HDD GURU FORUMS

Hi,

Every year, I see several PCB with burnt TVS diodes as wrong voltage (often 19V) was plugged into 12V external enclosures.

Instead of sacrificing every time a healthy hard drive or PCB, I would like to purchase a small set of TVS diodes, new ones, or refurbished and tested ones. (~ 5 to 10 units). Mainly for Western Digital and Seagate.

Does anyone have such diodes to sell, which could be sent for cheap in a reinforced enveloppe?

Or if I purchase new diodes from an electronic distributor, are there some polyvalent diode models fitting most Western Digital drives and/or most Seagate drives?

I'm currently looking for what seem to be the D4 diode of a WD Green 1TB WD10EARS with 701640-002 PCB.
The component is it is not numbered on the PCB, but seem being the D4 after comparison with similar circuit boards.
On the diode is written:

Code:

68G  (not sure if the last character is a G or the symbol of a brand)
01A
M

Other D4 diodes from close drive models should be OK too.

Thank you.

I can't speak for others, but I'd just grab one off of one of the thousands non-functional parts drives we have sitting around here when I need it.

Q3.

http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/TVS_diode_FAQ.html

SOSdonnees wrote:Hi,

Every year, I see several PCB with burnt TVS diodes as wrong voltage (often 19V) was plugged into 12V external enclosures.

Instead of sacrificing every time a healthy hard drive or PCB, I would like to purchase a small set of TVS diodes, new ones, or refurbished and tested ones. (~ 5 to 10 units). Mainly for Western Digital and Seagate.

Does anyone have such diodes to sell, which could be sent for cheap in a reinforced enveloppe?

Or if I purchase new diodes from an electronic distributor, are there some polyvalent diode models fitting most Western Digital drives and/or most Seagate drives?

I'm currently looking for what seem to be the D4 diode of a WD Green 1TB WD10EARS with 701640-002 PCB.
The component is it is not numbered on the PCB, but seem being the D4 after comparison with similar circuit boards.
On the diode is written:

Code:

68G  (not sure if the last character is a G or the symbol of a brand)
01A
M

Other D4 diodes from close drive models should be OK too.

Thank you.

Well,
Can You answer One Question ? . Why Do You Need em ?

SOSdonnees wrote:Instead of sacrificing every time a healthy hard drive or PCB

I think the problem is you're just "fixing" the drives, not actually "recovering" them. What we do here is we just have our own PCBs which we use to recover the data onto another drive, then put the old burnt one back on the drive when we return it to the customer. That way we keep the good PCB and it's ready for the next case. I have some PCBs here that have probably done 50 cases already.

data-medics wrote:

SOSdonnees wrote:Instead of sacrificing every time a healthy hard drive or PCB

I think the problem is you're just "fixing" the drives, not actually "recovering" them. What we do here is we just have our own PCBs which we use to recover the data onto another drive, then put the old burnt one back on the drive when we return it to the customer. That way we keep the good PCB and it's ready for the next case. I have some PCBs here that have probably done 50 cases already.

Customers would prefer to get their data PLUS their original drive repaired. The additional cost should only be $1. No donors should be necessary in the majority of cases.

Hi,
If a Person Has Good quality Power Supply And even if Both TVS Are Removed There is Not Reason To Worry I Have Many Drives Like This Since Ages All Working Fine ,So Adding TVS Back Is Not always a Imp Issue .Frank Had Done Some Research That Some Drives Have a Bad TVS/Fuze Arrangement To Which i Also Had Added Some Of My Recommendations ,Its Not always Imp To Replace Em IMHO

Well, my experience is that in practice drives are in general ok.

The problem isn't that the user had a poor quality power supply, but that he accidentally plugged the wrong power supply during a few seconds and he is perfectly aware about his mistake. The circuits also include protective diodes for these cases of human mistakes.

This is the reason why I always welder protective diode again, even if the user has a good quality power supply, because the human error may occur again in the future, and the diode is very useful to protect the circuit.

As Data Medics understood, yes I'm just fixing the drive and this is sufficient, because I know why the diode burnt (human error). I dont' see why this would be a problem.

fzabkar wrote:

Customers would prefer to get their data PLUS their original drive repaired.

... or getting their original drive repaired, making data available again and faster, without the extra cost of a new drive and copying everything.

I don't see the need sell a new drive and to to copy tons of gigas elsewhere if the folders and files are directly visible after the repair and the SMART values are Ok.
Checking the file system suffices.

Of course, I advise the customer to quickly backup its files at a second location, but this is general advice and the customer wouldn't have come if he had done it.
lcoughey wrote:

I can't speak for others, but I'd just grab one off of one of the thousands non-functional parts drives we have sitting around here when I need it.

This is what I usually do, although I don't have thousands myself, and more Seagate's than WD's ones.
However, I believe the cost of such component in small quantities is around 1 - 2 $.
Depending on your country, the cost of the labor to unsolder a TVS can be higher than the cost of a brand new component.

The only problem with electronic distributors in my country is they apply a fix cost for each order, and ship only in parcels, which can make the final price of the components quite expensive when you buy just a few diodes, which could be sent in an enveloppe.

If some of you are interested in purchasing together, let's say about 50 - 100 diodes, which we could split into smaller sets and ship in enveloppes, or if you have some diodes to sell for cheap, especially for WD drives, please contact me with a private message.