www.deadharddrive.com

Nut-Magnet

Hi..

I've looked in many forums that i use with tech help and i've found a link to your forum which looks pretty much like the No1 place to come for my problem.

I plugged in the wrong voltage adapter to my Lacie 160gb Mobile HD.
I've always used it with Firewire so never needed a power supply until i tried to exchange some files with an old Bondi blue iMac tray loader with no Firewire.

Connected up to USB and plugged in what i thought was the correct voltage adapter and... well it didn't pop fizz or bang but, the led was very bright and before i could unplug the damage was done. The supply i used was 12v 1.2a and it should have been 5v 1.0a Shocked

The LED still works but the drive doesn't mount and it isn't recognised in Disk utility although System profile sees it as a Firewire device but, not as a Lacie Drive which it did previously. I just get the following.

FireWire Bus:
Speed: 400 Mb/sec Speed

FireWire Device:
Speed: 400 Mb/sec Speed

I downloaded and tried the Lacie update tool which recognised the drive and stated the firmware required updating. Updated the firmware but, the end result was back to the start with a blank Firewire device Oxford 934 Bridge. Lacie update tool has detected a device that appears to require complete reprogramming of internal firmware.

I pulled the Hard drive out and connected to a new untested SATA USB caddy and that failed. The caddy doesn't work now either it did show signs of life at first with the LED lighting up but, no noise from the drive and then just quit. I was using the supplied USB power sharing lead this time. Laughing

Sumvision 2.5 USB/eSATA to SATA caddy
http://www.storagedepot.co.uk/Enclosures-and-Cases/sc884/p653.aspx

Where do i go from here.. I can live with saving the HD and binning the Lacie enclosure. But, from the above does anyone know if i have fried the Lacie board.

I really would like to recover some image files from this drive that i'd moved over from my system because of drive size issues and are not duplicated and have found some Toshiba MK1646GSX drives for sale.
Is it simply a case of swapping the control boards on the drive or would the over voltage have taken out some internals in the drive... Question

Any help would be appreciated..

Just a note... I've got some old Mac 8gb 10gb (maybe maxtor) and a WD 40gb IDE drives hanging around... Are these useful to anyone for boards..?

Paul..
_________________
If you can't fixit with a hammer.......

Binnit....

RussWinters · Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:12 am Post subject:

Have you resolved your issue yet? I may be able to help if you havn't

Nut-Magnet · Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 3:01 am Post subject:

Hi Russ.... Very Happy

Well, so far i've discovered that i fried the USB on the Lacie board but, the FireWire side is OK.

I purchased another Toshiba MK1646GSX HD on eBay although not an exact replacement as some of the manufacture codes didn't match up with damaged drive.

Swapped over the controller boards and found a "heart beat" so to speak but, my drive has suffered and will not mount on the desktop so i'm thinking this drive is still in a state of shock... Shocked

I set the new drive up exactly the same as the old, 1 partition and HFS Journalled using my Macs Disk Utility and installed the latest Lacie updater as i had done this with the damaged drive before swapping the boards over.

Here's a Video with the sounds. The damaged HD with the new board mounted on the Lacie board connected with F/W then USB and following with USB+ power on the second USB caddy board.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjpFrZc1p-g

The HD is nearly there and goes through the motions of wanting to fire up and mount but, just doesn't quite get there... Crying or Very sad

There is an upside though... The NEW HD is now in the Lacie enclosure so at least i have that working but, i'd still like to recover some of those photos and video from the damaged HD.... Wink

_________________
If you can't fixit with a hammer.......

Binnit....

RussWinters · Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 5:37 pm Post subject:

Alright; this sounds fixable. The reason that your old HDD will not "get all the way there" with the new PCB installed is because there is what is called "adaptives" stored on a chip on the PCB that is unique to each drive; like a "fingerprint". What you will need to do is get the adaptive data to the new PCB. The only thing that could hold you back from that is if the electrical damage that occured damaged that chip to; which is rare but not impossible.

If you could post a screen shot of the OLD PCB, and the NEW PCB, label the pictures please. Then I will be able to point out the chip to you.

My disclaimer is that I do not ever recommend anyone performing these procedures with a drive that has valuable data on it unless they have sufficient experience to do so. If you choose to perform the procedures that I lay out for you; you are doing so by your own risk and I am not liable for any loss of data or damage that can occur.

=)