Hitachi?)

And which chip exactly has blown?

Pics would be helpful to get a better idea of what's gone wrong, alternatively we can offer a free diagnosis and quote

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The drive is an Hitachi Desk Star..I can post pics later in week..

I had a look at the drive on Johnos behalf, sadly well beyond my abilities to recover the data. But here's the info on the disk itself;

Hitachi Deskstar
P/N: 0A33405
Model: HDT725032VLA

HDD powers up without issue, no audible clicking or faltering, the board itself looks intact just one small component that seems to have melted.

If the data's not that important and he's happy to tackle it himself he can "try" a new PCB. The NVRAM chip (and possibly the ROM chip if the donor PCB is not same version) would have to be transferred.

Even then it's by no means to guarantee getting the drive working, as usually bad PCB's won't allow the drive to spin up.

Good luck

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

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

sourced a matching hdd; so have a replacement board, though unsure of model of the pcb, from first glance they look identical.

By transfer the NVRAM chip, you mean physically?

Yes

I'm assuming you have no equipment like PC3000 or Salvation to read the NVRAM.

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

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