Hard drive go boom, any hope of recovery? (pic inside)

R

RAD

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
489
Hey gang,
So, my parents managed to make the hard drive on their computer explode. Not literally, but apparently it was smoking heavily and it looks like there is burn damage to it. Don't ask me how, I honestly don't know. They have a lot of family photos and whatnot that they of course didn't back up even though I warned them many, many times to do so.

When I try to hook the hard drive up to my external hard drive to usb connectors the drive doesn't spin up. I've taken a picture of the visible external damage. Is there any possible way to get this drive functioning long enough to pull it's contents off? The damage seems to be pretty extensive but I figure if anyone knows it would be you guys.

My folks were quoted over $1400 from a data recovery company (which really isn't happening) so it becomes my project instead. Thanks for any help, advise, or knowledge about what exactly burnt out on the drive that you can offer.

The drive is a Seagate Barracuda SATA 7200 rpm, 250 gb.
Pic of the damage to the drive below:
scaledhdddmg.jpg


hddlh.jpg
 
ouch.

let someone else here verify this idea because I don't know but at that point I wonder about buying the same drive new and maybe it's possible to take the board off and put it on that drive. even rigged just to get the data off.
 
nitrobass24 said:
Find another identical drive and swap the PCBs.
Click to expand...

QFT and pretty much the only answer.

It's a possibility to do this, but it's got to be the same drive, obviously. Takes some doing, and you need to be exceedingly careful in the process but, as all the damage appears to be PCB related there's a very good chance that the circuit board swap would bring the drive back to life at least long enough to get some/all the data off, then put the PCB back on the drive where it came from and move on...
 
I've never done something as intensive as removing and swapping a pcb. How does one go about this? Is there a graphical or step by step guide out there somewhere?

I imagine if I go this route it would probably (hopefully) only cost me 50 bucks or so to purchase a duplicate of this drive to strip the PCB off of? How identical are we talking? does it have to be down to the precise model number/year of manufacture/etc?

EDIT: I did a search on the model number under the barcode and came up with this drive: ST3250824AS http://www.serversupply.com/products/part_search/pid_lookup.asp?pid=115139
 
Last edited:
Bahamut said:
QFT and pretty much the only answer.

It's a possibility to do this, but it's got to be the same drive, obviously. Takes some doing, and you need to be exceedingly careful in the process but, as all the damage appears to be PCB related there's a very good chance that the circuit board swap would bring the drive back to life at least long enough to get some/all the data off, then put the PCB back on the drive where it came from and move on...
Click to expand...

Pretty much. Same model and same revision if possible.

As far as swaping the boards it is pretty easy. Just remove the screws going through the board. Looks like 4 in that pic. Past that the boards usually just pop off. And I do mean pop. Usually have some connector plugging them into the drive on the other side and between that and the heat where they pretty much melt into the foam under them they kida stick into place. Takes a few minutes to switch it out and get it fired up(altogether). Pretty simple process.

I've had to do this maybe 50 or 60 times. Had to desolder a few components and repair them on blown boards as well(which I hate doing).
 
Thanks for the info. I found an ebay retailer who sells just the PCB boards for these hard drives as well, would it be wise or unwise to just try to buy the PCB board? I really have no need or long term interest in preserving this drive or the donor drive beyond recovering the data.
 
RAD said:
Thanks for the info. I found an ebay retailer who sells just the PCB boards for these hard drives as well, would it be wise or unwise to just try to buy the PCB board? I really have no need or long term interest in preserving this drive or the donor drive beyond recovering the data.
Click to expand...

If you buy a identical model drive you can always try to make an image of their os install with the new board. If you get the data off you throw the board back on the new drive and use it for their system. Kill 2 birds with one stone.

Personally I'd find an entire drive and have the drive as a spare or something down the road. Hell maybe throw it in a usb enclosure once you are done and use it as a backup source for them if you have already replaced their main drive.
 
I ordered the part I will need for $40. This is going to be a fun little project. It will be pretty cool if the PCB board is the only thing stopping us from pulling the data off of this drive.
 
Whoa, that's pretty intense. Best of luck, let us know how it goes!
 
Well, I am very sorry to report that it did not work.

Replacing the PCB now allows the hard drive to spin up and I can hear/feel it spinning. However, the drive does not come up in my drive list either when connected through my external usb adapter or when connected directly to a SATA port on my motherboard.

If I disconnect my primary hdd completely and try to boot from the damaged drive I get a "boot drive failure" message and a request to insert an OS disk.

Any thoughts on anything I can do to access the drive at this point, or did whatever caused the PCB board to burn out also fry other things that aren't as easily fixed?
 
Can you see the drive in the device manager or in the disk management under computer management or is not showing up in my computer?

If it shows up under disk management but showing either no partition or an unreadable one you might be able to use a recovery program to pull the files.

Could be a bad board or a incorrect board as well. That is one of the reasons I try to find an extire drive. Also at least I have a good drive if it doesn't work.
 
The drive does not show up in the device manager or in my computer. I am reasonably certain it is the right board, looks identical and matches perfectly along the match up services provided by the PCB board retailer. Looks like it may be a disappointing phone call I will have to give my parents regarding their data.
 
You could always call the manufacturer and see if they have data recovery services and how much it might cost to have it done.
 
freezer trick? j/k!

ugh. is the data worth $1400? That's always an option for them. If not.. I saw a 500gb in FS/T for $45 shipped. :)
 
does the drive show up in the bios when connected as a slave? if there is a jumper on it try removing it.
 
try these guys, http://www.quetek.com/ i have had file scavenger recover failed single drives as well as raid arrays (software and hardware) get the trial, see if it will even see the disk with the replacement board in place. (because if it toasted the heads, then your only option is to send it off to pros), if it dose, then its a good value for what it dose. and you can always use it on other HD's as need be
 
rive22 said:
does the drive show up in the bios when connected as a slave? if there is a jumper on it try removing it.
Click to expand...

sata, no such thing as slave, regardless, he has a good point, dose it show up?
 
If replacing the PCB doesn't do it, any pro recovery house should be able to pull the data for you. I did some price shopping recently for a drive that was in a fire, and Ontrack came out the cheapest at about $2,000 all said and done.
 
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