My Book Essential Won't Power Up - Options?

Device is a My Book Essential 1TB (WD10EADS) (S/N WCAV5F601945)

A few years ago (at least 6 years ago) after having had a few glasses of red, I accidentally plugged my laptop power cable into the above device. Once I realised my mistake, I plugged in the correct power cable, but it never booted up. I guess I blew something. I googled solutions at the time, one of which was to buy IDE/SATA port and connect the HDD to the laptop like that, but still nothing happened. I remember taking it to a local repair shop but they were unable to solve the issue. I can’t remember what they tried but I have a vague recollection that they switched the boards inside, but still nothing. Out of ideas, I considered data recovery (until I saw the price) so I stuck it in the loft hoping that the prices may come down in the future. They haven’t. Anyway, now I have a bit more time on my hands, I have dug it out from the loft and tried everything again. Not surprisingly, being in the loft hasn’t miraculously solved the issue. However, I can see from plugging in the power cable that the power light flashes 4 or 5 times quickly and then goes off. If I then press the red power button, the light then begins to flash on and off. There is no whirring noise and my PC doesn’t acknowledge any devices being connected. What are my options? Is there anything else I can try? If not, are there any companies out there that offer a diagnostics service to see if recovery is possible? I have posted a couple of photos below of the gubbins inside. Obviously I am not desperate for the stuff that was on there as its been 6+ years, but it would be good if I could get the information back one day.

If you already tried using an external power source such as a desktop power supply or a power supply that came with a IDE/SATA-to-USB adapter and it still doesn’t power up, chances are that the PCB on the drive has shorted out. If you can find a reasonable price on a used PCB for the same model, and containing the same part number as the original, you can switch out the boards and potentially get it working again. A quick search on eBay shows that they appear to be reasonably priced for the entire drive at this time.

Also, have you tried using the original My Book adapter with another hard drive, perhaps with one that you don’t care about, if possible? (To avoid potential loss of important data if faulty). If you can get it to power on another drive and access it with the computer, then that would verify that the PCB on the original drive is bad and that the adapter survived.

The usual result of an overvoltage with a laptop adapter is a shorted 12V TVS diode on the HDD PCB (not the USB-SATA bridge PCB). Provided that the zero-ohm resistor at R64 is OK, all you need to do is to snip the diode’s pins with flush cutters.

TVS Diode FAQ:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=100&t=86

You will need to reinstall the repaired HDD inside the enclosure because the firmware encrypts and decrypts the data.

If you need to replace the PCB, then you will need to transfer the ROM at U12 from patient to donor: This chip stores unique, drive specific calibration information.

Some PCB vendors include this service for no extra charge:

Good luck.

Thank you for that information. So I can just snip the pins of the TVS diode and see if that allows it to power up (assuming as you say that the zero-ohm resistor is ok)

Also, do you have a picture of what the TVS diode looks like in-situ on the PCB board?

All your questions are answered at my FAQ link.