Hard Drive Restore...

OK first off let me say that Im a moron. I was driving to my friend's house w/ my computer parts in the back of my car (where my two 500W subwoofers and amp are). After constructing my computer, the hard drive wasnt turning on or being recognized when I booted up. This is a Maxtor 16GIG HD that I had in my old computer. My question to you is:

Is there any way to restore this harddrive? The old data on there is unimportant, because I was going to reformat anyways, but I just need to know if there is any way to fix my HD, so I can use it again....

Thanks for your help guys.

Dave

 

In addition:

Does anyone know any good deals on harddrives right now? Im looking for 30-60GIG somewhere around there. Thanks again.

Dave

 

check www.pricewatch.com or www.pricegrabber.com or even www.microcenter.com

Brian

 

First question is, are you sure you had power to the HD? The ribbon cable was plugged in right? Doesn’t matter which way it’s plugged in as long as you followed the right path. There is a line, usually blue, that is drawn down the ribbon cable. This denotes “Pin 1” as a reference. You can have it as pin 40 if you want but it has to be plugged into the HD the same as it is on the mainboard. I can’t imagine what the speakers would have done to the HD to stop it from working. Worse case is the data would be lost because of the magnetism. Anyway check that it’s plugged in and you have power before you send it to the scrap pile.

 

Well the speakers actually screwed up both CD Drives I had in the back of my car as well. All three of them wouldnt even have power run through them. I exchanged my 2 CD Drives back at the store, and bought a new HD. All three of those components work fine now, but that old harddrive still wont have power run through it..... wadaya think???

 

wow....ok then.... lol

 

If you tried what I advised and it still didn't work you are pretty much up Sam’s creek. I do not still nor do any of my cronies know how just setting these drives next to a speaker would totally destroy them. Wipe the HD info for sure but to totally disable the CD's is amazing. I guess it could have damaged an IC or such on the board. But even that is amazing. You had to have hit a bump that was harder that you think. There are companies around the USA that specialize in retrieving data from damaged hard drives. Fire, Water, impact etc. I still think you hit a bump that to you was nothing but in the rear right over the shocks/axel is bounced the drives enough to damage them.

 

It depends on the size of the speakers and whether this equipment was within the magnetic field.
All speakers have magnets. Magnets CAN and WILL destroy electronic components and magnetic media.

 

Ok but magnetism, in this instance is not enough to damage to the COMPONENT level a CD ROM device. (From Smokey: A severe magnetic field could generate hysterisis currents in the drive motor and cause burn out of the windings.) I don’t think this has happened in your case. We are talking a large field to do this type of damage. It would however erase the HD. But there is nothing in either device that would have been affected by magnetism to the point of destroying the unit. To not even power up. I have no explanation but if the magnetism and vibration of those speakers damaged these components this bad then you are in danger yourself! It has never been proven and some say that magnetism can be bad or good for you but this is just strange that these speakers damaged to a component level failure on the HD OR CD ROMS! Were these speakers in cabinets by the way? Or just free floating around? In 20 plus years of electronics I have never seen speaker damage a "Component" to the point it failed to work after this type of expose. And I have done more car/truck/boat/airplane/bus installs and repairs than I can count. Stick it in an MRI machine etc and yea, it would cook it but not a car speaker. It may have lead to data failure but that’s about it. This is not even an electro magnet it’s passive. It would not have been worth the time but I would have liked to broke the unit down and ran down the actual failure. This is just one persons ideas, if there is someone to better explain what happened I am all ears… That’s how you learn so I’m told… Stranger things have happened I suppose…

 

Ditto

 

They were in my back seat of my Intrepid. The 2 CD-ROMS were mounted into my new case but not connected to anything. My 2 500W subwoofers are in a box (cabinet whatever) in my trunk, but pushed up against the back seat. There is an amp (im not sure how powerful) mounted to the back of my box(cabinet). OK lets say I did go over a large bump... Which might have happened, because I drove 40 minutes to get to my destination, and its all country roads.

Are there any ways to troubleshoot this HD. Maybe it was just that power source that I was using..... What are some ways I can try to at least power up my HD. I dont give 2 craps about restoring my data.....

thnx.....

 

More info comes out… Now that you mention country roads etc. Most hard drives are designed to take about a 3 to 5 “G” impact. About the impact of slapping yourself on the forehead with the palm of your hand or say a frying pan, iron that is, for not setting the drives in the back seat I would say there lays your problem. To my knowledge there is no repair for damage like this. What I would check is open the power supply and make sure no fuses or connectors were knocked loose. Would not take much if it were setting just right. I can see the HD failing but the CD’s should at least throw an error. Turn on the power supply and with a digital voltmeter see if you have the 12volts on the yellow I believe and 5volts (both DC) on the blue. I think the brown wire? Is the 3volt DC line. But for sure the 12 & 5 volt must be present. I would run the drive(s) over to a buddy’s house and plug them up as slave and see if it can be read. Ok, 16 gig, not a big loss. Make sure jumpers are still on the drive. I would be more suspicious of the power supply for now...

 

Maxtor may be helpful.
Check with them.
Else, it may make a nice paperweight.

 

The power supply is fine, its just the hard drive thats crapped out...... digital volumeter....yeah let me just pick that one up out of my garage lol! thnx for the suggestions though....

 

If you want you can pick up a DVM from Radio Shack for about $10 maybe $20. Or if your going to use it professionaly buy one like my Fluke, has a plotter, voltage holds etc. Only $599 Or Sperry, only $375 for that one. This is kind of why electronics repair can get expensive. A simple dual trace 100 MHz scope, used, can easily run $300 to $800. New 200 up Mhz scope for working on DVD etc. can easily cost $5000 plus. Mike

 

Or I can just buy a new HD w/ that money. Im not that electric-savvy lol! but thnx though