How to recover data from hard drive that is not powering on?

AS76

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Mar 7, 2014
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I have a Seagate FreeAgent 1TB external hard drive which is not powering on. The Power adapter is working fine. Please advise on the safest way to recover data from this hard drive. Thanks
 
Solution
If the drive is not spinning up, then the USB-SATA bridge board may be faulty.

If you have overvolted the drive with the wrong adapter, then the drive itself will probably have a shorted 12V TVS diode, which is usually an easy, no-cost DIY fix.

Before you can do anything, you would need to at least remove the drive from its enclosure.

I can show you where to look for damaged components if you can upload good quality photos of the PCBs.
Is there a reference architecture on how the "power" portion of the hard drive is designed? If the power specific component is addressed & resolved, data in the mechanical portion (disc) will be able to easily get recovered.
 
If the drive is not spinning up, then the USB-SATA bridge board may be faulty.

If you have overvolted the drive with the wrong adapter, then the drive itself will probably have a shorted 12V TVS diode, which is usually an easy, no-cost DIY fix.

Before you can do anything, you would need to at least remove the drive from its enclosure.

I can show you where to look for damaged components if you can upload good quality photos of the PCBs.
 
Solution