I have a Maxtor DiamandMax Plus 9 - 160GB external hard drive that someone plugged my laptop's ac cord into. (Guess what happened to my hard drive!) I want to know if it is possible for me to replace parts on the drive to retrieve the data or if it is likely that the drive itself is damaged. If you could help me, I thank you from the bottom of my heart!! Please respond ASAP.
Thanks a million!!

if the hard drive doesnt power up when you turn it on its fried but if it does there is hope if it is fried there are services that may still be able to retrieve the data to it. If it still powers up but you cant use it in your lap top try buying a case that acts like a jump drive they should have them at a good computer store plug it into your usb port and see if it reads that way. The usb drive reads slightly diffrent at a slower speed and this has helped us in the past.

Its not nececerialy fried.

Most external drives are simply a regular IDE or SATA hard disk in a special enclose which provides a simple usb connection and power. It may be possible that the hard drive will work if you take the hard disk out of the enclosure and put it inside your pc, as it may only the the enclosure that is fried, not the disk. Attempt at own risk