Fried Hard Drive - Seagate Expansion 500gb

mg12345 · Apr 16, 2014

I used the wrong power supply for a seagate expansion 500gb.
I posted previously on the seagate boards and followed fzabkar's advice about the 12V TVS but could not get it to work (and since seagate changed the forums section, I can't get access to it anymore to follow up there.)
I decided to take it to a professional recovery place. They had to order parts several times to find a match but when they did, they discovered that the chip was fried and there was no way to recover the data. He said it was not a matter of price just not possible based on current technology.
Anyone out there that has another suggestion possibly?
Any other data I can provide that would would be useful?

okcnaline · Apr 16, 2014

Get a new hard drive and transfer your data disk (the magnetic cylinder inside your HDD) into the new one.

USAFRet · Apr 16, 2014

okcnaline :

WHAT? That will not work. Opening a hard drive except under clean room or clean box conditions pretty much ensures it will never work again.

USAFRet · Apr 16, 2014

@OP - it depends on exactly what got fried.

If it is just the external enclosure that is cooked, you may be able to take the hard drive out of the case, and connect it either internall or via a different SATA cable/dock enclosure.

If it was the circuit board on the actual drive...it may well be toast.

okcnaline · Apr 16, 2014

Never mind then. But that's seriously the only good guess at trying to fix the issue, as the hard drive's basically dead (fried).

mg12345 · Apr 16, 2014

USAFRet :

If it is the circuit board, there is absolutely nothing out there that can save this? My knowledge of this is limited at best, but if the data is on the physical drive, it seems like there should be some way to retrieve it.

USAFRet · Apr 16, 2014

mg12345 :

In some cases, buying another exact copy of that drive....swap the circuit board may work.
Exact copy = make/model/firmware. Maybe will work, maybe not.

But try taking the drive out of the enclosure first. Connect it via SATA or USB dock or cable and see what happens.

mg12345 · Apr 16, 2014

USAFRet :

When I first used the wrong power supply and it stopped working, I plugged it into my PC and then it really started to smoke. The recovery place said they tried everything. I was just hoping they were wrong. Can you recommend a recovery place in NYC to give this another shot?

okcnaline · Apr 16, 2014

If the circuit board is fried, it's basically done. There's only a very few things you can do. Sorry! :`(

USAFRet · Apr 16, 2014

mg12345 :

If you took it out of the case, connected it....and then it smoked more...it is pretty much done.
No, I don't know any recovery services, NYC or otherwise.

mg12345 · Apr 16, 2014

okcnaline :

I guess what's hard for me to grasp is that if the data exists on the actual physical drive why it can't somehow be retrieved. Just one of the countless things about tech I'll never understand.

okcnaline · Apr 16, 2014

It could be, but ridiculously hard. Like USAFret said, "Opening a hard drive except under clean room or clean box conditions pretty much ensures it will never work again." The circuitry on the HDD is simply sending data on it's way to the motherboard. Since you fried that, anything won't be transferred, as there's no communication between disk and PC. So the only way is to take out the magnetic disks from the HDD and reinstall it to another PC. But again, "Opening a hard drive except under clean room or clean box conditions pretty much ensures it will never work again."

USAFRet · Apr 16, 2014

mg12345 :

It 'maybe' can, but the platters do not exist by themselves. It also needs the now-fried circuit board.

With some drives, it is theoretically possibly to swap the circuit board with an exact duplicate, as noted above. A coworker did that once.
Some external enclosures encrypt the data on the drive, and will not work without that original circuit board.

In this apparent fried condition, sending it somewhere may be well north of 4 figures. How much is the data worth to you?

mg12345 · Apr 16, 2014

okcnaline :

Just to be clear, I had no intention of doing this myself (I couldn't even use the correct power supply...) Do you know of any companies that will do this? Or is it something so rare, it's not worth looking for?

okcnaline · Apr 16, 2014

It's basically a DIY project, unless you're going to somehow lie and RMA.

USAFRet · Apr 16, 2014

There are some companies that can maybe do it, but they will be very, very expensive at this point. How much is the data worth to you?

mg12345 · Apr 16, 2014

USAFRet :

Sorry for the vague answer but it's hard to put a $$ figure on it. Is "very expensive" $500, $1K or a lot more? It's stupid to say, but I think I'd have to get a quote and then react to it.

There are companies I found online that claim to have clean rooms. Are they worth trying?

USAFRet · Apr 16, 2014

'very expensive' is relative to you.
If they come back with $10,000, will you go for it? $500?

For me, anything above $100 is too expensive. That's what the backup drive(s) cost.

Are those companies worth it? No experience with them, so I can't say.

mg12345 · Apr 16, 2014

USAFRet :

Got it. I would pay $500 to get this data back. It wasn't just a back up, I stupidly had some info on there that wasn't anywhere else. Is there anything specifically I should look for in any of these recovery companies? Meaning is there a set of questions I should be asking to make sure they understand the problem?

Thank You for all the help. (I don't want to sound like an inconsiderate and ungrateful b*startd. I really do appreciate everyone taking the time to answer all these questions.)

USAFRet · Apr 16, 2014

mg12345 :

Questions to ask? Reputation, independent reviews. I seriously have no experience having to use these companies.

dahhy tewhaiti · Jun 25, 2014

okcnaline :

i think you re right probaly have to ditch it

Fried Hard Drive - Seagate Expansion 500gb

Reputable

Splendid

Titan

Titan

Splendid

Reputable

Titan

Reputable

Splendid

Titan

Reputable

Splendid

Titan

Reputable

Splendid

Titan

Reputable

Titan

Reputable

Titan

Reputable

Share this page