I have heard of people finding an IDENTICAL working HD and swapping out the controller board just long enough to salvage data from the dead drive. Of course there is no guarantee the platters themselves are still good. Depending on the "value" of the data it might be worth a try.
so how do I identify a brocken fuse ? from what I was told it went down from one day to the next rather than slowly playing up. I my limited experience with HDDs breaking down its not that rapid and the plates still spin even when the rest packs up
If you could upload a close-shot picture of your HDD circuit board (close to the PSU connector), maybe we could help you to find the possible blown fuse. This have to be a really clean picture though.
I can't tell how hard/easy it is, it all depend of your own experience and patience
If possible, divide the PCB in 4 section for the top, 4 for the bottom. I don't know how crazy it is... maybe we do this for nothing, but If we don't try we'll never know
the 1 ohm resistors are measuring more like 21-22 ohms, I'm currently working on an image of the whole board (didn't you know you could do a panoramic image of a circuit board ;-) )
Good enough. I guess it would be good to see the other side of this PCB. Seems pretty easy to remove the controller board. Remove all screw, then gently remove the PCB. Look how the motor is connected to it.
I would probably suggest to check all those ferrite bead and all 0 ohm resistor/jumper, check voltage at VR200 output (should be 8Volt) and all other test point. But yeah... is there voltage everywhere if only connected to an ATX supply??? can't tell myself.