Greetings,
I have a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8 40 GB drive that was recently submerged in standing fresh water for a few days. There is obvious corrosion on the PCB so it's obvious that will need to be swapped. I was concerned about the inside of the drive, knowing that most drives are not hermetically sealed. However, this drive did not have an obvious breather hole and seemed to have tape or labels over pretty much all of the seals. I opened the drive and did not see any obvious signs of liquid damage on the platters or head stack, or anywhere else inside.

This drive has pretty large copper pins that protrude from the inside to connect to the PCB and pretty large and broadly spaced aluminum pins to connect to the motor. Presuming that the liquid did not enter the drive, does it seem reasonable to replace only the PCB and clean the corrosion off the contacts with alcohol? I don't deal with liquid damage much. The few times I have I replaced both the head stack and PCB. But those drives had breather holes. This one seems sealed.

I just want to make sure a PCB and cleaning only attempt would not result in further damage.

Thanks,
Steve

Hi

That depends of course in the internal damages. If you clearly see that was no water inside the drive you can try to find a compatible pcb and replace. But if the drive make some strange noises power off the drive immediately.

Regards,
Tiago Colaço

All of the drives have breather holes, this one too, but on the under side.
You can check the platter's bottom surface by the servo hole wich is sealed too.
If you can't find nothing unusual, than go ahead with much care and replace the PCB with the compatible ROM.

Janos

I would have thought, more than anything, if there was only one hole in the drive, the Breather hole(behind a filter.), than the water could not enter a small hole like with without another gap, or hole in the drive. The inside would be sealed, so to speak, like a house with only one window open. If you open another window, then you'll get a breeze.

Don't you ever heard about pressure difference?
Or even weight difference between air and liquid (for example water)?

Of course water can get in!
It depends only on time....

Janos