Hi guys,

I have a really bad situation with at Hitachi travelstar disk.
This is Hitach Travelstar HTS548040M9At100
MLC: H69553
P/N 08K0856

The drive sitting in an old Dell laptop and suddenly start to boot up in blue screen of death with "unable to mount boot volume"

I had a IDE to USB connector which was connected to be able to get data from the disk.

I dont know id i did the connection wrong to the usb connector kit, but the disk is now REALY dead. No spinning when connected.

I guess this means the the mainboard might be burned?

The question is now, how is my chances to recover the disk.

Is it possible to switch pcb in this type of Hitachi Travelstar or does this type of disk have a simple fuse I might have burned?

Regards
/fraxyz

Chances are high with a professional. You can swap the pcb and see if it spins at least.

_________________
Zero Alpha: zeroalpha.com.au
Find Cheap Donor Drives App: https://www.zeroalpha.com.au/donor-drive-app Updated February 2026

I would recommend to send your drive to one of the reputable forum members from Europe.
It might be inexpensive to recover data from it at present moment.

_________________
www.datarecoveryne.com

Swap PCB won't work "as is". Pro intervention is not so expensive AT THAT STAGE, the more the attempts the worse it will get.

Thanks guys,

I just hoped I would be able to hotswap the PCB without transferring NVRAM etc. and make it work out of the box (-:
I thought it only was some type of Hitachi drives, which was difficult.

I am living in Denmark.
Any suggestion of someone to contact to have a look at the disk, please?

I could of cause try to do the swap my selves, but I guess, if this is my first swap, I might fuck it up completely )-:

Small change.
The disk is model Travelstar HTS548040M9At00, but I guess the result is the same.

I know it is a difficult question without further analyzes, but what could be an estimated cost of recover the data?
This is a student budget so there is not millions of $ to do the recover.

What about the freezer trick. Could there be some kind of safety circuit which might work after some hours in the freezer.
Or is this just a really stupid idea?

I have a certain feeling....

I somehow knew that answer was coming

But what what do I do then?
Anyone up for the task to help recover some important school papers, please.

Remove the PCB, upload a detailed photo, and be prepared to take some measurements with a multimeter. You may or may not be able to fix it yourself, but you may at least be able to determine what you did wrong, if anything.

Do something else, instead : there are reputable pros near you from this forum who can help you safely. 1st that comes to mind and nearest is mr_spokk in Sweden. I suggest you to contact him via PM. Or choose from many other , almost everywhere in Europe.