Hi everyone.

So here's the story.

I accidentally used a wrong PSU cable on my Seasonic PSU to power up 2 SSD and 1 HDD.
One of the SSD died and the HDD as well. However, the HDD was filled with information that I want to recover.

The HDD is a 1TB Black Caviar by WD. (I can post the exact model if required). The SMOOTH chip on the PCB is burnt. AFAIK, it's the motor controller chip.
I took the HDD to a lab and the person said that he did replace the PCB with the exact model and flashed the same firmware, but the HDD didn't work - so he mentioned that the headers are dead as well.

I don't know how or if it's even possible to know that for sure without opening the hard drive, but he didn't open it.

The quotes for swapping headers and getting a new matching PCB are expensive and obviously this is way beyond my abilities to fix it.

Please ask me more info if required, but is it true that when the PCB is dead due to electrical damage, that the heads are gone and need replacing as well?

What are your thoughts about this?

I live in Australia and to fix it here is very very expensive. Appreciate any insight into this.

Thanks!

please write hdd model

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http://www.hpwlab.com

WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0

The SSD would be powered from the +5V supply, so it stands to reason that your error caused an overvoltage on this input. Since the WD's preamp is powered from +5V, then it is quite likely that it was damaged.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

All SSD's and HDD's have a PSU SATA connection & Data cable that runs on +5v.
So does my current Intel 520 series.

I think the problem was the fact that I used the wrong power SATA cable. By wrong I mean different PSU manufacturer / vendor. I used a thermaltake PSU SATA cable on a Seasonic PSU.

The pinouts for the modular cables that are supplied with PSUs are not standard. I have seen many cases where people have applied 12V to the drive's 5V input, and even one case where the 5V input was reverse polarised.

If you have the original board, check the following components:

http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/bi ... diodes.jpg

I suspect that R67 and D3 will have been damaged.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

The most noticeable damage is the SMOOTH chip.

So, I know now to only use the PSU SATA power cables for the SSD's and HDD's.

Do you think this issue could have damaged the HDD's heads?

Not all damage is visible. You need to measure the components I have identified for you.

See http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/TVS_diode_FAQ.html


The preamp and heads are on the headstack, so if the preamp is damaged, then the headstack would need to be replaced.

See http://hddscan.com/doc/HDD_from_inside.html

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

thanks for the help mate!

Do you mean that he wrote the ROM code to the replacement PCB, or that he actually tried a firmware update???

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Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company

I think he wrote the ROM code to the replacement PCB.

your wd 1tb after replacement of PCB
is it spin up or didn't spin up at all

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http://www.hpwlab.com

It didn't spin