Pop and smoke from new-ish HDD

[Mici]

A friend gave me a WD external HDD he didn't want anymore. I have no more USB slots and it's way to big to carry around, so I put it in my comp. I used a molex to SATA power cable. I powered it up and pop poof. Turned it off, pulled the power then pulled the HDD.
First question, are all my other components safe?

Second, WTF happened? What should I look out for?

Third, is this thing fucked? The 6th tooth(?) on the back is black and the piece that goes under the plastic and connects to the small board is gone. I took the board off and I don't see any other damage. Can I just replace the board?
What would it be called and how specific to this HDD model does it need to be?

Thanks in advance.

[DAKPluto]

I don't even know where to begin.....

[Mafai]

A friend gave me a WD external HDD he didn't want anymore. I have no more USB slots and it's way to big to carry around, so I put it in my comp. I used a molex to SATA power cable. I powered it up and pop poof. Turned it off, pulled the power then pulled the HDD.
First question, are all my other components safe?

Second, WTF happened? What should I look out for?

Third, is this thing fucked? The 6th tooth(?) on the back is black and the piece that goes under the plastic and connects to the small board is gone. I took the board off and I don't see any other damage. Can I just replace the board?
What would it be called and how specific to this HDD model does it need to be?

Thanks in advance.

I've never opened up an external HDD, is it just a HDD with a bunch of adapters to make it USB compatible? I highly doubt that.

The solution you should've used is purchasing a USB hub so you can have more USB slots to accommodate the external.

Since you have no data on it since you broke it as soon as you got it, just throw it away.

[SephYuyX]

I've never opened up an external HDD, is it just a HDD with a bunch of adapters to make it USB compatible? I highly doubt that.

Actually, thats all they really are.


And just toss the thing. I just bought a 3TB HDD for 80$, theyre a dime a dozen now a days.

[Olo401]

Yeah that sucker's gone... sounds like a capacitor blowout. Toss it and get a new drive.

The rest of your machine is probably safe (it's not on the same line of power that blew out and the PSU most likely has built-in feedback protection), but I wouldn't use that Molex connector OR the Molex-SATA adapter again without having them both inspected for a short.

[DAKPluto]

I'm just really really hoping there is a lot of unsaid steps he took that we are just assuming, and that he didn't try to rig up something to the power transformer inside the external casing....

[Mici]

I took it out of the case, it's nothing more than a sata drive at that point and you can just plug normal connectors to it. The molex adapter or is gone.
I am ok with buying a new one, but I am unsure why it popped, so I need to figure that out before I put a new one in.
Sorry if I made the OP unclear, but it's just a normal 3.5" at this point.