Elements 1Tb drive dead - can I repair or get a new PCB

[fzabkar · Accepted solution]

@minger, your choice of diode is perfect. Unidirectional is what you want. A bidirectional diode would give your drive no protection form reverse voltages.

The maximum clamping voltage is that voltage beyond which the diode would fail. Your diode would be able to survive any spike less than 19.9V, provided that it were of sufficiently short duration.

The breakdown voltage is that voltage at which the diode begins to conduct. This means that if your PSU is outputting 13V, your diode will remain non-conducting.

Your Initio INIC-1608L chip does not incorporate AES encryption, so that will not be an issue for you.

http://www.si-tech.co.jp/search.php?key=Initio&col=vendor&sort=vendor&seq=ASC
http://www.initio.com/Html/Doc/INIC-1608%20Product%20Brief.pdf

[rogueadmin]

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.  This was exactly the piece of information I needed, and I thank you.

[minger]

@ fzabkar

Sorry I have not replied until now.    Unfortunately I have been out of circulation for sometime ...  Thank you.. Thank you... The data on the drive is recovered as per your instructions re the 12v diode and I am awaiting the arrival of the Unidirectional diode as replacement...   

I cannot thank you enough ...  many years of important data has been restored....  the drive contained a large back catalogue of electronic music that I have written and produced and to simply say it was irreplaceable is an understatement .  It is wonderful that people like yourself are willing to take the time to help. 

Thank you seems so little reward for what you have done ..  Salute

[adhoc]

It sounds like @minger has experienced, more or less, the exact same thing that I am facing right now (I hope!).  Similarly, I am a complete novice when it comes to this kind of thing, so I would be very grateful for some confirmation before I start snipping any electrical components and ruin my chance of retrieving my data.

I have a 1 TB WD Elements external hard drive, only a couple of years old.  The other day I accidentally plugged in a 30V power supply (don't know why they can have different connectors!), so I'm guessing that (hopefully only) the TVS diode is kaput.  When I plug in the power supply, the green LED lights up solid.  When I plug the power supply into the HD, it starts blinking.  Initially, when I put my ear to the HD case I could hear afaint hum, but that was it.  When connected to my computer, nothing shows up.  I took the HD to a shop already to see if it could be read, and was told that when they removed from the case, it still wouldn't spin up.  They were not data recovery specialists and recommended a company in the area (Bremen, Germany) if I wanted to go that route. 

Here are the specs on the hard drive that I have:

Model: WD10000EB035-01

R/N: B8G 

And here are links to pictures of the HD boards and HD:

https://picasaweb.google.com/104544617234255157825/WDElements1TBExternalHD?authkey=Gv1sRgCI-okJnd19z...

https://picasaweb.google.com/104544617234255157825/WDElements1TBExternalHD#5740123376024843922

https://picasaweb.google.com/104544617234255157825/WDElements1TBExternalHD#5740123398222672370

https://picasaweb.google.com/104544617234255157825/WDElements1TBExternalHD#5740123396278795746

https://picasaweb.google.com/104544617234255157825/WDElements1TBExternalHD#5740123401840809314

@fzabkar:  Would you be so kind as to confirm whether the solution you recommended for @minger might work in my case, as well? Do I have any hope of retrieving my data without going to a data recovery service?

[adhoc]

A quick update on my situation: I took a leap of faith (call it impatience, perhaps), and removed the D4 TVS diode.  @minger's situation sounded exactly like what happened to, so I had to try it.  As a result, the hard drive works like a charm now and I have all my data back.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, @fzabkar.  You are a giant among men. 

[allla]

deleted