Hardware·18,997 discussions

HDD Problem

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I have a problem with my HDD, y plugged it while the PC was on, and i didn’t plug the power cable well, when i did it the PC turned off then i couldn’t turn it on, i unplugged the HDD and the PC works fine but when i plug the HDD the PC turns off and doesn’t power on. Please help, thank you. 🙂

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Clarifications

In reply to HDD Problem

Clarifications

Don’t do that!

In reply to HDD Problem

Never work on the PC with power on.

You may have fried the drive, or something else. The power supply may also be unable to provide enough power any longer.

You can try slaving the drive into a different PC to check it (with the power off). You could also try a different drive in your PC, but with possibly some risk to the drve.

INDEED

In reply to Don’t do that!

I have heard many stories of people installing and removing extra CD Drives and HDs and it all comes down to laziness.

If they had just taked that extra few moments to power the pc off and then wait for it to boot up after the Hardware install it would take less time than trying to figure out what they broke by not disconnecting the power first.

maybe this will be an expensive lesson for you…

Reply

In reply to Don’t do that!

The problem is in the HDD because i have 2 HDDs and the PC works fine with the other one, but when i plug the “broken” one the PC just doesn’t start, the procesor fan starts for like 2 secs then all powers off and i have to unplug the power cable, then the HDD and then plug the power back and turn it on and it works with the other HDD.

IDE? HDD

In reply to Reply

Sounds like you are connecting an IDE hard drive and plugging the ribbon cable on backwards/reversed. That will cause the symptoms you are describing.

If it is an IDE drive make sure the ribbon cable is connected to the motherboard correclty and that the red stripe on the ribbon cable is next to the power connector on the drive end.

If you are connecting two IDE drives on the same cable you also nned to check the jumper settings on the drives.

HDD

In reply to IDE? HDD

How can i check the jumper settings? Well i know how to check the jumper settings but what do i have to do? there are like 4 of those things, like the master/slave thingys on the old HDDs, what do i have to do with them?

Power to the HHD

In reply to IDE? HDD

Plug only the power connector into your “bad” HDD. Don’t plug in the data connector, IDE or Serial.

Then turn on the PC. If the PC continues the action you have described, it powers up and then shuts down, you probably have fried the HDD, and it is really bad.

If the drive spins up, and the PC then works OK, power off the PC and plug in the data connector, and then power the PC again. If it the PC powers up and then down, your data cable could be bad or your HDD is bad. Try a different data connector. In my experience, I have not seen a HDD damaged by connecting the a IDE data cable on backwards to HDD. In that case, I have seen the HDD spin up, but the HDD won’t be recognized by the PC bios.

One other thing to try is to disconnect the other HDD/CD drirves and then connect the “bad” HDD to one of the other power connectors. Power up the PC and see if the HDD spins up. If it does not then its a bad drive. If it does, then the power connector you were trying to use is bad, and maybe now, even the power supply.

HDD

In reply to Power to the HHD

Thank you, i will try that, and if the HDD is fried? Can it be fixed without wiping all the data?? :S

HD Data

In reply to HDD

The HDD data could be recovered, by a professional data recovery service, that cost some bucks.

HDD

In reply to HD Data

Ohh, OK. Thank you! I think this will help, i tried to plug only the power cable (i have 2 cables and i tried both) and the PC still reacts the same way, so i think the HDD is fried… Thank you for the help.

HDD Problem

In reply to HDD Problem

Well, you shouldn’t plug in any HDD onto the Motherboard directly while the PC power is still ON, because it might create a short to the power supply like what you are having now… When that happens most likely your HDD’s motherboard is already fried… Did you try it with another power connector??? This time make sure you power down the PC first… If this works than the power connector is properly bad, or you have over load the power supply… I have seen this before you will need to change the power supply… Hope this helps… What kind of HD are you using???

HDD model

In reply to HDD Problem

Its a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500 gigs, and i changed the power connectors and it didn’t help.

HDD Check…

In reply to HDD model

Is this a SATA drive and did you smell any burn on the HDD’s mother board??? Did you try another drive on the same PC same connector etc??? If you did try another drive on the same PC with the same connector etc and the problem still exist… I would have to say the problem most likely will be the power supply… You can also try to connect the drive onto another PC to see if it is operational… This will give you a most definite answer where the problem is coming from… Hope this helps…

HDD

In reply to HDD Check…

Yes its a SATA drive, i smelled some strange thingy it was like… i cant describe it… but it came from the HDD. Yes i tried the HDD on 2 PCs with 2 power and 2 data connectors and the problem still exists. I think its fried… Thank you for the help guys. 🙂

Good luck.

In reply to HDD

If the data on the drive is important, it might cost some cash to recover it. It may be possible for a technician to replace the drive electronics with a board that matches exactly, at least for long enough to pull the data off (assuming the actuator or platters themselves are not damaged).

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