Damaged Circuit Board of an internal hard drive? Is it replaceable or repairable?

[MiguelVRN]

I want to confirm if a) the physical damage to my hard drive's circuit board is what's making it unresponsive and b) if I can have said circuit board repaired or replaced whilst keeping the data in it, or c) if all else fails, could there be some way to retrieve the files inside anyway? (Preferably without too much expense on my part)

So my dad and I have this Samsung HD204UI Internal Hard Drive that we've recently transferred from one PC to another (as a secondary drive, so no OS). We've noticed that it couldn't even be detected by the BIOS when we put it into the PC, and we've tried troubleshooting for every possibility I could think of (disabled port, faulty cables, motherboard problems, etc.)

I then took a good close look at the hard drive's circuit board and I discovered what could possibly be a chipped off piece (a diode, I think it's called?) and something that looks like it was bent. It's quite possible that we might not have been as careful with the hard drive as we ought to have been, hence the state of it.

Here's a picture of the damaged area in question (Sorry for the bad quality):

http://i.imgur.com/lN0YglT.jpg

For reference, here's a stock picture of the circuit board as it should look with the parts in question highlighted:

http://i.imgur.com/LXZfFQ8.jpg

And here's a picture of an identical hard drive side-by-side with the broken one:

http://i.imgur.com/ChEZx9r.jpg

So is it safe to assume that this is the reason as to why my hard drive isn't working? And can I get the circuit board replaced and still keep the data in it? It has quite a few files of mine that I'd prefer to keep if possible.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

The bent one probably isn't an issue, but can be touched up in seconds with a soldering iron.

Soldering in a replacement part for the other should be doable. It looks like an inductor, but the "4R7" implies a resistor - not sure. Grabbing the one from the other drive is probably easiest. If you're not that confidant with a soldering iron, you might want to get someone else to do it.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, Miguel. Welcome to the community!

Yes, I think that it's pretty safe to assume that the damaged PCB is the reason for the issues you're having with that HDD. Changing the PCB of an HDD is never recommended mainly due to those 3 reasons: it voids the warranty of the drive, you could damage the HDD in the process or the new PCB and this is never guaranteed to work. Basically if the drive exactly identical, not just brand and storage capacity, but the exact same model (and in some cases it should even be the same batch...), you could try that and it is possible for the drive to be recognized afterwards.
You could take the drives to a service shop and ask if the missing part can be taken and soldered to the broken PCB, but that has its risks as well
Basically if all else fails and as well as my primary recommendation, I'd suggest that you go for a professional solution, such as a data recovery company.

Edit: Looks like you've already been given a viable option by @someone somewhere (hehe)

Hope that helps. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Boogieman_WD

 

[MiguelVRN]

The bent one probably isn't an issue, but can be touched up in seconds with a soldering iron.

Soldering in a replacement part for the other should be doable. It looks like an inductor, but the "4R7" implies a resistor - not sure. Grabbing the one from the other drive is probably easiest. If you're not that confidant with a soldering iron, you might want to get someone else to do it.

My dad might know a thing or two about soldering, though I think it'd be better to have a professional do it, maybe.

So this circuit board should be safe to do soldering in? Where might I find a replacement part for the missing inductor/resistor? (The extra drive we have is something we're currently using, so I can't take away its parts, most likely)

 

[MiguelVRN]

Hey there, Miguel. Welcome to the community!

Yes, I think that it's pretty safe to assume that the damaged PCB is the reason for the issues you're having with that HDD. Changing the PCB of an HDD is never recommended mainly due to those 3 reasons: it voids the warranty of the drive, you could damage the HDD in the process or the new PCB and this is never guaranteed to work. Basically if the drive exactly identical, not just brand and storage capacity, but the exact same model (and in some cases it should even be the same batch...), you could try that and it is possible for the drive to be recognized afterwards.
You could take the drives to a service shop and ask if the missing part can be taken and soldered to the broken PCB, but that has its risks as well
Basically if all else fails and as well as my primary recommendation, I'd suggest that you go for a professional solution, such as a data recovery company.

Edit: Looks like you've already been given a viable option by @someone somewhere (hehe)

Hope that helps. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Boogieman_WD

Thanks!

The warranty on this thing has probably ended by now, but I'll have to check in with my dad to confirm. It's been with us a long time. But I see what you mean about damaging the HDD, so thanks for the heads up.

Might look into somebody that could do some soldering work for us. Anything that doesn't cost upwards of hundreds of dollars. ^^

 

[Someone Somewhere]

You should be able to type the serial number into the manufacturer's website to find out the warranty.

If the data is really valuable, send it off to a proper data recovery place. If it's stuff that you don't want to lose but don't want to pay thousands for, DIY is generally OK. I wouldn't trust the drive after you get the data off it, though - copy it, then in the trash.

Ebay or digikey will sell you a new part, but you might want to ask somewhere like reddit.com/r/electronics to make certain you've got the right part.

PS: Make sure you keep good backups in future.