Woe! need help/advice-- Hard Drive zapped?

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Tue May 03, 2005 2:31 am

well, my opposable thumbs have caused me some grief. I plugged the power supply from my notebook (20v) into the power input for my external HD (12v!!) and the resultant *pop* and smell of burnt electronics indicates something less than optimal has occurred.

It's a maxtor one touch, I've contacted their support via email, but wondering if anyone has had similar mishaps and have been able to correct.

(i guess the lesson is a) one power supply plug at a time b) pay attention to which plug is which and d) don't be an idiot)

David_T · Post by **David_T** » Tue May 03, 2005 3:39 am

oh man that sucks. Have you opened the case up?

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Tue May 03, 2005 5:55 am

David_T wrote:oh man that sucks. Have you opened the case up?

I am sorely tempted, but there is a "breaking seal voids warranty" sticker over one of the screws, so I'll wait to hear back from Maxtor before doing that.

MrYellow · Post by **MrYellow** » Tue May 03, 2005 6:07 am

Sounds like just the electronics are fried. The harddrive should be fine.

Even if the harddrive was totally ruined you'd still be able to get the data
off it. However data recovery professionals charge a hell of a lot as they
know the value of your data. On a side note even after several over-writes
and formats the data is still intact, by looking deeper into the metal
professionals can find remnants of recording that has since been over-
written.

The cheaper solution would be sending it for repairs, while letting them
know that the electronics are to be fixed without compromising the data.

-Ben

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Tue May 03, 2005 6:50 am

Just to second that - Chances are something has burnt out on the controller circuit board, probably not in the drive mechanism itself.

If I was in your position, I would look at opening the case carefully and putting the drive mechanism into another enclosure. Its very easy, you just pull off the internal power supply plug that connects the mechanism to the circuit board, and pull off the ribbon cable. But do discharge any static electricity from your person first.

Your Warranty probably doesn't cover the application of too much juice anyway, so perhaps take it to a local computer repair shop and get them to swap the drive into another enclosure if you are not confident about doing it yourself.

Its a horrible situation to be in... Everyone learns about backup the hard way - hopefully only ONCE

Good Luck!

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Tue May 03, 2005 7:10 am

Thanks very much for the replies, very much.

Yes, PB, right after I posted I thought "d'oh, the warranty was likely fried with whatever else I've cooked

" but I'll wait til they confirm that, then have a look inside and see if there are parts I can order.

spiderprod · Post by **spiderprod** » Tue May 03, 2005 11:14 am

the easiest would be to buy the same drive & exchange the circuit board .

m-laboratories.net · Post by **m-laboratories.net** » Tue May 03, 2005 12:50 pm

I'm not sure that these applications will help your situation, but it's good information for people to have...

My computer recently died and required a reformat of the harddrive. It turns out that it is possible to recover data from a formatted drive - so if you find yourself in that situation, take a look at consumer-level drive recovery software. I actually got back over 75% of the data that I had supposedly formatted@!

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Tue May 03, 2005 4:25 pm

thanks again for the input-- I was too tired to be plugging things together correctly.

As a point of information, one company quated me about $1200

for data recovery.

If I can get a circuit board from the mfgr to replace the old one with, I will buy another drive and transfer everything I need to that just to be sure.

djjooui · Post by **djjooui** » Thu May 05, 2005 4:50 am

Buy a new usb hd case and a new maxtor internal drive. Replace the controller card. Wala, your data should safe. 1/2 hour to fix under $200 to spend. Good luck.

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Thu May 05, 2005 5:27 am

thanks! I decided to do exactly this two days ago, feeling relatively sure that this would work, but it's really good to hear it confirmed, and the case should arrive tomorrow. I got a combo FW USB 2.0, which ends up being something of an upgrade (some solace there:) )

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Thu May 05, 2005 10:21 am

We all have our collective appendages crossed 4 u!!!

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Thu May 05, 2005 5:16 pm

We all have our collective appendages crossed 4 u!!!

appreciate it much, thanks. The cases arrived today, will be doing the "transplant" tonight

BTW, really liked the video, looks like a great time had by all: http://www.pitchblack.co.nz/downloads/p ... _live3.mov

smart1123 · Post by **smart1123** » Thu May 05, 2005 6:31 pm

Get retrospect and a dvd burner.
For next time
http://www.dantz.com

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Fri May 06, 2005 5:19 am

I actually have retrospect, it came with the One Touch that I One Toasted

so I'd be able to use it that waay.

Ok, so here is the final outcome. Maxtor support sent email recommending I go to a data recovery service, got a couple of quotes just to see, they are like $1200.

The main work that was in progress on the drive, I had mastered to CD prior to this, and while there was other data that was useful and will be missed I can live without it at that price, and the new case for the drive was my next plan.

I found a case I liked, so ordered two, both came to about $US 90 with shipping. Arrives two days later.

The new case has a fan and an LED, it's cool it looks like this:

Tonight, I disassemble the Maxtor unit successfully, it definitely seems like the 'fried electro smell' is isolated to the controller circuit board attached to the case.

I remove the hard drive, disconnect the power and ribbon cables, and set it into the new case, connecting it's power and ribbon cables.

This all goes fairly smoothly. I connect the DC power (the power supply has a *completely* different type of plug

) to the new case with the transplanted drive, and turn it on.

But the LED is blinking, this doesn't seem right, and the fan is spinning weakly and only periodically "wirr wirr wirr", the LEDs are blinking regularly, which seems a little odd.

The USB cable is plugged into the notebook. I check the drives visible to the OS. No external drive is indicated. Uhhrrg. This is the bad thing I did not want to see.

I disconnect the disk drive from the from the power supply to the case, the fan runs continuously "weeeeeshhhh" and the LEDs are on continuously, which I'm guessing is normal behavior. The drive does not seem to be spinning--- with the drive in the power chain, something is not right, seems like the drive-based circuitry *is* cooked also.

So, drat. I'm sure the platters are OK, ha the data is definitely safe

and I'll put some nice HDs in these cases and declare it could be worse

thanks again for the replies.

Woe! need help/advice-- Hard Drive zapped?

Am I Hosed?

Woe! need help/advice-- Hard Drive zapped?

just somethign

Yes I've done this as well.