[hermesdfo]

I was upgrading my pc, and tried to pull a screw out with a magnet to remove the hard drives. Since then the computer doesn't boot. I reinstalled windows and it does copy the instalation files, but on the reboot the bios says that there's an error reading the hard drive. I have run several utilities available in hiren's boot cd, and even tried a low level format tool, but none of them seems to work. so, my question is: a magnet causes irreparable damage on a hard drive? i think the surface is ok, since several tools said that, but hdd regenerator sometimes fin about 900 bad sector in 1000 sectors, and sometimes, doesn't find anything. i've reseted the mbr. do i really have to buy another? i had my thesis there :S.. thanks anyway

***
update: after a lot of internet, i found that a magnet could not erase the disc, but i can't find if it would do anything to other components.

 

[Old Rich]

and welcome to the Forum

Not likely that the magnet did any harm . . why were you wanting to remove the drive? What kind of driver? . . SATA or IDE?

 

[HD_Monkey]

First of all, NEVER USE MAGNETS NEAR HARD DRIVES!. Second, no it should not cause irreparable damage to the drive. It will only erase/corrupt your data. However, something could have shorted during the process of removal/reinstallation. Try downloading and running drive diagnostic utilities for the manufacturer of your hard drive. These are available for free at manufacturer's site. Was the low level format tool from the HDD manufacturer or a third party? Sounds like the drive is corrupted, but may be salvageable.

 

[hermesdfo]

ide western digital 80 gb, and i tried the manufacturer tools... it wrote zeros on the whole disk, but still when i try to install windows it says there's an read error. this is my hard drive: http://wdc-es.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc_es.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=708&p_created=#jumper and the tools from the manufacturer http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=502&sid=1&lang=ls

 

[HD_Monkey]

Did you do the low level format in dos?

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=502&sid=45&lang=en

 

[Old Rich]

why were you wanting to remove the drive?

 

[hermesdfo]

i wanted to change cabinet and yes, i tried on dos , still doesn't work... i guess i'll try every program in the hiren's cd and a diferent windows (maybe an unattended version)... i'm running out of ideas :sigh:

 

[HD_Monkey]

i wanted to change cabinet and yes, i tried on dos , still doesn't work... i guess i'll try every program in the hiren's cd and a diferent windows (maybe an unattended version)... i'm running out of ideas :sigh:

You tried on dos? Did you low level format in dos? This app. usually takes about 8-12 hours to run. I am talking about the factory recertification utility. Is this what you used?

 

[Wrench97]

Try a new ribbon cable.

 

[hermesdfo]

yes, i tried on dos... actually i have spent the last 4 days trying to fix this... and i tried another cable... and another computer...

 

[Wrench97]

If you have tried the drive on a different PC using a different cable then I would think the drive has failed.

 

[hermesdfo]

Si, creo k ya me estoy resignando a ke mi disco duro ya cumplio su lapso de vida... de todos modos, gracias por la ayuda... si a alguien se le odurre algo milagroso, ke me avise :__;

 

[hermesdfo]

Sorry about my last post... i'm kind of frustrated... anyway, it seems that i finally know what's going on, mi hard drive has irreversible damage (error 0120) and there's nothing i can do, so i better check for new hard drives :S, thanks anyway

 

[Old Rich]

I was afraid of that . .

You can mark this thread as solved by clicking on the Thread Tools link in your first post . .

 

[raptor_pa]

Considering there are two pretty potent rare earth magnets inside the drive enclosure right next to the platters to power the voice coil that moves the heads, magnetism at most home magnet levels will not cause any damage. Degausing a drive takes a pretty potent EMField.