My hard drive just went up in smoke!

hetty

My Maxtor 160 Gb drive just went up in smoke! There was a red spot on one of the chips and and then a load of smoke. Now it doesnt even spin up anymore. I had a load of important stuff on it too. Crap

Can you get replacement PCBs? I checked google but could only find whole new and refurbished drives. Will I have to end up getting a whole 'donor' drive? Has anyone tried this before, did it work?

JDMurray

I've transplanted controller boards between Maxtor drives before and it's not very difficult if you proceed slowly and carefully. Because the malfunction may have affected the electromechanical parts of the drive, there's no guarantee that you'll recover all or any of the data. Make sure you buy the same model of drive so the new controller board will be compatible.

Just to be safe, don't continue to use the drive once you have copied the data off the drive. Try wiping the drive using DBAN, return the controller to the new drive, and then discard the bad drive and controller.

snadam

JDMurray wrote:

I've transplanted controller boards between Maxtor drives before and it's not very difficult if you proceed slowly and carefully. Because the malfunction may have affected the electromechanical parts of the drive, there's no guarantee that you'll recover all or any of the data. Make sure you buy the same model of drive so the new controller board will be compatible.

Just to be safe, don't continue to use the drive once you have copied the data off the drive. Try wiping the drive using DBAN, return the controller to the new drive, and then discard the bad drive and controller.

OR you could go to Data Doctors and blow over $1k for them to recover your data for you in 2 weeks. If you want it faster, it will cost more (much more). And you thought other companies were bad?

they take advantage of you, and then leave the next morning without saying goodbye


if youre rich and lazy, Id say go to data doctors. Assuming that youre not lazy, Id agree with JDMurray and go that route.

hetty

Will it be safe to use the new drive if im able to transfer my files off the old drive using the new drives controller? Where can you get screwdrivers to unscrew those star-of-david like screws?

JDMurray

hetty wrote:

Will it be safe to use the new drive if im able to transfer my files off the old drive using the new drives controller?

If you don't damage the new controller board transferring it between drives then the new drive should be perfectly usable once its controller is reinstalled, but its warranty will be voided, of course.

hetty wrote:

Where can you get screwdrivers to unscrew those star-of-david like screws?

You can find Torx drivers online or in a well-stocked hardware or electronics store.