I friend of mine was unfortunate engough to have lighting strike his house and take his PC out. Yes it took it out because he did not use a surge protector. I tried to recover things from the drive but then one of the chips caught on fire. is it possible that the data is still some what good on the drive? Also Is it possible to replace the IDE board with another? I am not sure if you can switch IDE boards.

THANKS

Yes, you can. The data is stored on the platters, not the controller board or the read/write heads.

If you can find an IDENTICAL drive, I mean like down to the revision number! Then you can just swap controller circuit boards and you should be able to recover the data.

But if the drive was dropped while running, or the platters have some physical damage, you're pretty much screwed with the DIY approach and need professional help.

Yes, you can. The data is stored on the platters, not the controller board or the read/write heads.

If you can find an IDENTICAL drive, I mean like down to the revision number! Then you can just swap controller circuit boards and you should be able to recover the data.

But if the drive was dropped while running, or the platters have some physical damage, you're pretty much screwed with the DIY approach and need professional help.

Thanks Mr_Smartepants. I know that the data is stored on the platter, but wasn't sure if the fir could have gotten to the platter. It was a quick fire, it didn't do to much damage. Hopefully I can find a HDD that is close to the same version. Thanks again.