Hi all,

First off I'd like to mention that I am completely new to this whole world I hard drive repair, so I apologize if my questions are extremely basic. I've done my best to search around these forums and elsewhere before posting, but everything I've found has either been simply too advanced for me to work with or not relevant.

Next, my short story. Recently my Toshiba MK6461GSYN hard drive underwent an abrupt failure. I had most of my data backed up except for about three months of work on a personal graphic design project. As such, the data is effectively worth nothing monetarily, but I would sure like to have some of it back regardless. I obviously can't afford to have the data professionally recovered, but I've been reading that if my PCB is the part of the hard drive that's failed, I have some hope of fixing the drive at a reasonable price. I found a service here that offers to replace the PCB of my board for $50 (a reasonable price for me).

However, before I go and spend that cash, I'd really like to confirm that the PCB has actually failed. I know there could be other issues with the drive but if I can determine that the PCB is at least part of the problem I'll feel a lot better about spending time and money (two things I have very little of) to replace the PCB.

Here and here are pictures of the board.

So essentially I was hoping someone could walk me through testing the PCB for functionality using a multimeter. Once again, I must humbly ask that anyone who is kind enough to help me keep in mind that I am completely clueless as to how a multimeter works. Some of the threads I've checked previously just said "test the resistances of x" which is unfortunately meaningless to me. I don't even know where to place the red and black multimeter cables to test a component.

PCB failures on that drive are rare, they do happen but other problems are more likely.

What are the symptoms?

Does the drive spin up?

Give some info on the symptoms and we can guide you.

_________________
Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Data Recovery Cape Town

I recently recovered a Toshiba drive that seem to be ok (good spinning, no head clicking) but it wasn't detect in the BIOS.
viewtopic.php?t=28898&f=1&start=0#p208564

problem was the PCB.
I swapped it with a sata donor pcb, but i had also to clone data on a new drive because customer opened it in not clean environment (bad move).

It's difficult to figure if pcb is good or not with a multimeter, that might be some issue that you can't find with a multimeter (example problems due to a MCU failure).
Maybe we can help better if you tell us if drive spins or not and if it produces any strange noise as head clicking, buzzing noise etc...

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My firmware database:
https://mega.nz/folder/O01DkBRI

My apologies, I should have posted symptoms in my initial post.

Symptoms seem to be:

1. Hard drive will not power on/spin up at all. I brought the drive to my college's tech department where they plugged it into one of their computers using a SATA to USB cable and were able to get no response whatsoever from the drive.

2. There is no clicking or other odd mechanical sounds as far as I can tell.

3. The failure was abrupt. One moment I had my computer online and working fine, the next moment I opened my laptop up and it refused to start because it couldn't find a hard drive (Hard Disk Not Exist message).

Thanks!

Older Toshiba drives can be know for a blown fuse...so the $50 PCB may just work. But, that is assuming that the heads didn't crash down and stick to the platters when the PCB died. So, you have the following paths to decide:

1. Pay $50, if it works, you recovered your data for $50. If it doesn't work, you wasted $50.
2. Send to professional data recovery lab where there is no fee unless the data is recovered. The price would vary between labs. From my lab's $350 CAD (about $300 USD) to $1000 (assuming that there isn't damaged heads, which is unlikely).
3. Consider the data is lost and use the $50 to buy a new hard drive

Good luck.

_________________
Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

PCB is faulty at 99%, but we can't know if there are further issues inside the drive until you will not change PCB.
Also, PCB swap is not enough. You should swap the ROM, let do this work to people that know how to deal this. If you break or lose the rom, data will be lost for ever.

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My firmware database:
https://mega.nz/folder/O01DkBRI

I'm pretty sure that the service he mentioned in the OP was offering to do the ROM transfer and provide the new PCB all within the $50.

_________________
Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

Check the fuse. If it is OK, then measure the voltages at the marked locations.

To test the fuse you need to disconnect power from the PCB. Set your multimeter on the 200 ohms resistance range. Plug the red lead into the Volt-Ohms socket and the black lead into the Com socket. Connect the red and black probes to each side of the fuse. The resistance reading should be close to 0.0 ohms (not OL).

To test the voltages you will need to apply power to the board. Set your multimeter on the 10 volts DC range. Plug the red lead into the Volt-Ohms socket and the black lead into the Com socket. Connect the black probe to a ground point, eg a screw hole. Connect the red probe to each of the marked locations. Be very careful not to slip with your probes, as shorting adjacent pins will most likely result in catastrophic damage.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.