WD PCB smoked - is there anything else possibly broken

[galingong]

Hey,

My friend gave me her WD MyPassport 500GB USB 3.0 HDD, to have a look. When I plug it in, LED is on, it makes some clicking noise, but won't spin up. I took it apart (did not open the HDD of course), examined the PCB and discovered some blackened (probably burn/smoke) marks at GND points/rails.
What can smoke a HDD PCB? Is it likely that other parts are also faulty, or should I just buy a new PCB, change it, and I'm good to go?
I wouldn't really bother repairing it normally, but my friend says that data loss is not an option, she obviously didn't have a backup, and does not want to pay 5-600$ to a professional shop.

Thanks in advance for any tips on this, I've never dealt with HDDs, but have general experience with repairing electronics, so changing the PCB wouldn't be a problem.

Cheers!

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... I have had success replacing a WD HDD PCB to get it working agian... I bought a similar HD from EBAY to get my parts.

 

[galingong]

Thanks, that sounds great! Have you managed to find the exact same PCB (same manufacturer number) or "only" something that looked identical?

 

[Ironsounds]

hello... I found a USED one... the same Model#, brand, and Size of the drive... a clone, of what I was hoping to FIX. I did not investigate other PCB's from other model's or sizes.

 

[galingong]

Thank you, then I'm going to proceed and try to buy a new one from the same.
Cheers!

 

[fzabkar]

It does not sound like a PCB fault. Instead I would suspect stiction (heads stuck to platters) or a seized spindle motor. The discolouration is just oxidisation which is normal for post-RoHS WD PCBs.

In any case, a straight PCB swap has a low chance of success. That's because drives store unique, drive specific, "adaptive" information in flash memory on the PCB. This information needs to be transferred from patient to donor. Sometimes you can be lucky and the adaptives may be in close enough tolerance without a chip swap.

One other possibility could be that the USB port is not providing enough power to spin up the drive, in which case a USB Y-cable might work. It picks up power from two USB ports.

BTW, this is how a SalvationData trainer unsticks the heads:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/cvo59tzl5lvvaeu/seagate%20stuck%20head.zip

Note that he would normally be wearing gloves and would be using a clean chamber.

Sometimes the problem is more severe. Here is a case where the head (slider) has detached from the headstack.

http://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30299

There are also cases where the heads become mashed in the load/unload ramp.