[SOLVED] Burned HDD with bitcoins. What can I do?

[Mwigh]

I was going to recover an old SSD with some bitcoins in it. Not much, but enough to spend some time on it (USD 3k).

I put the hdd into one PSU, and the HDD sata into computer using another psu. Not sure if this was the reason, but it burned something (close to the power supply) on the HDD. See image.

My question is: what can I do?
Can I buy a similar HDD and just replace the top part (in case that is the only issue), or are there some necessary meta informations in all those chips that we can see on the image?

Anything else I can do? Maybe solder something?

 

[Mwigh]

Here are the images:

https://imgur.com/a/hsZFCgw

View: https://imgur.com/a/hsZFCgw

 

[Eximo]

General advice would be to send it to a recovery company, though that is going to eat into $3,000 pretty quickly.

You can try a board swap, but it will need to be an identical model. Two blown caps, the question is what blew them up?

 

[USAFRet]

And sometimes the BIOS chip needs to be transferred as well.

 

[fzabkar]

It appears that the tiny fuse near the SATA power connector was destroyed. I expect that the nearby diode is a 5V TVS diode, and that it is shorted. If so, then there is a good chance that the PCB can be recovered by removing the diode and replacing/bridging the fuse. If you have a digital multimeter (US$5), I can show you what to do.

BTW, this PCB does not have a discrete ROM. Instead it is embedded within the Marvell MCU. That said, you should be able to replace the PCB with a PCB from a donor with the same firmware (HH100-11).

Edit:

The "fuse" appears to be an inductor, which explains the burning:

https://dsmcz.com/prestashop/14893/pcb-bf41-00186a-mango-rev-04-hm160hi-160gb-25-sata.jpg

I would clean up the burn marks with a cotton bud and isopropyl alcohol. You could also use a toothbrush. I would then scrape away any charred area of the PCB, as this would be conductive.

Measure the resistance of the diode marked "ZA" (?). It will probably be 0.0 ohms, in which case you should remove it.

Run a wire between the two inductor pads, or flow a blob of solder between them, or buy a 2A smt fuse to replace the inductor. You can run the jumper wire between the 3 SATA 5Vin pins and "5V filtered". See the photo clips.

To confirm that there are no other shorts, measure the resistance between the Vcore and Vio test points and ground. Ground can be any screw hole.

http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/HM160HI/

 

[Mwigh]

Thanks for all answers

I will try to do what you describe fzabkar, and if that does not work I will try to find a similar HDD as the one I have (with same firmware).

I think I follow everything, except regarding the diode ZA. If that one shows 0.0ohm, then what should I do with that area after removing it? Also, with scrape. Do you mean like sand paper or similar?

I'll be back in a few days with info on progress!

 

[fzabkar]

Just scrape/dig it with a scalpel. See the updates to my post.

 

[Mwigh]

When you write:

"You can run the jumper wire between the 3 SATA 5Vin pins and "5V filtered" "

Does the "can" in that sentence mean it is optional? This part feels a little difficult since it would require a new wire and i am not sure if that will fit, but maybe.

I still don't understand if I should do anything more with the area where the "ZA" (5V TVS diode in the image you added?) have been after removing it. Just leave an empty space?

 

[fzabkar]

You need to repair the connection between the SATA +5V pins and the "5V filtered" test point. You can do that in 3 ways -- a fuse, a blob of solder, or a jumper wire. Your choice.

The "ZA" diode does nothing when the supply voltage is within its normal range. Therefore it can be removed. The diode only conducts when there is an overvoltage. That's why you MUST confirm that 5Vin is in fact +5V and not +12V or something else. If you have swapped cables between different modular PSUs, then your sad scenario is what often happens. If you subject your drive to a second overvoltage after removing ZA, there will be catastrophic damage.