Hard drive fried!

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Wisemansa

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hey ppl,

i had a western digital WD5000AAKS 500gb hard drive in a CM x-craft sata enclosure, and i think the power supply i used was faulty. when i switched it on, i smelt a burning smell. when i plugged the drive into the original working power supply the drive did not work but the burning smell happens again. (both the power supplies have same specifications etc)

please help me! the drive is not even a month old. i read that you can replace the circuit board and it will work again.

anyone know whether there are any drive recovery/repair services in durban?

thanks
 
take it back and prey they will replace it

next time never use a different power cord even if the specs are the same
 
You will probably find that your drive is fine (incl its data) and that only the electronics inside the Enclosure are toasted. If you can get inside the enclosure without voiding your warranty, then you can access your data fine... No need for Data Recovery Services which are usually rather expensive.

Once you have your data back, get the whole unit replaced by the supplier!
 
AFAIK the same happened to my 320GB drive.

The guy took his power supply and plugged it into my drives power connector(somehow that does not sound right)

Anyways smelled it burn. It's the chip on the circuit board near the power connector on the drive.

Took it back to where I bought it at PE technologies and they replaced the board on the drive and hey presto all the data was still there. Cost me a R150 though.
 
this is the problem....i bought the drive from a friend of mine when he went to america, from newegg.
 
Ryder_JHB said:
You will probably find that your drive is fine (incl its data) and that only the electronics inside the Enclosure are toasted. If you can get inside the enclosure without voiding your warranty, then you can access your data fine... No need for Data Recovery Services which are usually rather expensive.

Once you have your data back, get the whole unit replaced by the supplier!
Click to expand...

its an internal drive that i bought separately and put into an enclosure, and i opened the enclosure up and powered up the drive, and saw a bit of smoke coming out from the drive itself!


WiseCrack said:
AFAIK the same happened to my 320GB drive.

The guy took his power supply and plugged it into my drives power connector(somehow that does not sound right)

Anyways smelled it burn. It's the chip on the circuit board near the power connector on the drive.

Took it back to where I bought it at PE technologies and they replaced the board on the drive and hey presto all the data was still there. Cost me a R150 though.
Click to expand...

think thats the same thing that happened to me!!! yay so all is not lost!
will any computer shop be able to fix it? are "PE technologies" a computer shop, and did they repair it themselves or what...warranty voided?

btw wisecrack: what enclosure did you have and did it work properly after the incident? i dont want to check if it works by putting another hard drive in it, incase that one gets messed up too!
 
Last edited:
THe guys who would be able to help you are one of the many data recovery companies, but I'm afraid it would be more expensive to repair the drive than to replace it

but first confirm that the drive is indeed fried. Plug it into a PC, but be ready to pull it out again quickly. The last time I tried this, I was holding a very bright orange LED in my hand ;) not my drive though.
 
Been there done that.

It would be nice if the little power supply things had names on them - having a box full of little black transformers is a recipe for disaster.
 
Yeah!

Once, I was plugging in my keyboard, back of PC, PS/2 plug.. but it wasn't the colour coded PS/2 plug and I ended up plugging in the 12v DC adapter into my motherboard, I kid you not, the pins were *exactly* the same arrangement and it went in without having to force/squeeze it in.

I blew the small fuse that protects the motherboard on the PS/2 port, fortunately I had a friend skilled with the soldering iron (I don't solder ever since the silly accident..)

Moederloos said:
Been there done that.

It would be nice if the little power supply things had names on them - having a box full of little black transformers is a recipe for disaster.
Click to expand...
 
Heh - I know about the thing having a box full of little black transformers...

their wires tend to knot and mix up, so if you want to remove one, you end up taking the whole lot out of the box to sort the mess out :D

And, yes, agreed with Moederloos that a name on the transformer will help a lot.
 
What really annoys me are these 2 prong transformers that need half an hour of careful planning to get them to stay in, not fall over and pull your desk apart to stand up.
 
Thats why the better new 2-prong adaptors have a depression aroud the holes, keeps them in all nice and secure, without that its a nightmare...
 
Yeah.. but they don't fit all 2 prong plugs, and that doesn't help when you've got a 1Kg brick attached to the plug, molded into one unit, then both plugs next to it are now not available.

I have to put a few magazines under battery charger just to get it to work, which is super annoying when it's the day before that special day you want to have camera ready for and the charger has lost contact during the night.

Whoever designed the 2 prong plug didn't have a father to teach him the boxing stance.

</rant>
 
HaNsA said:
think thats the same thing that happened to me!!! yay so all is not lost!
will any computer shop be able to fix it? are "PE technologies" a computer shop, and did they repair it themselves or what...warranty voided?

btw wisecrack: what enclosure did you have and did it work properly after the incident? i dont want to check if it works by putting another hard drive in it, incase that one gets messed up too!
Click to expand...

Hi there

Yes PE Technologies is a computer shop. My drive was a seagate and they had one or two that had failed. They took the circuit board of the Seagate drive they had and swapped it out with mine.

I had to take the enclosure back to where I bought it as that got damaged to. Luckily it was still under warentee.

My enclosure was a Nextstar 3.
 
:) problem solved. send the drive to computer storage services, www.cssi.co.za , they replaced the PCB etc, just got it back and the data is still on the drive :D couldnt have asked for anything more. cost +-250. and my enclosure still works :D...

all together this incident actually did some good...a 80gig hdd i thought was dead also had its PCB fried i found out, and they are busy repairing it atm...and the 80gig was in an enclosure which i thought didnt work, just found out it still works :D
 
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