I have a 1TB drive that will not spin up at all. I tried plugging the drive into a HDD docking station and it almost caused a fire. The "12v TVS" was really hot, a looked a little blister and the soldering joints are discolored a little. Is there anything that can be done to resurrect this drive?

AT YOUR RISK, remove the TVS.

Better still, seek pro assistance if the data is valuable

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Will removing the TVS allow the drive to be powered up? I am simply looking to get it online long enough to copy everything off and then I'm trashing this drive.

It's impossible for us to know remotely - the answer depends on whether that TVS is the only faulty component or not. As pcimage said, you're taking a risk - so your decision depends on how lucky you feel, the value of the data (in case you are wrong and cause an increased cost-to-fix by a DR company later) etc. etc. If the data is very valuable, then you should consider whether you want to take risks...

You haven't said how the drive got into this state, but the typical cause would be an extended overvolt on the +12V supply input (i.e. wrong or faulty power supply), and that could have damaged other components too - hence the warning you got in your previous reply. You should also investigate how this +12V overvolt occurred, IMHO.

The TVS went for a reason. If you remove it and plug the drive back into that same power source then you are providing the same bad power, and now without the protection diode so it's really asking for trouble. If you're going to remove the TVS then make you use a proven trusty power source. Otherwise, as other members suggested, get it looked at by a pro if your data is valuable.

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Could you do it this way to test it? If the diode is faulty & you dont want to take anymore risk could you remove the PCB from the HDA remove the diode plug in the power. Check to see if anything smokes or looks damaged. If ok test the pin outs for the HSA & spindle motor. If ok then try it on the HDA. Wouldn't this way protect the preamp etc?

Just thinking out loud

Loki

The drive was inside of an enclosure which just one day stopped working. The whole enclosure was sent to the mfg for repair, but they returned it saying that the enclosure itself was fine but the drive was bad. Since I received it back, I've only been plugging it into a docking station by Thermaltake. Other drives have been used in that docking station without issue, so I believe the power issue was with the enclosure at some point.