teensy weensy little problem - involving smoke, electronics and a dead hdd :(

st0rmgh0st · 01-19-2006, 01:45 AM

My cousin decided to "fix" one of my office pc's - the network card wasn't perfectly lined up - resulting in him wanting to move it just a tad.....

so, with a screwdriver in one hand ... he comes to me all unsure and all - tells me that I need to come and have a look - the pc just rebooted all by itself.

After much deliberation and a load of restarts, I wonder why the bios wouldn't pick up the hdd, it worked fine just moments ago....

i notice a funny smell..... so then he tells me that the pc was on - as in running in windows on, while he was moving the card around - and as he touched the card - the hdd went up in smoke.

now, i need to know what are my chances of data recovery - and how on earth did him touching the card end up in burning my hdd?

That smell reminding me of the death of my career in this company.....

sorry for the double post!!!!

could someone please delete it?

Fam1x · 01-19-2006, 03:50 AM

you could try data recovery people whom can recovere most things from a HDD but its not cheap. YOu can try taking out the pc and installing it as a second drive on another xp machine and see if youcan still read the HDD, if it fails then your best working out how important the information is on the HDD and is it worth sending it too the proffessionals.

**linderman** · 01-19-2006, 05:40 AM

yeah try the drive in another machine as a slave >>>>> hopefully that will give you some oppurtunities to recover the data >>>>> most likely it should >>> moving around anything in a running computer is suicidal >>> most likely he grounded something out will "working" on the machine >>>> my bet would be drive is ok but mobo is DOA

regards

joe

~~whodat~~ · 01-19-2006, 08:49 AM

try this

if you didnt want to open the second computer up with the deadly screw driver

good luck and post back

st0rmgh0st · 01-24-2006, 03:21 AM

right - i can finally get back to you guys with a proper answer :) If I had posted earlier you would have gotten various versions of a hysterical me

1. Mobo and everything attached to it works 100%
2. Hdd was burnt on a number of spots

I worked with a techie friend of mine and tried a whole bunch of things - including one that was mention in another post about swopping the "electronic board" (dunno if that's what it's called).

This was a slight mission because although the 80Gb seagate is easy enought to find - the problem is that two manufacturers make the same hdd with the exact same model number. The only difference is one says "MADE IN CHINA" and the other "MADE IN SINGAPORE".

So after getting hold of a hdd, we realised that it didn't fit - had me hopping up and down shouting curses at the person who sold me the "gray" drive - phone seagate...... they said the drive was not "gray" - phewwwwww. Apparently the same model does exist for the same drive made in 2 different countries with 2 different boards - go figure.

I didn't lose any data - (i'm going to sound very intelligent now ....) because the platters were not damaged

Thank you so much for the advice in this forum - you guys are absolutely brilliant!!!!

(btw the screwdriver of death was in actual fact a spoon..... needless to say the techie-to-be cousin hangs upside down behind my cupboard door.)

01-19-2006, 01:45 AM	#1 (permalink)
st0rmgh0st Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: South Africa Posts: 5 OS: XP Pro	teensy weensy little problem - involving smoke, electronics and a dead hdd :( My cousin decided to "fix" one of my office pc's - the network card wasn't perfectly lined up - resulting in him wanting to move it just a tad..... so, with a screwdriver in one hand ... he comes to me all unsure and all - tells me that I need to come and have a look - the pc just rebooted all by itself. After much deliberation and a load of restarts, I wonder why the bios wouldn't pick up the hdd, it worked fine just moments ago.... i notice a funny smell..... so then he tells me that the pc was on - as in running in windows on, while he was moving the card around - and as he touched the card - the hdd went up in smoke. now, i need to know what are my chances of data recovery - and how on earth did him touching the card end up in burning my hdd? That smell reminding me of the death of my career in this company..... sorry for the double post!!!! could someone please delete it? Last edited by st0rmgh0st; 01-19-2006 at 01:47 AM.

01-19-2006, 05:40 AM	#3 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,440 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	yeah try the drive in another machine as a slave >>>>> hopefully that will give you some oppurtunities to recover the data >>>>> most likely it should >>> moving around anything in a running computer is suicidal >>> most likely he grounded something out will "working" on the machine >>>> my bet would be drive is ok but mobo is DOA regards joe __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

01-19-2006, 03:50 AM	#2 (permalink)
Fam1x Registered User Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 2 OS: Windows XP	you could try data recovery people whom can recovere most things from a HDD but its not cheap. YOu can try taking out the pc and installing it as a second drive on another xp machine and see if youcan still read the HDD, if it fails then your best working out how important the information is on the HDD and is it worth sending it too the proffessionals.

01-19-2006, 08:49 AM	#4 (permalink)
~~whodat~~ Register user Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 5,931 OS: XP	try this if you didnt want to open the second computer up with the deadly screw driver good luck and post back

01-24-2006, 03:21 AM	#5 (permalink)
st0rmgh0st Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: South Africa Posts: 5 OS: XP Pro	right - i can finally get back to you guys with a proper answer :) If I had posted earlier you would have gotten various versions of a hysterical me 1. Mobo and everything attached to it works 100% 2. Hdd was burnt on a number of spots I worked with a techie friend of mine and tried a whole bunch of things - including one that was mention in another post about swopping the "electronic board" (dunno if that's what it's called). This was a slight mission because although the 80Gb seagate is easy enought to find - the problem is that two manufacturers make the same hdd with the exact same model number. The only difference is one says "MADE IN CHINA" and the other "MADE IN SINGAPORE". So after getting hold of a hdd, we realised that it didn't fit - had me hopping up and down shouting curses at the person who sold me the "gray" drive - phone seagate...... they said the drive was not "gray" - phewwwwww. Apparently the same model does exist for the same drive made in 2 different countries with 2 different boards - go figure. I didn't lose any data - (i'm going to sound very intelligent now ....) because the platters were not damaged Thank you so much for the advice in this forum - you guys are absolutely brilliant!!!! (btw the screwdriver of death was in actual fact a spoon..... needless to say the techie-to-be cousin hangs upside down behind my cupboard door.)