External hard drive

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by jcsings

It didn't see it, the hhd quit. I tried plugging it in directly, there was nothing, the light on the external just flashed, and then started smoking. It melted the motherboard.

To get this back on track to helping you, are you saying the motherboard in the computer was smoking or the HHD case was smoking?
If this is the computer and it is the one you bought from MTU you need to contact them (Support Email) to see what they can do.
If the smoke was coming from the hdd case then take it to a reputable service place and see if the hard drive is damaged or if it is just the case controller board. If it is only the case you can get a replacement for that and will not have lost anything.