(Classic newbie post incoming)

Hi folks,

After a recent power 'incident', involving the 5V Rail on a Corsair PSU failing, I've unfortunately had my primary HDD, a Samsung HD501LJ go faulty. The TVS has visibly cracked, and the Zero Ohm Resistor was open circuit. I'd done some digging around which implied both of these could be bypassed (at least temporarily, for the duration of hoovering off important data) but unfortunately, after doing this via a quick bit of soldering, the system refuses to power up with it connected, presumably due to a short elsewhere.

The soldering is fine (Multimeter is happy across both connections, though it's a little messier than I'd like) so basically I'm wondering, aside from submitting to £200+ of data recovery experts, if I have any alternatives.

1. Is there any way to diagnose further the fault?
2. Is replacing the PCB viable?
3. If 2. is yes, where can I get one?

Thanks in advance for any support you can provide, 500GB of photos, music and assorted desktop PC junk (partially backed up) await rescue.

EDIT: Further full model is Samsung HD501LJ T166S

Ah, accursed 15 minute edit timer:

If it helps at all, the original issue is that after this occured, due to no power actually reaching any components the device no longer appeared at all in BIOS. No mechanical noise, no powerup, nada. Just thought it might be worth specifying.

What have you tested with the multimeter? and what does happy mean?
If it does not power on its still short on the power +5/+12- built in function in psu to stop psu from blowing.
So what are you testing and what are the readings? Dont plug it back into that power supply but another one and dontjsut plug it in praying it will work.

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This type of repair should cost about a same amount as a new PCB.
By digging deeper into it, you can cause much more damage that will cost you a fortune to resolve.

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Sorry, I was being a bit freewheeling and easy, wasn't I?

Okay, answers:
- I'm definitely not putting any hardware anywhere near that PSU again. I'm on a completely different unit as of now.
- The PC as a whole will not power on when the disk is connected, and will without issue when it is not - I concur this is because the PSU is preventing it.
- Prior to my woeful hack, I was seeing OL from the 0-Ohm Resistor, and current was flowing both ways across the diode (rather than being unidirectional).

I should note that in all honesty, at the cost of data storage I'm happy to dispose of this disk at any time, and as a lot of the data (just not all) is backed up, I'm primarily concerned about temporary access. If I can get things off it, I'll merrily drop it in the bin afterwards, which is the primary rationale behind disregarding professional data recovery at this time, it's more about convenience than actual loss. (I'd backed up photos, but not music, but one is replaceable whilst the other isn't, etc etc)

Replacing pcb won't work unless too many things coincide. Was also a bad idea to short the resistors.

Now that I've returned home, I can confirm the other drive is also not powering at all, but another disk I've borrowed works perfectly. As both disks have a backup of my media, recovering either (the second one has not been tampered with at all) is completely acceptable.

This disk is a Maxtor 160GB DiamondMax Plus 9.

Identical symptoms: No recognition in BIOS, doesn't spin up when PC is powered on.

I have a PCB for that drive, if you want it.
There is no swaps necessary for this model.

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www.datarecoveryne.com

Hi harddrivespecialist,

I'd be delighted to try! How would I go about getting hold of it, and how much would you be looking for?

I also have this PCB, plenty of them

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