Hi,

I wonder if anything can help me with the HDD problem that I have at the moment?

I have a 1tb Western Digital Elements hard drive which I bought under a year ago. I stupidly used a 16v adapter for my scanner by mistake on the the external hard drive which only needed 12 v. It seemed to work ok without any problems until Saturday night when it suddenly disconnected. I checked the drive and it was hot and there was a burning electronic smell coming from it. I tried reconnecting the adapter but it didn't work so I plugged it on the scanner and it didn't work either. I then tried to use the correct 12v adapter on the damaged hard drive but nothing but when connecting to another external HD it works.

The next step was to disassemble the HD from the caddy/enclosure which I done and I then purchased a IDE/SATA to USB kit to test the damaged drive. Unfortunately nothing worked but when I connected it to a spare 80gb IDE drive that powered up so I kind of thought the kit wouldnt be at fault. I had a feeling that the PCB on the HD has burnt out the TVS diodes as the electronic smell is coming from there as well.

My question to members is would it be worthwhile to

a) to purchase a similar drive from ebay and swap boards round? (Though I heard this is a extremely hard thing to get right?)
b) try to get a computer shop/electronics/tv repair shop to fix the TVS diodes if that is the problem?
c) snip or try and cut out the TVS diodes to get it running long enough to get the data off? Bearing in mind I have over 800gb of data how safe would that be? Also I read from forums even simply cutting the diodes and removing them may not make the PCB work as u may need to solder a wire in order for it to work?

My drive had a 1 year warranty which I have probably invalidated but I am not worried about that just want to recover the data from it. I have a lot of sentimental stuff on the drive.

If anyone has advice or could help me I would be grateful?

Make / Model of the drive and the picture of the PCB plz. (component side up )

I have finally removed the last torq screw after searching 3 hardware stores.
And please find the photo of the PCB below.

I presume the one marked D4 on the top right hand corner is the 12v TVS diode and the one marked D3 is the 5v TVS diode?
Would the removing the burnt D4 diode make the drive work long enough for me to copy the data to another drive or will you need to solder a wire across it?
I am also concerned that the connectors top left corner may have been burnt as they looked discoloured?
The drive details are as follows:

WESTERN DIGITAL: WD 10EVVS
MDL: WD10EVVS-63E1BO
DATE: 20 JUNE 2009
DCM: HHNNHT2CAN
R/N: 701537

How can I be sure that I haven't fried the HD as well?
I have been quoted £399 plus VAT @20% to recover the data from a UK data recovery firm near me. I have contacted some electronics firms to see whether they can replace the diode? But not sure if I could fix it as I don't have a soldering iron or the experience.
I have a years warranty on this drive as well but I'm more concerned about getting the data but if I can retrieve it and copy the data to another drive. And take the drive back then I will be happy. Thanks for any advice in advance.

£399??

Sounds a bit steep!

We would charge less than half that, assuming it's only the PCB blown.

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http://www.pcimage.co.uk

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The burnt out diode was getting loose so I removed it. And when I removed it I saw that heat had burnt a little bit of the circuit board behind it. I also wanted to check that the HD was okay before I sent the PCB to be fix by a electronics guy on the internet. The hard drive seems okay.
A bit premature as we can see below as I think I might just have done something to the board as when I reconnected it again it made a popping noise and smoke came out of the PCB again. I have enclosed another photo for you guys to look at and hopefully I haven't damaged the HD or the PCB.
Hopefully the HD is intact and the electronics guy can replace the diodes and make the PCB safe so I can access the data from it.

The whole job shouldn't have cost you more than US$50, including freight.

The D4 diode can be obtained from Farnell. It is an SMBJ12A. Your local TV/AV repair shop could have replaced it for you. You may also need to bridge R64 with a wire link or a blob of solder.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Thanks Fzabkar,

I managed to find someone to do it (he normally repairs electrical musical instruments) for £20 including freight and that was before I ripped the diode out myself. He did advise me not to take out the diode but I wanted to make sure the HD was working and not the PCB.

On both occasions I managed to run it for 15 mins each time without any problems. But on the 3rd try when I plugged it in it popped and smoke came out. I am concerned maybe I have damaged the HD but I hope not? Do u think I should get the PCB fixed before trying to get the data copied to another drive? The electronics guy has not got back to me on this and whether he will take the job?

Yeah the quote I got was from a DATA RECOVERY CO who charge a fix rate to recover data and that was the price for my 1gb drive. In addition you will have to supply them with a spare 1gb drive so they can copy the data over.

So you smoked it again after you took out the diode?

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Yes unfortunately so and I did check the adapter before I plugged it in and the outputs on the adapter read 5v and 12vs.

Not sure if by taking out the diode I affected something else? Like the R64 chip below it or the pins near the diode as that is a lot blacker now?

Do you think I should try and connect it back again to try and save as much data or just get someone to replace the diode first? Why would it smoke again?

Do you think it would have anything to do with the R67 chip that was near the 12v diode which i pulled out?

The diode isn't the problem. The diode is like a circuit-breaker... it trips when there is some other problem to prevent damage. Now that you have run the PCB without its protection and smoked something else, you may have killed something important this time.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

30 mins of runing time , i hope u got the data u wanted out in that time. Chances are now you have a dead preamp now. The recovery price will skyrocket if thats the case.

If I knew that I had to copy the data asap before it would have smoked again then I would have.

On both occasions I didn't copy anything across as I presumed that I would be able to connect each time without any problems.
But I suppose it might have smoked when I was transferring the data across and that may have caused more problems.

I slightly touched the PSU with the power adapter and it started to smoke so have decided to send it to the electronics person today to see whether he could fix it. Hopefully he can get it running for enough time for me to get the data back.

Fingers crossed.

R64 and R67 should measure close to zero ohms on the 200 ohms range of a multimeter.

BTW, is your repairer "Diverse Devices"?

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Fzabkar,

The repairer is not anyone known to this forum I think as he usually repairs Hi Fi and Audio Visual products but a couple of hundred miles from where I live. Unfortunately of the 9 e-mails I sent asking for help, 3 declined and one was the DATA recovery firm who wanted £399 +20% VAT. He was the only one willing to help and has been most helpful responding to my numerous e-mails. Not even my local TV repair shop across the road was interested in helping me.

I think he will know what the readings will be as he said R67 is a zero ohm link ie in series with the rail by the looks, just placed there to bridge across two tracks.

In his last e-mail he replied I can't see any further damage, but haven't got it in my hand to make full judgement. The smoke seen on final reconnection could have been collateral (pending) failure of some other component. Hard to say whether the whole thing is recoverable now until I see it. You could try again but with a quick hand ready to remove power on any signs of further smoke

Hopefully I haven't damaged the PCB too much so he can repair it and I have sent it to him today. But if not would you recommend Diverse Devices?

I don't understand why it would smoke again? Would it be that the other 5v diode has failed and hence it is smoking? Or the track underneath the removed 12v diode is coming in contact with something and is causing it to smoke?

I think I will wait and see what the repairer says about the PCB?

If it is repairable and he can make the PCB safe for me to copy the data to a duplicate drive then that would be the best solution.

If not then I would need to see about sending it to the DATA RECOVERY SPECIALIST who have advised that they will charge £399 plus 20% vate which makes it £478.80. This is a guaranteed fixed rate but if they need to purchase a duplicate drive for parts assuming I screwed up the PCB when I removed the diode. Then they would want a non refundable fee of £120 up front so they can buy a duplicate drive for parts. Plus I would need to supply them with a duplicate empty drive so they can copy the DATA across. I suppose this would be my last resort and I would have to save the funds to do so as well or put it down to experience and move on.

The reason I didn't send it to them first was I wanted to find a solution that I could do myself?
But removing the TVS diode may have now caused me more problems than if I didn't do it in the first place.
Hopefully I will get some positive good news today.

Like I said before £399 sounds an awful lot for a new PCB, even with re-programming with the ROM info gleaned from the platters.

Having said that, the chances of you having cooked the preamp now are considerably greater

PM me if interested in a pro solution at a significantly lower cost

Cheers

Sean

_________________
PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

Quote :

Unfortunately of the 9 e-mails I sent asking for help, 3 declined and one was the DATA recovery firm who wanted £399 +20% VAT. He was the only one willing to help and has been most helpful responding to my numerous e-mails. Not even my local TV repair shop across the road was interested in helping me.

No wonder. Tinkering with these puppies in unstable condition is like playing russian roulette, and usually "success has many fathers, failure is orphan" (variant : when everything goes fine you're a genius, when things go wrong, you're alone and the so-called "friends" are gone).
At this point one of the best options is sending the drive to pcimage, even in worst case it doesn't cost the world.
About the declined help, it's starting to be usual to decline recovery requests for DIY'ed drives as it is a major problem and loss of time, stats at hand.

P.S. 399+20% vat = about 480 = not that much, tax paid. But ask Sean first !!

To everyone that has been reading my threads I received the e-mail from the repairer and it is as follows?

Yeah , you did have a very burnt area of PCB there,

There are several circuit (copper) layers within the thickness of the PCB and one was partially shorting(6-10 ohms ish) to ground (one of those layers is a ground!) along with the carbonisation it all spelt trouble .

Anyway after some very delicate surgery and a microscope I've already got rid of the partial short and just need to reinstate missing components (the diode for one)., and some cable bridging over the damage

The fix may not look pretty when it's done cos I've had to remove a lot of carbonised PCB, but it should work in the end.as I can now see a more normal load impedence on that supply

The parts are already on their way today (preordered yesterday in anticipation of this PCB arriving) haven't arrived as yet - but are guaranteed before end of today (UPS)

So yes it's looking okay so far, but obviously not finished as yet

Yeah the burning would be that 'early' short on the pcb, if there was damage further downstream then the burning would have been there instead, PSU sees the short immediately and the tracks/area starts to heat up as the PSU battles to overcome the short

With you saying it did work when you first checked it means the circuitry downstream should be fine. Only reconnection will tell, although when I first looked at it there was a severe short caused directly by this 'early' damage


BlackST and pcimage. I will probably try the PCB on the HD first and if the HD is definitely kaput then I think I will probably call it a day.

fzabkar. What do you think?