I got the wrong power supply

My hard drive is fixed now,

- same issue, impossible to connect to the PC,

- I took the hard drive out of its enclosure, and at first glance, I didn't see anything burnt

a friend of mine fixed it, under the spot where my hard drive is (in the enclosure, that is)? He unscrewed a black plate and underneath was another circuit, there he found a burnt component, he removed it and, oh miracle, it works... so I didn't lose any of my data.. and my hard drive works perfectly!!!

once you’ve done that, do like me and label your power supply with tags or something else, anyway now I double-check...

there you go, I hope my message will be helpful to you....

vera

Tell me, your friend wouldn't happen to make us a video of the disassembly he did because it's really tricky... if we remove one screw too many, the whole hard drive gets wrecked...

Thanks

It's a protection diode between the 12V and ground,
remove the component and it should work again (I’ve tested it)

Afterwards, you can replace it with another one, but it's not mandatory (it's a protection diode)

@+

Up ... I had the same problem, I plugged my laptop power supply into my hard drive (Maxtor 500 GB) there was no smoke but the hard drive won't start anymore... I took it apart to try to connect it to my PC from the inside but when I plug everything in, my PC won't turn on...

Please, I need help, all my documents since I was 6 years old are on it :'(

Hello,

In reply to your email, I will send you a photo of the hard drive to show you where the defective part is located; your disk will be back in working order without any issues.

THE PART IS STILL IN THE SAME PLACE.

Hi, I made the same mistake two days ago... and I really don't know how to recover my data... if you have any information... thanks in advance.

Hi,
Niclasissi, I really think your drive is dead. Does your BIOS detect it?
Assuming that this overvoltage didn't damage the hard drive motor, there is still a solution to recover your respective data: find the same hard drive, really the same model, and swap the printed circuit board.
If the "rebuilt" drive is detected in the BIOS, that's a good sign.
Once the data is backed up, do not consider this drive as repaired and healthy: buy another one.
Let us know how the story unfolds...

Well diagnosed, well treated.

I join you to say that I just made the same mistake. Connecting 19V instead of 12V.

The ventilated power supply slowed down, but there’s nothing suspicious with the hard drive, no burnt smell, no components visibly burnt.

The only thing I’m interested in is retrieving what’s on the hard drive, data from a year’s worth of work.

I saw that by changing the circuit board, there might be a way to recover the data, but would there be another solution, as I don’t know if I can find an identical hard drive.

Thank you for your response.

White smoke = always a bad omen

Hello,
A big thank you to everyone. I was able to bring my hard drive back to life thanks to all your advice. Due to a power cable error, my hard drive received an electric shock. The external LED on the hard drive was flashing but the disk wasn’t spinning at all. I disassembled the hard drive and found a diode component that wasn’t working. I know nothing about electronics, but thanks to the internet, I identified the components with the correct symbols on the electronic board and using a multimeter, I found the diode that always showed 0 ohms regardless of the direction of the multimeter’s current. With a sharp knife, I then carefully removed the component from the electronic board. The hard drive is now working as before. I found my family photos! A thousand thanks :))

Hi, I see you recommend fiddling with electronic components. I find that a bit dangerous anyway.
I accidentally connected my 12v External HDD to my computer's 19v socket and ended up destroying the PCB of the drive.
I found my solution on this site https://www.onepcbsolution.com/. Basically, you'll need to note down all the references of the drive without missing any, but the process of recognizing your board is made easier by an online PCB library on the site.
The customer service is excellent and they are willing to exchange advice via email; however, it's a Canadian company, so you need to speak in English, but it's worth it. The board arrives by Airmail in 5 to 10 days with a small screwdriver, and you just have to replace the faulty board! It worked for me.

STOP!
Stop looking!
The solution is here: https://www.onepcbsolution.com/

The site is in English but nothing complicated!

In fact, by using the wrong power supply, you have very likely burned a kind of small diode on the hard drive’s circuit board (where the SATA connector is located). You need to disassemble this circuit board (controller board (PCB) in English!) with a TX06*50 or TX09*60 Torx screwdriver. Both work, don’t ask me why. I had to buy this type of screwdriver. You'll find them at all prices on the internet...
Be careful, it's the circuit board that you need to disassemble, not the small power supply of the hard drive (that said, you will have to disassemble the power supply before disassembling the circuit board). The circuit board (controller board (PCB) in English!) looks like this:

http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/yhst-44463692235217_2251_27955957

Before disassembling the circuit board (but after removing the power supply), you can always try (you never know) connecting your external hard drive to a SATA cable (in your case, for example) to check that it’s not a problem with the external hard drive’s power supply. This operation costs nothing but as they say on the PCB Solution site, there is at least a 90% chance that by using the wrong power supply, you toasted the controller board (PCB)....

Finally, when you have disassembled this controller board (PCB), you send the defective part back to the address specified on the site (follow the instructions provided on the site). When they receive the part, they will send you an email with an invitation to pay, then they will manufacture the part and send it back to you all for about.......... Be careful, hold on tight:
Are you ready?
Sure? :

1250€!!!

NO, I’m kidding: about 50 €! (49.99$ + shipping) The whole process takes about 10 days even though they are in Canada...
So those ....... who charge you 500 to 1000€ for data recovery, forget about them, okay?
Spread the word on all the forums you know, but be careful, you need to be sure that your hard drive is dead due to a power surge, not because of a fall down the stairs, an unexplained flying incident, or a drowning, okay? ...

Hello,

I tried what youpiie1 said at PCB Solution

http://www.onepcbsolution.com/index.html

and it works perfectly and for very little money.

I had the wrong power supply on my Western Digital MyBook Essentials 1TB external hard drive and it obviously burned out.

I sent back the board once I opened the case with a card the size of a credit card and removed the Torx screws.
In less than a month, I had sent my defective board to Canada, they repaired and cloned it (so I received 2 boards, the original one repaired and the clone) and sent them back to me.

It's really great to recover your data, especially the photos I had not yet been able to back up, and I need to quickly make another backup and find synchronization solutions.

If you are in the same situation, give it a try, as it seems there is more than a 90% success rate in this kind of situation, and even if it's not the case, it's quite inexpensive to try.

Go for it!

Good evening, I just made the same mistake!! I'm getting frustrated!! I have the Samsung webox 500GB external hard drive... I'm not an expert either... if I understand correctly, I need to unscrew and then open my case, and after that I need to locate the electronic board.