James Sweet wrote
Erica Eshoo wrote
Rod Speed wrote

but the video implies that the power supply "pushes" the current

Just a clumsy description.

I think I get what Rod Speed is saying.
When I start my blender, the lights dim for a second in my California kitchen. Then everything is fine.

I think what Rod Speed is saying is, if the hard disk drive motor is
drawing too much current for the original power supply to handle,
then adding a larger capacity (more current) power supply, will allow it to draw more current than the original power
supply could handle.

That, in an emergency situation such as mine, might be the way to
free a "stuck" drive.

As noted, my drive isn't stuck - it's just clicking and spinning
until the clicking gives up ... so I think I'll give up on the
larger power supply. Plus, I'm using the Vantec IDE-to-USB adapter
which comes with its own power supply.

Funny thing, the hard drives I tested STILL WORK on the Vantec
IDE-to-USB adapter even without plugging in the external power
supply. I guess they get power from the USB - but I'll use the
external power supply also to power the naked laptop hard disk drive.

The good thing is we're learning - the bad thing is that we probably
can't use any freeware on earth to resurrect this drive ... or can we?

That's BS,

What's bull**** ?

even the smallest PC power supply can produce enough current to vaporize the traces right off the circuit board in the
hard drive.

Pity about the short circuit current limit that all power supplys have.

Sometimes when semiconductors get marginal, increasing the voltage slightly will allow them to work,

The problem aint with the semiconductors.

but a higher wattage power supply won't necessarily (and shouldn't actually) produce any higher voltage,

Thats wrong too when the power supply is marginal and
cant supply the full rated voltage to all the rails and the hard
drive rotation motor when the heads are stuck to the platters.

but variation from one to another may be enough to make a difference in some extremely rare cases.

Nothing extremely rare about modern systems which
have enough of a load on the 12V rail that sees that
sag when its also trying to spin up the hard drive.

If the drive is not spinning, the motor control IC is probably bad.

Or the heads are stuck to the platters, stiction.