Mike54
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- Mike
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Recently I managed to break one of my Back-up hard drives; it was in an external caddy and I pluged in the wrong power unit - same plug and socket but different pin-out.
The result was the HDU motor driver chip went pop. I contemplated finding another drive and swapping over the board, but by all accounts its not often successful. I then checked out a couple of data recovery companies, these ranged from £200 + to £500+ which while not ideal is not extortionate.
I then happened across a Canadian based company (http://www.pcbsolution.com/) who could replace the drive's board but also the drive custom data stored there.
As I considered the drive mechanics had probably survived and there was unlikely to be any physical damage I sent off the board, board only, Royal Mail <£5.
I was in regular email contact and after payment (I used Paypal, but other cards payments are available) the replacement board arrived, I refitted it plugged the caddy in, (correct power this time) and I must say was very impressed, cannot find any data corruptions or missing bits, works just fine. Oh the cost $49 USD.
Obviously not for drives which have been dropped or physically damaged but where there has been a power surge, power supply failure ripping through or as I did, stupidity it was a very cost effective solution. Oh yes I was going to back up my backup when I did it.
Worst case if the board didn't work was an extra few quid added to the data recovery bill, but I considered it a good risk and was well rewarded.
The result was the HDU motor driver chip went pop. I contemplated finding another drive and swapping over the board, but by all accounts its not often successful. I then checked out a couple of data recovery companies, these ranged from £200 + to £500+ which while not ideal is not extortionate.
I then happened across a Canadian based company (http://www.pcbsolution.com/) who could replace the drive's board but also the drive custom data stored there.
As I considered the drive mechanics had probably survived and there was unlikely to be any physical damage I sent off the board, board only, Royal Mail <£5.
I was in regular email contact and after payment (I used Paypal, but other cards payments are available) the replacement board arrived, I refitted it plugged the caddy in, (correct power this time) and I must say was very impressed, cannot find any data corruptions or missing bits, works just fine. Oh the cost $49 USD.
Obviously not for drives which have been dropped or physically damaged but where there has been a power surge, power supply failure ripping through or as I did, stupidity it was a very cost effective solution. Oh yes I was going to back up my backup when I did it.
Worst case if the board didn't work was an extra few quid added to the data recovery bill, but I considered it a good risk and was well rewarded.
