Well, it was back around 2012-2014 I think. I had just received a shipment of ASIC miners and was using every bit of power I could find as minutes were crucial at that point in time (for a very short period, maybe a week, I think I had the highest hashrate of any individual in the world). I connected an ASIC to a power supply that was operating a computer as it had enough spare power to power it. Unfortunately miners back then aren’t what they are now and it caused a bit of an explosion that took out my hard drive. I’ll probably bring it into a shop at some point, but for now I like to pretend that the wallet is a gold mine holding far more BTC than I actually think. It is more fun that way.

Update.

Unfortunately I was unable to revive this piece of shit, I did all I could but it seems the disk has damaged or something, I took my time to get my hands on three different HDD extensions with IDE cable space.

It's like the disk in the drive is stuck or maybe damaged, it's not my first time using one and while comparing them the working one spins more than this one, this one with BTC feels sluggish.

I am guessing it fell or dropped, I am fed up and I don't know what else to do, I think it's time I quit trying, thanks for all your replies, I doubt at this point that there is something left that I can do.

If your friend would like to gamble by asking a data recovery specialist to retrieve the file, listening @NotFuzzyWarm advice is a good thing to do.  Though there is a risk involved, since we do not know if the person who will fix the HDD will be tempted to access the wallet that contains the BTC.

The decision is on your friend, 0.3 BTC is a big amount, but the risk of unrecoverable data is there, plus the human factor, make sure that the person who will handle the storage disk is really professional.

https://www.ontrack.com/en-us/data-recovery/hard-drive is the only one I will guarantee is 100% legit and safe to use. They have been in business for decades and have many many Fortune 500 companies as customers along with having several locations around the world. They have clean rooms if physical platter by platter disk recovery is needed.

I’m glad to know how your story turned out. It’s a pity that your efforts led to a dead end.

You’ve done everything you could, except for one thing: turning to a specialist \ service center, where experts might be able to diagnose the HDD, fix the fault, and restore access to the drive. Naturally, you shouldn’t mention that the drive might contain bitcoins (though a sharp engineer might figure it out on their own, and a less-than-scrupulous one might discover them if they manage to fix the issue). And what do you have to lose? Nothing at all - since you couldn’t gain access to the HDD anyway.

Have the moving parts of the disc rusted (given that the disc is about 20 years old)?

The exact cause could be determined through a full diagnostic of the disk. Maybe should actually reach out to a specialized center?

I described one possible approach above. Another option is to simply drop the whole idea - especially since it’s your friend’s HDD, not yours. That’s his problem to deal with.

Then again, there’s no guarantee that your efforts will pay off; even if you do manage to regain access to this HDD, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be able to access the wallet containing bitcoins (assuming it’s even there). You might run into further issues - such as password requirements, corrupted files, or other obstacles, when trying to access the wallet itself. Damaged and unreadable sectors are not uncommon.

If you read back a few posts you'll find that the OP already tried that with several different IDE adapters.

Why use AI? It is not needed as the adapters - especially ones using USB for the pc connection - are pretty much idiot proof. Just plug things in and they work. If the drive does not respond or worse, does not spin up then a company like Ontrack will be needed.

Ontrack has many locations around the globe so at least one will be close to the OP. They are not some random guy who claims to be a data recovery 'Expert'. With a long established global company like them your data security is NOT an issue.

As others have noted, assuming the data can be recovered the bigger question is: do you have any passwords needed to access the wallet?