[SOLVED] External Iomega HDD

[Pez]

Hi all.

Anyone remember the Iomega company? I didn't know until recently that that company went out of business some years ago (bought up by the Lenovo company, but, the hard drives aren't supported anymore).

Anyway, I'm not exactly sure when, it could be a decade now, but I had purchased an Iomega External HDD, a 1 TB drive; Model GDHDU2; here's a pic:

I've used it to mainly keep & store video files, etc. I don't leave it powered on all the time, but, I did leave its USB plugged into a rear USB port in the rear of my tower unit. With the three red arrows: The arrow on the left is the power adapter port for AC power; middle arrow is the USB (B) port; arrow on the right (hard to see) is the power indicator light for when the unit is powered on.

The other day I went to access something from the drive, plugged in the AC adapter.....and nothing, the drive did not power on and no indication from my Windows OS that it recognized a drive being plugged in.

I have other external HDD's, and, they have the same AC power adapter rated at the same volts/ amps, so, I connected a known working adapter; still nothing, it would not power on.

I have a hard drive docking station, so.....I took the Iomega drive apart to access the HDD. The enclosure doesn't have any screws, just seams, so I had to gently pry it apart

And then further......

I was a bit surprised that the drive inside was a Samsung; didn't Iomega have their own drives?!?!

So, I took the hard drive and inserted it into my docking station and connected the station to my computer: Thank goodness the drive itself was still working and I could access the files (I copied them all over to another drive in the meantime).

So, if I'm correct in my process of elimination, since the drive itself is still good, and I tried a known working AC adapter of the same volts/ amps, then I take it the piece that's "bad" is the piece that has the AC adapter plug/ USB (B) port/ power light indicator; it's the third piece from the left up above, or, here's a closeup:

So what is this piece called? Even though Iomega is no longer in business, is it still possible to get this "piece"......whatever this piece is called? If I could replace this piece, then I could still use this drive as an external HDD.

Thanks for any info;
Pez

 

[lvt]

It's called HDD enclosure circuit board.

My last Iomega product was an USB 1.0 ZIP Drive, bought in 1998.

I believe I still have that ZIP drive stored somewhere in the house.

 

[TerryLaze]

It's going to be much cheaper to just get a new external hdd enclosure, let alone easier, even if you find a circuit board alone you would have to be extremely lucky for it to fit in the same case.

 

[fzabkar]

It's a USB-SATA bridge PCB.

 

[TerryLaze]

It's a USB-SATA bridge PCB.

It looks more like an ide connector from the last picture.

 

[USAFRet]

It looks more like an ide connector from the last picture.

That a USB B 1.0-2.0 connector.

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@Pez , please show us a screencap of the actual connectors on the end of the drive.
Or the specific model number of the drive.

 

[fzabkar]

It looks more like an ide connector from the last picture.

The drive is a HD103SI. That's a 1TB SATA model.

 

[lvt]

Yes it's an SATA HDD.

 

[Pez]

Ivt: I remember the Iomega ZIP drives!! They were supposed to be the next big thing back in the day! If I remember correctly, the disks that went in them resembled the little 3/1/2" disk "A" drive's.

I know someone that still mistakenly uses that term by saying something like, "I'll save that file on my ZIP drive", and I'll be like, I thought they stopped making those things!? It turns out they mean a USB drive (or some people refer to them as flash drives or thumb drives).

TerryLaze: How about that! I wouldn't have even thought that something like this exists. I would have thought that I would either have to get what Ivt mentioned (HDD enclosure circuit board) or the case itself from the original manufacturer (Iomega). But how about that: I went and checked and did a lookup on "external HDD enclosure"; yup, they're out there.

Here's just one I came across at Amazon.com:
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Exte...es&qid=1622060051&s=pc&sr=1-3&ts_id=160354011

As I originally mentioned, thank goodness the hard drive itself was not dead and that I was able to access it & the files after placing it in the docking station.

Thanks for the suggestion!
Pez

 

[USAFRet]

So what is this piece called? Even though Iomega is no longer in business, is it still possible to get this "piece"......whatever this piece is called? If I could replace this piece, then I could still use this drive as an external HDD.

This external case should do just fine.
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Lay-Flat-Docking-EC-DFLT/dp/B00LS5NFQ2

That appears to be a normal SATA drive.
It does NOT need the Iomega part.

(assuming the decade old drive itself actually works)

 

[lvt]

Ivt: I remember the Iomega ZIP drives!! They were supposed to be the next big thing back in the day! If I remember correctly, the disks that went in them resembled the little 3/1/2" disk "A" drive's.

I know someone that still mistakenly uses that term by saying something like, "I'll save that file on my ZIP drive", and I'll be like, I thought they stopped making those things!? It turns out they mean a USB drive (or some people refer to them as flash drives or thumb drives).

Yes it has about the same size as the 3 1/2 disk, but thicker.

In fact the ZIP drive was the main portable storage at the time, you have a ZIP drive at home, another at the office and you just take the ZIP disk with you

Another Iomega product very well known at the time was the 40MB Clik!, or PocketZIP. It's much smaller and was intended to use with laptop or handheld devices.

 

[TerryLaze]

That a USB B 1.0-2.0 connector.

I meant the other side, the black connector on the far side looked like one long connector like a 2.5" ide would have and not like the two separate connectors that sata would have.