When Things Go Very Bad

[Codifer]

After a suggestion from RustyBlade about the heft of power supply sufficient to run a crossfire set up I began to research PSU upgrades. Power supply that I have is an Antec 400w that came with the case when I built this computer about six years ago and has been very reliable. I think I have settled on an Antec 1000w Quattro for a replacement and that should have enough oomph to satisfy any future upgrades.

 

That's the good news.

 

Quite by coincidence the daughter's computer, which we built only two years ago, went Snap-Crackle-Smoke. The source of the smoke was the power supply of course. I did not think it to be a very bad thing and made plans to replace her PSU. She was worried that there might be further damage as she had been working on several short stories and they were not backed up anywhere. To ease her mind I retrieved her hard drive and placed it in my computer as a second and got.... nothing. It was totally DOA. I have since learned that a violent melt down of the PSU can, in some cases, send a spike of energy through the system and fry everything.... motherboard, RAM, CPU and hard drive. Only viable components left are the case and fans.

 

The greatest loss was the stories. Those are impossible to duplicate in the same form.

 

My question is: has anyone ever tried to retrieve data from a fried hard drive? Is it possible? Is it horribly expensive?

 

Codifer

[RustyBlade]

It is possible and it is very expensive. There may be services local to you that do it but in most cases it requires you to send the drive off. Expect to pay at least $300 US for a modest size drive and here's the kicker: no guarantees :(

[Thandal]

It is possible and it is very expensive. There may be services local to you that do it but in most cases it requires you to send the drive off. Expect to pay at least $300 US for a modest size drive and here's the kicker: no guarantees :(

I have used such a service AND had excellent results! But mine was a special situation that did NOT involve a hardware failure.

 

Here's how it usually works:

 

1. You send dead drive to data recovery service, agreeing to their minimum diagnostic charge which is probably somewhere between US$75 - $300.

.

2. They do a quick analysis to determine extent of damage and likeihood of success.

 

3. At this point they SHOULD provide an estimate of the overall cost, and the expected results expressed as a percentage of the total data they determine is on the drive. (But as RB said, no guarantees!)

 

4. You SHOULD now have the option of approving the recovery attempt with your initial fee being credited towards the entire bill, (regardless of success) or of getting your drive back unrecovered, having paid only the initial fee.

 

5. The results will all depend on the nature and amount of the damage. If the surge simply fried the drive's imbedded controller, which would make it DAO when placed in another computer, then the data is probably fine.

 

(In my own case it was totally my mistake with the FDISK command. "F'd MY disk!", that's for sure! :laugh: )

[Codifer]

Thank you both for the (sort of) good news. I am glad that such recovery expertise is available outside of the CIA/FBI.

 

The expense is prohibitive considering what it will cost to get her computer back on line (and her Dragon Age restored) so I think that she must wait for the Muse to tap her on the shoulder again to duplicate the stories.

 

I have gathered that PSUs do not last for very long after the warranty period. I guess that I have been very lucky to have had one that has performed for six years or so.... and that at at least 12 hours a day average. The problem with PSUs (so I have read) lies in the cost effectiveness of sealing the capacitors against evaporation of whatever it is that they contain. Past a certain level and the capacitor will have a melt down.

 

I am sure that my next step will be replacing my PSU with the Antec Quattro (on the "more is better" principle) which can be had at Fry''s for $120 or so.

 

I figure that it is cheap insurance....... I would hate to lose Dragon Age.

 

Cheers and thank you

[Thandal]

... I am sure that my next step will be replacing my PSU with the Antec Quattro (on the "more is better" principle) which can be had at Fry''s for $120 or so.

 

I figure that it is cheap insurance....... I would hate to lose Dragon Age.

 

Cheers and thank you

Go with a 1TB+ external drive! Backups are the best "cheap insurance".

 

(To paraphrase a certain campaign, "It's the data, Stupid!" :tongue: )

[DarkeWolf]

Ok, wait a second. have you ever hooked up a second or third HDD in a system before? If not... then this is something that you need to know.

You can't just plug it in, and expect it to work. There are jumper settings that you have to set up, you have to have it plugged into the correct jack on the ribbon, and you have to have it set up as the secondary/slave drive, not the master drive.

 

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=how+to+install+a+secondary+hard+drive&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10

 

this is of course assuming that we're talking about PC's and not laptops.

 

If you HAVE correctly installed the second drive, then yeah, it might be fried.

 

Another good word of advice is that if you see smoke, smell something burning in there, or anything like that... shut the system down, unplug it, and open it up.

Fried fans, PSU's, Overheating CPU's, Overheating HDD's... nasty stuff that can do some nasty damage.

[RustyBlade]

You can't just plug it in, and expect it to work. There are jumper settings that you have to set up, you have to have it plugged into the correct jack on the ribbon, and you have to have it set up as the secondary/slave drive, not the master drive.

 

Unless it is a SATA drive, then you can plug it in and go.

[Codifer]

Ok, wait a second. have you ever hooked up a second or third HDD in a system before? If not... then this is something that you need to know.

You can't just plug it in, and expect it to work. There are jumper settings that you have to set up, you have to have it plugged into the correct jack on the ribbon, and you have to have it set up as the secondary/slave drive, not the master drive.

 

Damn. This must be my head slap moment for the month. You are absolutely right, I did not reset the jumper son the drives. Now I feel dumb.

 

For most of the summer I had been having problems getting my computer to work properly after replacing the hard drive. The problems I was experiencing were Windoze xp not liking my set up when I installed service pack three and the Dragon Age tool set causing a constant reboot on SP2. I had been using various combinations of drives as singles and doubles. Of course I was in the habit then of resetting the drive jumpers.

 

I have absolutely no idea why this basic requirement fled my attention. I will try again with the proper procedure. This could save much money as well as cheering up the daughter.

 

You have my thanks.

 

Cheers

[Codifer]

Alas there is still no joy. Both hdds set to "Cable Select" on the jumpers and "Auto Detect" applied in the BIOS. Detected nothing.

 

I will still keep trying. Perhaps Fry's could run a quick "dead or alive" check on the suspect hdd. I must go there anyway and there is no harm in trying.

 

Thank you all for your help.

 

Cheers

[Thandal]

More potential facepalm triggers;

 

As an IT junky since 1983, and an IT professional since 1997, I can say that "Cable Select" is the LAST option I would use when trying to determine if a drive is working. Many motherboards and/or IDE controllers don't even recognize that setting as a valid one.

 

Set the jumpers for your Boot Drive as the Master, and you daughter's as the Slave, then use a two-drive ribbon cable attached to the Primary controller (Drive0) interface. "Auto Detect" in the BIOS is correct for both drives.

 

That way you YOU control how everything should behave and be recognized.