Hello All,

I recently experienced 2 hard drive failures due to electrical damage. Lost house power a couple times during the night and the PC power supply fried. I replaced power supply only to find both hard drives fried. I actually smelled them burning during power up. After this both hard drives would not power up, wouldn't even make a sound. I was able to get 1 hard drive working by replacing PCB board and swapping bios chip. This particular drive showed no visible signs of damage. However the other hard drive's PCB motor IC chip was burned. I also replaced the PCB and swapped bios but was not as lucky. The drive now makes a intermittent, repititious buzzing noise e.g. buzz, buzz, buzz, quiet, buzz, buzz, buzz, quiet, etc. Anyway I was hoping someone out there has some suggestions on what to do next. Is there something I'm missing or am I out of luck? Any ideas or suggestions are much appreciated. Almost forgot drive is a Western Digital 200gb model WD2000BB. I also attached photo of original PCB so you can see what burned (bios chip is removed).

Thank You,
Troy

Preamp is surely burned, too. It's not D.I.Y.

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yep, I second that!

The buzzing sounds like a stiction fault.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

I've never seen stiction on a WD 3.5" drive. I have seen bad motors and bearings.

Even if it were "stiction", if you open the drive you will ruin the head stack alignment. I don't recommend that you inspect the interior.

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

1 in 10'000 is stiction...

I fail to see how a bad bearing could be the result of a power outage. As for a motor problem, the OP could measure the resistances of the windings with a digital multimeter.

Cen-Tech 90899 7 Function Digital Multimeter (US$5):
http://www.harborfreight.com/7-function ... 90899.html

Cen-Tech 90899 7 Function Digital Multimeter User Manual:
http://manuals.harborfreight.com/manual ... /90899.pdf

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

If this was the horse races , I would bet against this diagnosis.

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Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

I was referring to the buzzing sound that the drive made and the fact that it didn't spin up. A missing phase on the motor could cause that -- no big surprise when you look at the motor IC on the fellow's PCB. I certainly wasn't trying to convey the idea that an electrical problem would cause a bearing problem. Not sure how you concluded that . . .

Although it is true that a multimeter could diagnose shorted or open motor windings, I'm afraid that this particular drive is way beyond help with a VOM. Sure, it would be nice to "know" if the motor is functional, but if the preamp is shot (like I am about 90% sure that it is) then it's a moot point. In any event, it's not a DIY recovery, so why do you propose that the person should expend time and resources on it, if the outcome is almost certain to be unfruitful? I'm just trying to understand your thought process. Thank you.

_________________
http://www.datasaversllc.com

Never seen broken motors that are ok with 'multimeter' that don't move or fry pcbs?
Happens...
I Never trust multimeters, especially below 1000 dollar

So true, Although i am a fan of most fluke products

I, too, would guess that the preamp is 99.9% fried as well.

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

Troy
why don't you upload the recording of the sound made by the drive to stop the speculations
I agree with others here it looks like a stiction issue and not worth a try

As you can see in this thread, a cheap multimeter is perfectly OK:
samsung-hdd-hd753lj-dead-t15374.html

In fact, this is all you really need:
Cen-Tech 90899 7 Function Digital Multimeter (US$5):
http://www.harborfreight.com/7-function ... 90899.html

:mrgreen:

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

No, I have something "just a little bit" better . Anyway the thread is now about 2 weeks older so maybe either the drive was not repaired or already repaired or simply the owner didn't proceed.

Just skimming through some old topics and came across this thread. Out of curiosity, what would you do in a case like this? I mean yes in most cases like the heads are toast, but if there is also damage to the motor, it seems like a platter swap would be necessary. Am I right?