I think I might have just killed my external hard drive

[exboyfil]

I was not careful, and plugged the power adaptor from my 12 V PC into my 9 V External Hard drive. The light is still on when I put the correct power supply on it, but it is no longer being recognized by my PC. I have tried a second PC and still no luck. I know the power supply is good because I tested it on another external hard drive. I tried two separate USB cables. I don't have a another external drive that uses this type of USB, but my cables do allow recognition of a MP3 player.

Any suggestions?

It is a Western Digital 1TB hard drive.

[Casady1]

1. I think you smoked it.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. It ain't dead until you hit it with a sledgehammer

https://community.wd.com/t/over-voltage-drive/16764

[HubertHeaver]

8. Thanks for the info!

[exboyfil]

10. That is me

The moron who fried it. Thanks for the video link.

I have this Sabrent 5 in 1 that I have used on several laptop internal hard drives. Except for the smoke and the smell it seems to be working with this hard drive as well (at least the data written) to another HD.

The Sabrent has definitely paid for itself many times over for this computer moron.

[liberal N proud]

3. The data may still be ok

Accessing it much more difficult.

Most likely fried controler circuitry

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

4. This would be my guess as well

Not a expert by any means, but I would guess the platters are fine, but the rest might be fried. Data is still there but will need to put the drive itself into a new enclosure.

[Timewas]

5. WD

I have a couple of them and they are pretty good paper weights, lasted about 2 months or so...

[CloudWatcher]

6. How precious is the data?

If you have the data elsewhere, then it's not worth the time & effort to get it fixed.

Otherwise, you could try and find the same model drive (new or eBay) and
swap the internal circuit board with the "new" one.

It's not something to do if you're not comfortable around computer internals, but
it's not rocket science either.

As others have said, the data on the drive's platters is probably just fine. You've
"just" fried the controller that talks with it.

Alternatively you could give the drive to a real EE and let them buzz out
the board and try and replace the fried chip(s). If you're lucky it could be
a common chip & easy enough to replace. But unless you're friends with
someone like bigclivedotcom the odds of success with this path are pretty slim.

[Earth-shine]

7. Is this a drive in a USB enclosure?

If so, you could try taking it out of the enclosure and hooking the SATA drive directly to the internal connectors inside the PC.

[exboyfil]

9. Thank you I did just that

A little worried when I first plugged it in to my Sabrant 5 in 1 as it smoked a bit. It didn't recognize it at first. It is writing to another hard drive right now and smelling a bit. I am a keeping a careful eye on it with the fire extinguisher handy.

Bought an 1 TB SSD this evening. Done with spinning hard drives. Of course I was the moron who overpowered it.