# Plugging wrong power supply to external hard drive



## natsuandhappy

hello.

i'm new in this forum, so i didn't know whether this topic has been posted before or not.

yesterday, i accidentally plugging the wrong power supply (19V 2.1A) to my toshiba 1gb external hard drive (12V 2A).

when i plugged in the right power supply, the LED on the hard drive keep on blinking, but it is not detected in my PC.

so, i would like to know whether any of you has any suggestions, or any ideas whether my drive is dead or it is just damaging my usb enclosure.

thanks alots in advance.


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## The_Other_One

Sounds like something fried...  I suspect the drive is still OK but don't quote me on this.  I'd suggest trying to use the drive in a computer if possible.  SATA laptop drives work fine in desktop, assuming you have SATA.  Laptop IDE drives require a converter.  Of course desktop drives work fine in desktops as long as you have open/correct ports.  As for replacement enclosures, these can be found for rather cheap.


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## natsuandhappy

i bought a new enclosure, but still not working, so i suspect the drive is damaged. is there any way to repair it? because my drive is 1tb, so there are alots of data in there (which is mostly videos).


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## The_Other_One

Darn...  Well, yes, it is possible to recover the data, but the procedure is not cheap.  Expect to pay a few hundred dollars...  Now if you find an identical drive to what you have, you can do a platter swap, but it's a very dangerous procedure that could ruin the data for good.


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## wahansa

Hello Natsuandhappy,

Can you please tell us what has happened to your external hard drive? Did you find out if it was a blown fuse? Were you able to retrieve the data? The exact same thing happened to me tonight... Mine was a brand new Imation external hard drive (1tb). I accidentally plugged in the AC converter cable for my laptop to the drive, and sure enough the LED was blinking and my computer could not recognize the drive. I hope I can retrieve the data somehow.


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## PohTayToez

Well, you just bumped a thread that's nearly a year old, so I doubt that guy is going to see anything you wrote.  But if you did the same thing and plugged the wrong power adapter in an external hard drive, and it no longer works, then there are a couple of things you could try.

The first would be opening up the enclosure and trying to read that hard drive with another enclosure, which would work if it's only the enclosure that got fried by the wrong power supply.  

If that doesn't work, then the hard drive is fried, but the data is still there.  The second option is a bit more pricey and difficult.  If you get an identical hard drive, you should be able to remove the circuit board from the damaged drive and replace it with the working from the other drive.  If you attempt this, it is important that you get a circuit board from a drive of the exact same model and revision.


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