The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/getmeoutahhere on 2024-09-17 23:26:39.

As the title says my chuckleheaded brother used the wrong power supply for my old 250 GB Seagate Free Agent Desk external hard drive. A 19 volt 3 amp laptop power supply was used when it should have been a 12 volt 2 amp power supply. He plugged it in repeatedly to try to get it working with no luck. When I got the hard drive out of the housing and into a hard drive dock nothing happens at all no spin up, no noises, the light on the dock doesn’t come on, nothing. My question is should I replace the PCB from an exact duplicate, or will that make the problem worse ? Should I send it off ? Outsource data recovery was suggested to me. I’ve read a few horror stories about them which makes me weary. From my understanding, it may just need a board replacement which is a lot cheaper than having the data recovered. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I have pictures and videos from friends that have passed away on there. Thank you for your time.