Hey guys,

I was recently given a USB powered external HDD that was reported to not work, no additional info given. I plugged in both USBs to my computer to test it, no response. I lifted the drive near my ear to listen if it was spinning and I smelled burning plastic. I immediately unplugged the drive. I disassembled the external enclosure to reveal a Seagate Momentus 5400.3 drive. It seemed like the circuit board that converts the USB power/data into the Sata power/data was fried so I removed it and hooked the drive up to my computer using an adapter I have, this time I monitored the drive for a burning smell. It began again, so I removed it once more.

I just removed the circuit board from the hard drive, after removing the thin foam padding I see there are two burn marks on different locations of the card.

At this point I'm wondering, can I get a replacement circuit board and the drive will then operate normally? Thank you very much for your time, please feel free to ask anything I did not already write here.

Additional Info:
SN: 5MA9YC1G

ST9160821AS

PN: 9S1134-566

FW: 3.AXC

Replacement PCB is probably required, but he adaptive information programmed into the native PCB needs to be transferred,

Also, it sounds as though at least 2 components are affected on the PCB. Depending what components they are and the extent of the damage to them, you could potentially be faced with further complications such as internal mechanical damage.

If this was your own hard disk you could replace PCB and verify the behaviour with new PCB, but as the data belongs to somebody else it is not a chance you should take.

A professional diagnosis is usually free and this is the safest option or the data.

If you upload a detailed photo of the component side of your board, one of us will help you repair it, or advise you on the least expensive alternative.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Hey guys, here's a link to an image of the circuit board, I drew circles around the two parts of the board that seemed to have suffered some burn damage.

http://files.krishna.com/en/images/gall ... G_9957.JPG

Thank you for your time.

The component near the SATA power connector appears to be a 5V TVS diode. It has probably gone short circuit to protect the rest of the electronics. You can simply remove it. The drive will work perfectly well without it, but be aware that you will no longer have any overvoltage protection, so be absolutely certain your power supply is OK.

As for the hot spot near connector J1, I'm hoping that it has nothing to do with the preamp.

If the drive still doesn't spin up after removing the TVS diode, then you can replace the PCB, but you will also need to transplant the 8-pin serial EEPROM chip from patient to donor. This chip has a part number containing "25", and is located near the bottom edge of the card, just below the screw hole.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.