Reviving Old Hard Drive By Placing PCB & Using It As An External Hard Drive

[Caitsith810]

Hi, I am posting here today with questions about this particular PCB. I've had this samsung sp1604n hard drive for years and I believe that this PCB has been fried. The pictures here should help, I hope.

https://imgur.com/a/wLdCD

I'm not much of a tech person myself, which is why I came here to ask you guys. I'd like to know if this is a bad/fried PCB?

Also, if I were to replace the PCB and use this hard drive in an enclosure as an external hard drive, would I be able to get back all of my data that was originally in the hard drive?

 

[ShadyHamster]

Can't really tell from the pictures if it's a dead PCB or not, the PCB physically looks fine from what i can see.
What happens if you plug the HD in as is?

If the PCB is indeed the issue then replacing it would require you to transfer the ROM chip from the old PCB to the new PCB in order to access the old data.
If you don't care about the old data then after replacing the PCB you can format the drive and it will be good to go.

 

[Caitsith810]

The HD does not power on at all once I plug it in to my enclosure case.

 

[ShadyHamster]

Then it could be a burnt out PCB.
If you really want the data off the drive i would send it off to some one for them to replace the PCB and ROM chip.
You can do it yourself if you have steady hands and don't mind re-soldering the ROM chip.