HDD failure

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bruce Lee
  • Start date Start date
B

Bruce Lee

I stupidly plugged my hard drive in to my computer while it was booting up
and some sparks where produced. I get a message through dos now that there
is hardware failure along with a clicking noise every 3 seconds or so. Is
the drive totally wrecked or is there anything I can do to try and fix it?
Thanks
 
Bruce said:
I stupidly plugged my hard drive in to my computer while it was
booting up and some sparks where produced. I get a message through
dos now that there is hardware failure along with a clicking noise
every 3 seconds or so. Is the drive totally wrecked or is there
anything I can do to try and fix it? Thanks
Click to expand...

Clicking? Nope, it's dead. What did you do something so moronic for
anyway...? I hope you had good backups...
 
Miss Perspicacia Tick said:
Clicking? Nope, it's dead. What did you do something so moronic for
anyway...? I hope you had good backups...
Click to expand...
Because I have removed components and added components before while it was
booting and never had any problems - I guess the hdd is something else. I
was thinking the spindle thing may of become dis-aligned or something but
maybe I should leave it.. I had backups but not everything.
 
Because I have removed components and added components before while it was
booting and never had any problems - I guess the hdd is something else. I
was thinking the spindle thing may of become dis-aligned or something but
maybe I should leave it.. I had backups but not everything.
Click to expand...

There's nothing else you should be adding or removing while
it's booting either, except perhaps USB or firewire, etc...
specifically "removable" devices by virtue of the bus used,
not which component is at the *very* end of that bus.

Most likely you've damaged the circuit board. If you had or
could find a spare identical board you might be able to
salvage data but beyond that there is nothing you can do for
the drive.

You should not have seen sparks though, it seems likely
there was something more wrong than merely connecting it
while system was powered up.
 
kony said:
You should not have seen sparks though, it seems likely
there was something more wrong than merely connecting it
while system was powered up.
Click to expand...

Maybe the Molex connector was forced in there backwards or barely
touched the wrong pin to create sparks. Either way, a big no-no to
mess with internal parts while powered up.
 
Never connect any devices that work directly to the buss or system when the
computer has the power on! Only the USB ports are safe to do this, but also
depending on the type of device being connected.

There is a chance that the circuit board on the drive is damaged. It is also
possible that there is damage on the mother board in the drive controller
section.

I would first try another drive to start with. Make sure that there is no
power in the computer when connecting it up.

--

JANA
_____


I stupidly plugged my hard drive in to my computer while it was booting up
and some sparks where produced. I get a message through dos now that there
is hardware failure along with a clicking noise every 3 seconds or so. Is
the drive totally wrecked or is there anything I can do to try and fix it?
Thanks
 
Bruce Lee said:
Because I have removed components and added components before while it was
booting and never had any problems - I guess the hdd is something else. I
was thinking the spindle thing may of become dis-aligned or something but
maybe I should leave it.. I had backups but not everything.
Click to expand...
If the HDD was sitting circuit board down on a part of the casing there may
be a chance that components on its circuit board have earthed on the casing
when it was plugged in. There wouldn't normally be sparks produced otherwise
so I'm unsure what went on there. Additionally many IDE drives are capable
of being hot (un)plugged using special caddies which ensure the data
connection is always disconnected and reconnected while drive power is
removed. Having said that, its always a good idea to avoid plugging and
unplugging devices while things are powered unless they're "hot pluggable".
Even simple things such as parallel port printers and serial modems should
only be (un)plugged with power off let alone drives without caddies (and
some with caddies).

Most HDD manufacturers provide drive testing utilities for free,
downloadable from their websites. Its just a matter of booting from a floppy
disk with the utility on it and running the utility while the drive is
connected. If the drive is detected the utility should tell you if there's a
fault with the drive. Some faults can be fixed by using the "zero fill"
feature to restore the drive to a factory state but generally repeated loud
clicking does indicate failure. HDDs aren't user serviceable other than
replacing the PCB (if the drive is out of warranty and you have another of
the exact same type sitting around) or running the drive utility software,
anything else is a "manufacturer only" (or rubbish bin) issue.

Paul
 
Bruce Lee said:
I stupidly plugged my hard drive in to my computer while it was booting up
and some sparks were produced. I get a message through dos now that there
is hardware failure along with a clicking noise every 3 seconds or so. Is
the drive totally wrecked or is there anything I can do to try and fix it?
Thanks
Click to expand...

The hard drive's circuitry has been destroyed by electrostatic discharge --
specifically, by the sparks you saw. The clicking you hear is the arm
crossing the disk searching for the boot sector, but not being able to read
at all, it sails right past it and hits the stop. Then it tries again.

The disk still contains all the original data, which can be recovered by an
expert lab, but that's very costly and only feasible for precious business
records (which ought to have been backed up anyway). I shall not scold or
ridicule, but you probably need to just accept and learn from your mistake
and replace the drive and its contents. Another poster suggested finding
another identical drive and replacing the circuit board, but that, of
course, costs you the other drive even if it works.

A certain series of ZIP-100 drives behaved this way after a common
mechanical failure and behaved like a virus: put the disk in another drive
and it would destroy the second drive in seconds, or put another disk in the
damaged drive and it would destroy the disk.
 
Back
Top