Back of hard drive has no connecters

S

shirtlessguy

New Member
Hi
So I took apart my WD 750 gb one touch, because it wasn't working. Whenever I plugged in the external to my computer, it wouldn't get recognized, which I thought was quite weird.
Upon taking apart the external, and the case, I see that the hard drive itself is not even connected to the small piece of electronics that connects to the USB/Power. Hence, I think I received a dud hard drive, as I've never seen one that worked without being connected to something.
Thing is, I bought this HD over a year ago, at a Fry's. Would they accept this merchandise back? Or should I ship it to WD and try my luck there?
Thanks for your help.
I will attach pictures when I can.
 
Did the drive ever work? I am thinking maybe at the factory one of the workers forgot to connect it to the internal board and is the sole reason why the harddrive hasn't been working for you. You can use a site like Photobucket to upload the pictures so we could see.
 
If you took it apart that means you voided the warranty. If there's a meijer or a walmart around you, take it there and exchange it without a receipt, their dumb and will take anything back.
 
Pictures would help, usually all you need to do if the plug came out is to plug it back in. All of the externals I've ever come across have been normal PATA or SATA drives inside of an enclosure.
 
That's what I usually see too, a PATA or SATA socket, plus power.

Mine never had it to begin with.
I'm gonna talk to maxtor about it, hopefully they will take it back O_o.
 
That's impossible, why would anyone make a hard drive that has no connector on it. Are you sure they didn't just put the drive in backwards?
 
i've built computers and put hard drives inside enclosures for the last 8 or so years, i do believe i can recognize if a hard drive has been put inside backwards...-__-
and this hard drive is completely sealed off ... when i opened the case, there was nothign connecting the HD to the circuit board.
 
hmm, i would never think they would put a proprietary HDD in an enclosure... i would like to see what it looks like, could you post pics? Is the circuit board showing? any inputs on it?
 
Thanks for the pics, wow that is a strange drive. I have never seen that before in an external drive. Unless somehow it just has no I/O board...
 
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http://picasaweb.google.com/salvatorreferragamo/WeirdHD?feat=directlink#5321482927473676306
Click to expand...
There's a couple problems.

1. I can't really read the label but I'm fairly sure that isn't a 750GB drive. WD800 drives are 80GB.
2. The control board is missing. You can see the mount points in this picture as well as where it connects to the internals (that little black thing that looks like a chip should go in it). http://picasaweb.google.com/salvatorreferragamo/WeirdHD?feat=directlink#5321482931445316242
 
Yeah...that's what I was thinking. It sure looks like when the drive was taken apart, the controller board was removed from the drive itself.
 
I think, once you open these external hard drives, they may not take it back. Was there any IDE cable attach to the external? I am assuming that the hard drive does not have a sata interface. These external hard drives are quite a work to take apart.
 
There was nothing inside the metallic case that would suggest a SATA cable or even a POWER cable. basically there was nothing connecting the interface card to the HDD.
And yes you were right, it is a WD800, 80 GIG.... I have a picture next to my box saying it's a 750 GIG HD...
The control board that you say, never existed to begin with. The inside of the metallic case was, just metallic. No control board was there, no evidence of soldering.
five
six
seven
eight
nine <- For this one, that cable thingy is the "link" to the power up/down button on the outside of the external. That's it.

Thanks for all your guys input so far, keep it up please!
 
Sorry to say it, but it sure looks like you got duped... It is obvious that the drive inside was not what was intended. I was going to ask if you bought this used, and by the "Reduced Price" sticker on the box, it very well could have been returned by an unscrupulous customer.

I also thought it was rather odd that you mentioned it was a Maxtor drive...but that is a Western Digital drive. Your latest pictures confirm my suspicions. Maxtor makes their own hard drives and would not use WD hard drives in their units. Someone switched them...and with a usesless drive.

That drive is missing the controller board and is pretty much toast. Have some fun taking it the rest of the way apart.
 
Zatharus said:
Sorry to say it, but it sure looks like you got duped... It is obvious that the drive inside was not what was intended. I was going to ask if you bought this used, and by the "Reduced Price" sticker on the box, it very well could have been returned by an unscrupulous customer.

I also thought it was rather odd that you mentioned it was a Maxtor drive...but that is a Western Digital drive. Your latest pictures confirm my suspicions. Maxtor makes their own hard drives and would not use WD hard drives in their units. Someone switched them...and with a usesless drive.

That drive is missing the controller board and is pretty much toast. Have some fun taking it the rest of the way apart.
Click to expand...

Agreed, sounds like someone had a messed up drive, bought that drive, then switched the drives inside:(
 
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