To be clear, this is a 12 year old 320 gb drive. The moment the data is off of this, this goes into the bin and customer gets a new drive with their data. I have learned to anticipate every youtube comment ahead of time, steve has not. He assumed it was normal that people know this drive becomes a donor in the pile after the data is retrieved... A lot of people think this is being fixed for the sake of the 320 gb storage device itself.. No
@@thomasa5619 They are a kind of protection, I have 2 samsung 500Gigs drive in a Lacie external box and both drive's 12 volts TVS burned from defect power supply. When i plugged them on an ATX power supply both 0 Ohm resistor smoked...
Thank you Louis. I’ve been following for maybe a year, mainly because I find your videos interesting, partly out of obsession with you finding a new store... LOL. This video helped me recover photos and videos I thought were lost. I tested the diode, found it was bad, removed it, and the drive fired right up. I backed it all up and found some awesome stuff from 10 years ago I thought I’d never see again. You’re the man! I’m currently in my junior year working on an electrical engineering degree and am in awe with how you can describe a circuit and troubleshooting procedures better than any professor I have. Keep up the great work.
Oh man. A 320GB HDD dated 2008. Those came standard with 24" iMacs back in the day, though I see no apple logo on it. My dad had one similar to that in an iMac, which failed by 2010. After data recovery, he replaced it with a gen 1 Advanced Format drive: a single platter 500GB Samsung HD502HJ, which still runs to this day.
It's a bit of a lottery with these things i feel, even more so with cheapo stuff. I have a couple WD greens and reds from 2014. One of the greens got 8 bad sectors like a year ago, the other 3 are all perfect still. Personally I have not had much luck with Samsung disks at all.
Thanks for the "how it works" Steve. I was confused about what a tbs diode was and why you'd test a diode disconnected from power using voltage readings. Something for transient voltage spikes makes more sense.
I had on old Segate drive lock up on me. My first try was the old freeze the drive trick. That didn't work and it was the only trick I knew at the time. Frustrated, I turned the drive belly up and beat it with my screwdriver handle - and it spun to life! Percussive maintenance for the win!
...and for those without a hot air station or a soldering iron, flush cutters can remove the defective component, then you can use some scotch tape and some spit to attach the new component Another quality job, another satisfied rube
@@hornbaker It was intended only for when you dont have annother option, which for DIY is reasonable. ofc if it was for a customer then it wouldnt be good enough.
@@hornbaker Yeah, it didn't look great lol. But does it even matter if you rip the pads off seeing as he's not attaching a new one, just taking the faulty one off. 🤷♂️
Steve I got a similar failure on a western drive I bought from ebay. Fixed it by replacing 12V TVS diode and 0 ohm resistor (fuse). On my WD drive the 12 TVS diode and 0 ohm resistor (acting as a fuse) were broken (12 TVS diode was shorted and 0 ohm resistor was open circuit). I think it's better to check both TVS diodes and 0 ohm resistor (which are the 2 big 0 ohm resistor near each TVS diodes) if they are still at 0 ohm. Sometimes you can find one resistor in open circuit like I did because when the TVS diode break in short circuit a high current is flowing through the 0 ohm resistor and it make break in open circuit (not always but can happen in case TVS failure in short circuit).
Some days ago I fix one with a "very similar" Logic board with a eeprom on it. The Marvell Chip burned. That one is more easy to fix as to buy a new board is just around ~5USD at my place. What we need is just copy the eeprom data from the old logic board to the new logic board through a CH341A and a clip. This video shows that WD sucks that it's more difficult to fix those drive without a EEPROM. In case the controller dead, you can't get back your data as you don't have your P-List and G-List
That’s what I was asking myself too, how the hell does someone do that, unless with a shitty SATA to USB China adapter I can’t see how this is possible, and even the adapter theory is a far reach
Good info, I like to see videos like these. I wouldn't have known what that particular diode circuit was, I would have assumed it was a regular diode and needs replaced to work. With the short removed, the only thing it would be missing is the over-volt protection.
I've had many different brand hard drives for decades and never had a Western Digital fail on me. I used to have a wd black caviar IDE drive from 2003 with only 120GB of space, it was still working when I upgraded my motherboard to all SATA a few years ago. Seagate, maxtor, toshiba, hitachi, all have died within a few months every time I bought them new.
I think you'll gain a lot from a video editor to clip out these moving around stuff & camera aiming sections. (I'm not a regular watcher though, so I don't know about the other videos). On the side note: Thank you so much for the knowledge :D
Consummate professional drags out a £10 cheap-jack throwaway multimeter! "Hey, it does the job." Quite right too! I know you have more professional tools available to you for when the task demands, but sometimes you just need that cheap shit that's right under your desk to give you a sensible-looking figure. I bought my first meter 30-35 years ago at Radio Shack for £5, miniature thing that runs off button cells, and it amazes me I still have good uses for it today as a professional -- 'coz it fits in my shirt pocket :-)
For those who keep saying this is a Louis clone, look at 02:51 for proof that it *is not* a clone. 04:30 WTF Steve? If they don't have an iron to take the diode off then how are they supposed to put it back on. Hammer and nail? Ask eugene? Call JayzTwoCents (that'll work out well, hot glue gun and all)? A cheap soldering iron $10, a cheap and nasty hot air, $55. An eBay combo unit about $80. That's cheaper than a new HDD. Snips, *REALLY* ?!! 🤦♂️ Thanks for the video. 👍
Joseph King: I had the same thought. Ok if you are going to clone the drive or back up the drive immediately, and replace it with a new drive, then not replacing the diode makes sense. Assuming they're careful and don't do what blew the diode in the first place. However I would not recommended using the drive as normal without replacing the diode. Western Digital didn't put the diode there for sh*ts and giggles, it's there to prevent damage in use. 👍
This is to copy the data to a new drive. I would not recommend usinh a repaired hard drive. This is probably older than the employee who edited this video. Replace the drive!
@@rossmanngroup My apologies Steve. It wasn't until much later that I realised that you were just removing the diode to get the drive into a state where you could recover the data. Before that I had thought it was a method to retrieve a donor part for use on the client's drive so the data could be recovered. DUH ME! 🤦♂️ Hope you are able to produce more of these recovery videos. I find them quite enjoyable and educational so *THANK YOU* !
Seeing this every 3.5 HDD needs is 5v sata connector. What do you mean by wrong power supply. Possible only on external doc with unstable supply. But most PSU should deliver clean 5v when it is being rated 80+ efficiency on branded.
God, I've become so accustomed to Apple "fuses" that I'm not used to protection elements actually doing what they're designed for xD Thank you so much for walking us through this, now I know one more thing I can check myself before I have to bother somebody else.
Why is it that the diode does not have to be replaced? Is it because you are using the correct power supply, so you know the drive will be fine? Now, what do you do if the pads under the diode happened to be shorted? I open dead drives to get the magnets 🧲 Thanks, great job Steve!
WDs last long, are easier to repair and to recover from (in my somewhat limited experience) and are just all round great drives. Keep it up WD!! And keep up the great videos Louis rossman and Louis rossman v1.1 from this video!!
I have a few different dead WD drives that I'd like to pull data off of, but I don't feel like spending money doing it. I have swapped their logic boards around to see if I can get them to do anything, and best I can get is spinning them up. No head clicking, so I don't think the heads are fucked, I just think the logic boards are toast.
I have the common problem that the sata plastic has snapped, shame as one is a 12tb hard drive a year old and a 8tb hard drive a year old and now I want to sell them! Right now I just hot glued on a right angle "extension" as I don't know how to solder on a new board.
I have a 8tb Seagate that I had a shorted power supply take out. It actually took out 2 drives the 240gb had a burned PCB so I replaced it and moved the eeprom chip from the old board to the new put it together and I got nothing. Tested power and it had voltage at the motor contacts. I gave up on it as I was attempting the 240 and didn't want to lose everything from the 8. I bought a replacement PCB for the 8tb but I never tried moving chips since I couldn't get the other to work. There's no damage to the 8tb PCB but it doesn't power on and even after just trying the other PCB it still doesn't even so much as spin up.
You should do one about checking the contacts between the board and the HDD itself as these can dull and look corroded, they just need cleaning which can be done with a soft eraser. This should be checked first really as it could be just that. Remove the board and check and clean first, replace and test, it may just be that. I have done this myself, in fact, the contacts on the left of the board that make contact with the HDD do look dull and like they need cleaning @ 0:49 (20 contacts, 10x2 top left of board) I had this issue only a couple months back with a 2.5 2TB seagate hdd and it was the contacts. The HDD would not spin up- or anything, very lucky if it did but then died again. I checked the contacts, cleaned them with an eraser, and Bob's your Uncle, it's fine.
So by removing the TVS diode you can get the hard drive to work again, but you also removed the protection against over voltage. Not sure I would call that a good repair.
I think the idea is to get it working long enough to get the data off of it. I don’t think I’d trust a drive that had a failure of any kind. Hard drives are cheap. Any data that you are willing to pay to retrieve isn’t worth the risk leaving on a drive like this.
In diode test mode it actually measuring voltage, the pull up comes from the voltmeter battery. Those diodes are made to short connect when they pop so they don't leave the cirquits unprotected.
In *diode mode* the multimeter provides the current through the diode and measures the voltage across the diode. A silicon diode will show from 0.5V - 0.7V when conducting in the forward direction and OL in the reverse direction, when not in a circuit. In this case, the diode voltages were with the diode in circuit so the reverse voltage showed 1.7V .
So you don't need to replace the diode? Just remove it then power it up? And I'm not sure which power adaptor actually goes with it now. Are they usual 12V / 1.5 amp output?
If someone doesn't have a soldering iron, how would they install the new diode? It would seem to me, that regardless of how you remove the defective one, you're going to need either a soldering iron or a hot air station to complete the job.
This is probably a stupid question but I'm not geeky enough to know. Can you replace the whole pcb instead of you don't have the tools or skill to replace the d4?
Thank you for this video. I got 2 data drives in my PC. One shows up and then disappears of the system in few minutes and one simply stops the computer from turning on. I checked the diods loke you did but they are good. Any suggestions appreciated.
You forgot to replace the diode, ALL parts removed should be replaced. Those parts aren't there just for good looks. May I suggest mouser electronics or digikey?
My PC went bluey! A few weeks ago, The Mother Board had fried! Literally! Never have I seen one do this, we have power surges where I live, and I think that may have cause this BIG problem. Now I can not get Either of my WD hard drives to power up? And they both have ALOT of data on them I really would like to recover.. Is this fix very expensive???
How many of the failed HDDs you get are Western Digital? The only 2 drives that ever failed on me were WD drives and I hear a lot of people saying that WD drives have a high failure rate, but I also heard that Google analyzed a lot of their drives and found no sigificantly higher failure rate compared to other brands.
He's measuring the diode in circuit. So other components in the circuit are conducting power from the multimeter and giving the 1.7V when the diode is not conducting. The voltage readings are not what you would get (accurate) if the diode was out of circuit. This is just a quick "go/no go" test for the diodes.
TVS protection diode goes short permanently when the voltage is too high. This causes most power supplies to shut down when they detect a short, and so protect the drive from the excessive voltage.
@@tonyonofrio1147 yes I worded that wrong I meant that it should be able to read a short. It is the resistance and voltage in the ohm and diode measurement that can vary on the same diode depending on the type of multimeter.
It's a 12 years old 320 GB drive, all that's left to do is recover the data and copy it on something newer. (see the date of manufacturing on the label 11 JUL 2008)
Hello. I have a not recognized unless I format type of deal on a 3tb mybook external hdd. The reason for that being that the external pcb has a burnt component due to high-voltage with the wromg plug.. anyhow I was wondering if I can get a link or something to your business so that we can discuss repairs if possible. I also have a rog strix GL 703VD-WB71 asis laptop that has a cpl burnt components on the motherboard as well that id be interested in getting repaired. I've been following u for hot minute cuz and I can dig your cleanliness and your knowledge as well as your expertise. Looking forward to hearing back. God bless 🙏
gorak9000 This was a 320GB drive that was over 10 years old. Best thing to do here would be to move the data off to a new drive and not worry about the TVS.
@@andrewkoines6389 You can. The TVS acts like a fuse and will fail if the voltage goes too high. It's there to fail first before the rest of the drive gets destroyed. You can remove it and still use the drive, but if there is ever another overvoltage, the drive will not have any protection. Best thing to do is recover the data and scrap the drive after.
This happen to me used the wrong power cord caused a small spark causing my drive not to power on :( can that cause my hard drive to go blank? Took it to a friend that took the drive out the casing and stated that its empty how is that possible? Is it possible that I can get my data back? Thanks
Good video, only one potential issue that you should probably deal with. If you're connecting these drives to windows (or any other OS), you really should be using a write blocker if you aren't already. There's a few reasons for this: 1) You never should be blamed from a customer for adding files to a drive. While this is less likely than #2, it's still good practice. 2) If you end up coming across anything illegal, a write blocker will help prove that you didn't put it on the drive. Write blockers are used in law enforcement forensics when cloning a drive for analysis to take out the legal argument that "That's not my client's data, someone else put it on the drive". Another tip is that I recommend you switch to linux vs windows for testing a lot of this, if possible. The reason being is that Windows only supports a small subset of the types of formats you may come across. Furthermore, you can script it out to mount read only (which should be done in addition to a write blocker) - and could probably script out a lot of the checks you're doing so you just get a report in the end (e.g. head -n X /dev/disk... | od -a > report && tail -n X /dev/disk | od -a >> report), then just cat the report. With the report better served in a ramdisk that's created before (disk image in memory), that's created at the beginning of the experiment, and cleaned up on umount. That way you're also not copying end user data. Also...your customers are kinda idiots for not having encrypted drives before sending them to you/anyone. I thought in Windows, now-a-days, encryption was default, but guess not.
Hi Louis, I have a WD, 500GB 3.5 Hard drive with a burnt out diode. Info on hard drive;PWD 2060-701444 rev..I have no way of identifying this diode. all i have is its position number,(D5) The diode has completely gone.is there anyway of knowing what diode this coould be ??. regards.
I got a new PCB for my WD drive that suddenly stopped spinning (0 sound when plugged in), thinking it was probably the Marvell chip (I tested the diodes and they were OK). Turns out, it wouldnt spin up even with the donor PCB... I even opened it up thinking maybe the head was stuck on the platter, but that wasn't it either. So it has to be the preamp, right? basically impossible to fix it DIY style, am I right? unluckiest way of getting unlucky I guess...
After removing the diode, how come multimeter shows voltage without connecting pcb to power supply? Also isn't one supposed to fix the board by soldering new diode in the same place?
its voltage drop - characteristic of a diode. and yes you should solder new one. but you can live without it. its there just for protection and if you dont have that on hand and or dont have soldering iron you can run your drive without it but next time instead of just replacing that small part you may get a lot more troubles
![Chlöe - Shake (Feat. Jeremih) [Official Visualizer]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/aDs_1ufpfv8/mqdefault.jpg)
To be clear, this is a 12 year old 320 gb drive. The moment the data is off of this, this goes into the bin and customer gets a new drive with their data. I have learned to anticipate every youtube comment ahead of time, steve has not. He assumed it was normal that people know this drive becomes a donor in the pile after the data is retrieved... A lot of people think this is being fixed for the sake of the 320 gb storage device itself.. No
NO FLUKE FOR HIM :\
No that still a perfectly good drive. Just send it to me. I will throw it in my Linux server and store something on it!
Are zero ohm resistors some inside joke? Why not use a jumper?
Ahh yeah, I wasn’t really thinking of the machines
@@thomasa5619 They are a kind of protection, I have 2 samsung 500Gigs drive in a Lacie external box and both drive's 12 volts TVS burned from defect power supply. When i plugged them on an ATX power supply both 0 Ohm resistor smoked...
ah, i see.....
Louis is using his 2nd game character
This time he spent more character points on niceness, and even more on muscles :)
Did Louis clone him self, but younger?
I think the guy's name is Steve.
Or from Louis Rossmann: "He is steve, from stevesavers.com"
His speech patterns are very similar to Louis.
If you are looking for younger version of Louis, Tim from TCRS circuit might be able to help you :P
ruclips.net/channel/UCTqjuDiJ3ZmRXSF0y1tfIBQ
This is Buff Louis.
@@_multiverse_ That's "New York City". They all sound like that. :)
0:13 "Zoom in a little bit... look at it!" 😄 Steve def got the louis vibes on point
That is Paul's line!
Bruh. I legit thought it was louis rossman with a cap. The voice and the way they talk is so similar. The build as well
You can tell them apart when you see he doesn't use a pound of flux like Louis does
@@TheSimba86 LMAO YEAH! i was wondering "Where is the flux?"
Same was thinking he got a new mic and just sounded different 🤣
@@TheSimba86 BETTA THE GOB BETTA THE JOB!!!
It’s that New York accent. We just talk like that
"As always enjoy your day"
me: wait what
He is using his second character.
This isnt Louis Rossman but i'll watch anyways to support the channel
Thank you Louis. I’ve been following for maybe a year, mainly because I find your videos interesting, partly out of obsession with you finding a new store... LOL. This video helped me recover photos and videos I thought were lost. I tested the diode, found it was bad, removed it, and the drive fired right up. I backed it all up and found some awesome stuff from 10 years ago I thought I’d never see again. You’re the man! I’m currently in my junior year working on an electrical engineering degree and am in awe with how you can describe a circuit and troubleshooting procedures better than any professor I have. Keep up the great work.
You need to get with the flux program! Ask Louis how much to use next time. Guarantee it will be a few ounces more! LOL
I've been watching Louis so much that as soon as i saw how much he put on, i was like "I prob would have put like 3 times as much just to be safe"
then the manufacturing plant will have an in _flux_ of orders...
idk how to execute puns
Liberal amounts!
Why even use any flux when removing?
Measured in micro-Pauls
Oh man. A 320GB HDD dated 2008. Those came standard with 24" iMacs back in the day, though I see no apple logo on it. My dad had one similar to that in an iMac, which failed by 2010. After data recovery, he replaced it with a gen 1 Advanced Format drive: a single platter 500GB Samsung HD502HJ, which still runs to this day.
Surprised it lasted that long the first go around.
It's a bit of a lottery with these things i feel, even more so with cheapo stuff. I have a couple WD greens and reds from 2014. One of the greens got 8 bad sectors like a year ago, the other 3 are all perfect still. Personally I have not had much luck with Samsung disks at all.
that's why you do backups
I also have the same Samsung HDD, 8 years and still working fine. Using it for Steam and game footage atm.
@@zNoah yup, but thats nothing you would send to data recovery, you would just re-download the games
Thanks for the "how it works" Steve. I was confused about what a tbs diode was and why you'd test a diode disconnected from power using voltage readings. Something for transient voltage spikes makes more sense.
when diode gets "breaked" from power outage? it won't work and cause the hard drive to not turn on.
@@pipony8939 it protects the components from to high voltage, like a fuse/breaker
I'm not sure tho if it causes them do go bad
I had on old Segate drive lock up on me. My first try was the old freeze the drive trick. That didn't work and it was the only trick I knew at the time. Frustrated, I turned the drive belly up and beat it with my screwdriver handle - and it spun to life! Percussive maintenance for the win!
for a stuck bearing often that works lol
...and for those without a hot air station or a soldering iron, flush cutters can remove the defective component, then you can use some scotch tape and some spit to attach the new component
Another quality job, another satisfied rube
“... and never mind those pads you ripped off the PCB in the process.” Sigh. That idea never should have made the final cut.
@@hornbaker It was intended only for when you dont have annother option, which for DIY is reasonable. ofc if it was for a customer then it wouldnt be good enough.
@@hornbaker Yeah, it didn't look great lol. But does it even matter if you rip the pads off seeing as he's not attaching a new one, just taking the faulty one off. 🤷♂️
Aaah, that destroyed resistor with the clip, aaaaaah, this is hardware gore at this point
„I feel like TechRax right now.“ 😂😂
Steve I got a similar failure on a western drive I bought from ebay. Fixed it by replacing 12V TVS diode and 0 ohm resistor (fuse).
On my WD drive the 12 TVS diode and 0 ohm resistor (acting as a fuse) were broken (12 TVS diode was shorted and 0 ohm resistor was open circuit).
I think it's better to check both TVS diodes and 0 ohm resistor (which are the 2 big 0 ohm resistor near each TVS diodes) if they are still at 0 ohm.
Sometimes you can find one resistor in open circuit like I did because when the TVS diode break in short circuit a high current is flowing through the 0 ohm resistor and it make break in open circuit (not always but can happen in case TVS failure in short circuit).
I was gonna use a zener to crowbar protect my C64 power rail. TVS looks like the stouter option. Good job Steve.
Louis testing employees by getting them to do videos 😂
so he can retire safely
It's just not the same without the Apple bashing and right to repair rants.
Some days ago I fix one with a "very similar" Logic board with a eeprom on it. The Marvell Chip burned. That one is more easy to fix as to buy a new board is just around ~5USD at my place. What we need is just copy the eeprom data from the old logic board to the new logic board through a CH341A and a clip.
This video shows that WD sucks that it's more difficult to fix those drive without a EEPROM. In case the controller dead, you can't get back your data as you don't have your P-List and G-List
a while ago I turned on my PC and the HDD go Brrrr
How does someone "connect the wrong power supply" to a HDD ?! the connectors are hdd specific and the voltages are standard. so hows that possible ?!
That’s what I was asking myself too, how the hell does someone do that, unless with a shitty SATA to USB China adapter I can’t see how this is possible, and even the adapter theory is a far reach
Only thing I can think of is if someone used a modular power supply and plugged the sata cable into the wrong place
powered hard drive enclosure? maybe? that or it tppk the laptop with it but the data is all they care about
@@Rabidius but how? the sata cable only fits into the sata port on the hdd and modular power supply.
Old HDDS used to fry if you plug the cable upside-down,maybe this is the case?
Good info, I like to see videos like these. I wouldn't have known what that particular diode circuit was, I would have assumed it was a regular diode and needs replaced to work. With the short removed, the only thing it would be missing is the over-volt protection.
I've had many different brand hard drives for decades and never had a Western Digital fail on me. I used to have a wd black caviar IDE drive from 2003 with only 120GB of space, it was still working when I upgraded my motherboard to all SATA a few years ago. Seagate, maxtor, toshiba, hitachi, all have died within a few months every time I bought them new.
hey big steve from the louis rossmann group hard at work as always
I think you'll gain a lot from a video editor to clip out these moving around stuff & camera aiming sections. (I'm not a regular watcher though, so I don't know about the other videos).
On the side note: Thank you so much for the knowledge :D
Love the HD repairs!
There are few ways to cut off the components, you did it probably the worst way, I'm amazed how you didn't rip off any traces.
Consummate professional drags out a £10 cheap-jack throwaway multimeter! "Hey, it does the job." Quite right too! I know you have more professional tools available to you for when the task demands, but sometimes you just need that cheap shit that's right under your desk to give you a sensible-looking figure.
I bought my first meter 30-35 years ago at Radio Shack for £5, miniature thing that runs off button cells, and it amazes me I still have good uses for it today as a professional -- 'coz it fits in my shirt pocket :-)
For those who keep saying this is a Louis clone, look at 02:51 for proof that it *is not* a clone.
04:30 WTF Steve? If they don't have an iron to take the diode off then how are they supposed to put it back on. Hammer and nail? Ask eugene? Call JayzTwoCents (that'll work out well, hot glue gun and all)? A cheap soldering iron $10, a cheap and nasty hot air, $55. An eBay combo unit about $80. That's cheaper than a new HDD. Snips, *REALLY* ?!! 🤦♂️
Thanks for the video. 👍
Joseph King: I had the same thought. Ok if you are going to clone the drive or back up the drive immediately, and replace it with a new drive, then not replacing the diode makes sense. Assuming they're careful and don't do what blew the diode in the first place. However I would not recommended using the drive as normal without replacing the diode. Western Digital didn't put the diode there for sh*ts and giggles, it's there to prevent damage in use. 👍
This is to copy the data to a new drive. I would not recommend usinh a repaired hard drive. This is probably older than the employee who edited this video. Replace the drive!
@@rossmanngroup My apologies Steve. It wasn't until much later that I realised that you were just removing the diode to get the drive into a state where you could recover the data. Before that I had thought it was a method to retrieve a donor part for use on the client's drive so the data could be recovered. DUH ME! 🤦♂️
Hope you are able to produce more of these recovery videos. I find them quite enjoyable and educational so *THANK YOU* !
Seeing this every 3.5 HDD needs is 5v sata connector. What do you mean by wrong power supply. Possible only on external doc with unstable supply. But most PSU should deliver clean 5v when it is being rated 80+ efficiency on branded.
God, I've become so accustomed to Apple "fuses" that I'm not used to protection elements actually doing what they're designed for xD Thank you so much for walking us through this, now I know one more thing I can check myself before I have to bother somebody else.
Why is it that the diode does not have to be replaced? Is it because you are using the correct power supply, so you know the drive will be fine?
Now, what do you do if the pads under the diode happened to be shorted?
I open dead drives to get the magnets 🧲 Thanks, great job Steve!
WDs last long, are easier to repair and to recover from (in my somewhat limited experience) and are just all round great drives. Keep it up WD!!
And keep up the great videos Louis rossman and Louis rossman v1.1 from this video!!
I always enjoy and learn from your videos. You're the man!!!
His videos are actually quite nice :) keep disk repair coming.
the easiest repair ever ! great job !
I have a few different dead WD drives that I'd like to pull data off of, but I don't feel like spending money doing it. I have swapped their logic boards around to see if I can get them to do anything, and best I can get is spinning them up. No head clicking, so I don't think the heads are fucked, I just think the logic boards are toast.
This is so awesome,., you are our Professor!!!!
I use that exact multimeter. I use flukes at work. But for homes that crenova isn't bad
Sounds more and more like Louis every time!
I have the common problem that the sata plastic has snapped, shame as one is a 12tb hard drive a year old and a 8tb hard drive a year old and now I want to sell them! Right now I just hot glued on a right angle "extension" as I don't know how to solder on a new board.
Louis looks like he's gotten 10 years younger as an aspiring tech repairman
Nice work. And you speak so clearly!
I have a 8tb Seagate that I had a shorted power supply take out. It actually took out 2 drives the 240gb had a burned PCB so I replaced it and moved the eeprom chip from the old board to the new put it together and I got nothing. Tested power and it had voltage at the motor contacts. I gave up on it as I was attempting the 240 and didn't want to lose everything from the 8. I bought a replacement PCB for the 8tb but I never tried moving chips since I couldn't get the other to work. There's no damage to the 8tb PCB but it doesn't power on and even after just trying the other PCB it still doesn't even so much as spin up.
"I feel like Techrax now" 😂 man Techrax really has the reputation for destroying stuffs.😂
Does he do anything else?
@@jadoei13 sell his broken phones to whatever machine it's called.😂 Probably flex on whatever new iPhone is out.😂😂
You should do one about checking the contacts between the board and the HDD itself as these can dull and look corroded, they just need cleaning which can be done with a soft eraser. This should be checked first really as it could be just that. Remove the board and check and clean first, replace and test, it may just be that. I have done this myself, in fact, the contacts on the left of the board that make contact with the HDD do look dull and like they need cleaning @ 0:49 (20 contacts, 10x2 top left of board)
I had this issue only a couple months back with a 2.5 2TB seagate hdd and it was the contacts. The HDD would not spin up- or anything, very lucky if it did but then died again. I checked the contacts, cleaned them with an eraser, and Bob's your Uncle, it's fine.
So by removing the TVS diode you can get the hard drive to work again, but you also removed the protection against over voltage. Not sure I would call that a good repair.
I think the idea is to get it working long enough to get the data off of it. I don’t think I’d trust a drive that had a failure of any kind. Hard drives are cheap. Any data that you are willing to pay to retrieve isn’t worth the risk leaving on a drive like this.
I gues you are right, but he could have explained that, the title suggest a repair.
No repair of any hard drive is ever meant to be for more than data recovery to a new one.
I knew you had to have a stunt double
With you uploading this video, you have 1776 videos visible to the public. 'MURICA!
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Murica
that measuring of the diodes at the beginning is not voltage. you can not measure voltage unless you have electric charge going through the circuit
In diode test mode it actually measuring voltage, the pull up comes from the voltmeter battery.
Those diodes are made to short connect when they pop so they don't leave the cirquits unprotected.
In *diode mode* the multimeter provides the current through the diode and measures the voltage across the diode. A silicon diode will show from 0.5V - 0.7V when conducting in the forward direction and OL in the reverse direction, when not in a circuit. In this case, the diode voltages were with the diode in circuit so the reverse voltage showed 1.7V .
both are right thanks
2:52 why only small flux??you are totally different from Louis 😂😂😂😂
This is like wild wild west of electronics. Fuck everything.
Love your content Louis!
Sir i have a hard drive which is out of order since 2012. I have very imp data init is itpossible to recover data from hard... I'm from Pakistan
That's an oldie BTW, 320GB AAJS drive. Those are from 2007.
So you don't need to replace the diode? Just remove it then power it up? And I'm not sure which power adaptor actually goes with it now. Are they usual 12V / 1.5 amp output?
If someone doesn't have a soldering iron, how would they install the new diode? It would seem to me, that regardless of how you remove the defective one, you're going to need either a soldering iron or a hot air station to complete the job.
This is probably a stupid question but I'm not geeky enough to know. Can you replace the whole pcb instead of you don't have the tools or skill to replace the d4?
Louis with no panda eyes
To all those thinking this is Louis, it's not. The dead giveaway is the amount of flux used! Edit, p.s., nice job Steve :)
louis looking good today again!
Thank you! It worked for me and im so happy!
Thank you for this video. I got 2 data drives in my PC. One shows up and then disappears of the system in few minutes and one simply stops the computer from turning on. I checked the diods loke you did but they are good. Any suggestions appreciated.
That's cool. I should have become an engineer or something, fixing things is fun.
You forgot to replace the diode, ALL parts removed should be replaced. Those parts aren't there just for good looks. May I suggest mouser electronics or digikey?
Um. This is getting plugged in one last time and tossed out afterwards. steve forgot nothing
WHO ARE YOU?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO LOUIS??
My PC went bluey! A few weeks ago, The Mother Board had fried! Literally! Never have I seen one do this, we have power surges where I live, and I think that may have cause this BIG problem. Now I can not get Either of my WD hard drives to power up? And they both have ALOT of data on them I really would like to recover.. Is this fix very expensive???
Quite interesting that WD had used Marvell chips back then (maybe they still do?). Hardware vendors and their relationships... :)
@dayik not sure what you mean by p2c, I guess not
'You need to throw it away and buy a new Macbook'
How many of the failed HDDs you get are Western Digital?
The only 2 drives that ever failed on me were WD drives and I hear a lot of people saying that WD drives have a high failure rate, but I also heard that Google analyzed a lot of their drives and found no sigificantly higher failure rate compared to other brands.
Nice instruction.
Damn, Windows Aero still looks awesome. I want it.
can anyone explain how he is getting 0.4v in one direction and 1.7v in opposite direction in D3 diode? diodes only conduct in one direction, right?
He's measuring the diode in circuit. So other components in the circuit are conducting power from the multimeter and giving the 1.7V when the diode is not conducting. The voltage readings are not what you would get (accurate) if the diode was out of circuit. This is just a quick "go/no go" test for the diodes.
You've got so many windows open from different applications, do you use multiple monitors or are you just switching from the same window?
Yes
the breathing is strong with this one.
Thanks for your video bro
The resistive mode and diode mode voltage values you read depend on the current used in the multimeter. Still it should not read a short.
TVS protection diode goes short permanently when the voltage is too high. This causes most power supplies to shut down when they detect a short, and so protect the drive from the excessive voltage.
@@tonyonofrio1147 yes I worded that wrong I meant that it should be able to read a short. It is the resistance and voltage in the ohm and diode measurement that can vary on the same diode depending on the type of multimeter.
awesome job thanks for the video
Why didn't he put a new chip on, is that not needed.
I had this q too
It's a 12 years old 320 GB drive, all that's left to do is recover the data and copy it on something newer. (see the date of manufacturing on the label 11 JUL 2008)
I wonder if that was one of the drives I either sent or donated...
thank you brother
So did he have an extra pcb? I didn't see him replace the diode.
Wow it has been forever since I was this early to anything
Hello. I have a not recognized unless I format type of deal on a 3tb mybook external hdd. The reason for that being that the external pcb has a burnt component due to high-voltage with the wromg plug.. anyhow I was wondering if I can get a link or something to your business so that we can discuss repairs if possible. I also have a rog strix GL 703VD-WB71 asis laptop that has a cpl burnt components on the motherboard as well that id be interested in getting repaired. I've been following u for hot minute cuz and I can dig your cleanliness and your knowledge as well as your expertise. Looking forward to hearing back. God bless 🙏
Check the very first line in the video description - Rossman Repair Group :-) They have a shop in NYC or mail-in service.
I have a WD that is clicking...sadly with some video footage I shot for my short.. No budget film... And vids for that?
Did you replace the the TVS or just remove it?
He just removed it. For saftey use a trusted power supply or replace diode if power supply quality is unknown.
gorak9000 This was a 320GB drive that was over 10 years old. Best thing to do here would be to move the data off to a new drive and not worry about the TVS.
@@docgiggles130
I didn't have that information. But yes, that would be the sensible thing to do.
@@docgiggles130 No idea what I'm talking about, but you can use the drive without the TVS? Or at least access the data?
@@andrewkoines6389 You can. The TVS acts like a fuse and will fail if the voltage goes too high. It's there to fail first before the rest of the drive gets destroyed. You can remove it and still use the drive, but if there is ever another overvoltage, the drive will not have any protection. Best thing to do is recover the data and scrap the drive after.
@rossmanngroup How much does this quick fix typically cost?
This happen to me used the wrong power cord caused a small spark causing my drive not to power on :( can that cause my
hard drive to go blank? Took it to a friend that took the drive out the casing and stated that its empty how is that possible?
Is it possible that I can get my data back? Thanks
Can you say the value out loud since sometimes we cannot see the units of the numbers? Any danger during data recovery for not replacing the diode?
how hot is the air from the hot air station?
As usual, Yes even I learned something! :-)
Good video, only one potential issue that you should probably deal with.
If you're connecting these drives to windows (or any other OS), you really should be using a write blocker if you aren't already. There's a few reasons for this:
1) You never should be blamed from a customer for adding files to a drive. While this is less likely than #2, it's still good practice.
2) If you end up coming across anything illegal, a write blocker will help prove that you didn't put it on the drive. Write blockers are used in law enforcement forensics when cloning a drive for analysis to take out the legal argument that "That's not my client's data, someone else put it on the drive".
Another tip is that I recommend you switch to linux vs windows for testing a lot of this, if possible. The reason being is that Windows only supports a small subset of the types of formats you may come across. Furthermore, you can script it out to mount read only (which should be done in addition to a write blocker) - and could probably script out a lot of the checks you're doing so you just get a report in the end (e.g. head -n X /dev/disk... | od -a > report && tail -n X /dev/disk | od -a >> report), then just cat the report. With the report better served in a ramdisk that's created before (disk image in memory), that's created at the beginning of the experiment, and cleaned up on umount. That way you're also not copying end user data.
Also...your customers are kinda idiots for not having encrypted drives before sending them to you/anyone. I thought in Windows, now-a-days, encryption was default, but guess not.
Hi Louis, I have a WD, 500GB 3.5 Hard drive with a burnt out diode. Info on hard drive;PWD 2060-701444 rev..I have no way of identifying this diode. all i have is its position number,(D5) The diode has completely gone.is there anyway of knowing what diode this coould be ??. regards.
Great video thanks for uploading, liked and subscribed. Where do you get the PC 3000 software? do you have to attend a course to be able to run it?
I got a new PCB for my WD drive that suddenly stopped spinning (0 sound when plugged in), thinking it was probably the Marvell chip (I tested the diodes and they were OK).
Turns out, it wouldnt spin up even with the donor PCB...
I even opened it up thinking maybe the head was stuck on the platter, but that wasn't it either.
So it has to be the preamp, right? basically impossible to fix it DIY style, am I right? unluckiest way of getting unlucky I guess...
Hey! I have the same multimeter lol! It was pretty cheap on Amazon
Date: 11 JUL 2008 (the date drive is produced)
Gee, I wonder what could kill a 12yo hard drive
After removing the diode, how come multimeter shows voltage without connecting pcb to power supply?
Also isn't one supposed to fix the board by soldering new diode in the same place?
its voltage drop - characteristic of a diode. and yes you should solder new one. but you can live without it. its there just for protection and if you dont have that on hand and or dont have soldering iron you can run your drive without it but next time instead of just replacing that small part you may get a lot more troubles
Vasily Bulochkin With how cheap hard drives are, I’d just transfer the data off to a new drive.
@@docgiggles130 that's an option for sure
Soooo....you didn't replace the diode you removed???? 🤔