Comments | katryxx: I want to throw up.

katryxx

I want to throw up.

Aug 20, 2007 18:48

I just got home and my computer wouldn't start up. There was a power outage, and Jon messed around with all my harddrives and determined that my main one (the little one with the OS and programs) is okay, while my 40G is spinning up but not reading. This means that all my music (almost 20G worth) is gone, which is a shame. Worse than that, ALL ( Read more... )

Comments 23

anonymous August 21 2007, 01:12:07 UTC

Swapping out logic boards on an HDD is probably not possible unless they were purchased at the same time. Revisions to drives in the way of firmware and/or platter density, despite similar model numbers. Impossible? I don't know, I've never tried, but I wouldn't count on this to work. If the drive is spinning up, I'm not sure it's possible for the logic board to be dead, as the drive should do nothing at all.

Does the drive make any noise? Like a crunching sound? Does it spin up and spin down?

If it's making a crunching sound you might be able to get 20m of use out of it by leaving it in the freezer for about 20-30m. I know it sounds weird, but it works.

If the drive is spinning up and down, then the drive is probably fine, but rather it's the PSU that's gone bad. Your 12v Rail in your PSU is dying and not able to properly supply power to the drive. Power outages can cause this by over-volting the PSU and weakening the rails

anonymous August 21 2007, 01:17:43 UTC

In fact, I'm going to suggest not attempting to swap out the logic boards, especially if it's powering up, until you have exhausted ALL other possibilities. If you can describe the sound that it's making, I may be able to better help you.

I feel like I'm praying to the faceless god of internet wisdom... katryxx August 21 2007, 01:49:18 UTC

Hmm. Imagine a very, very quiet analog/battery operated clock ticking, only two or three ticks every ... um... half to two thirds of a second, with very little time between ticks. di di di ... ... ... didi di ... ...

The logic board swap won't even be possible until it gets here, four+ days from now. That's a long time for me to be in this much suspense. :(

Any other ideas after the freezer trick? Or before?

katryxx August 21 2007, 01:27:01 UTC

Woah. Thanks. I personally only know as far as Jon's said out loud, so I will have him read this and give your advice a try.

As far as the logic board swap, he said he's 1 for 2 on the attempts, so this'll be a last resort.

It is spinning up, and it makes some repetitive noises, but certainly nothing I would call crunching... more like little tiny ticks, very quiet. Still worth a try in the freezer?

We think the PSU is okay because the whole computer is functioning fine with the big drive removed, and the drive failed similarly when put into a different machine. :( Is it possible for the PSU to fail for only a secondary drive?

Thanks again your help, and any other information or ideas that might save my poor drive!

Thread 9

chickenmoon August 21 2007, 01:23:51 UTC

Hopefully the hardware swap will do the trick. If not, there are clever folks that specialize in data recovery. Not cheap, but I think it is too soon to say they're lost.

katryxx August 21 2007, 01:28:10 UTC

Yeah, I'm hoping it won't be too cost prohibitive if it comes down to that.

Good Christ, this has raised my blood pressure beyond all necessary limits.

chickenmoon August 21 2007, 01:30:48 UTC

It'll be okay.

katryxx August 21 2007, 01:51:15 UTC

I'm viscerally reminded of my mom, who lost all her childhood pictures and mementos at her parents' house in Mississipp during Katrina. She was there like two months before it hit, and she thought about bringing it with her when she was leaving, but didn't. It's just so damn SAD.

emulsion_lift August 21 2007, 02:23:44 UTC

oh no buddy that really sucks. sorta makes me feel a little less crazy for saving everything in duplicate over 3TB worth of drives.

katryxx August 21 2007, 03:03:56 UTC

Not crazy at all. Not even a little.

I feel I should chime in..... arsonfire August 21 2007, 05:17:55 UTC

As the elusive "Jon" that is mentioned but never types, I figure I should give my 2 cents. I come from a background of building computers since the days of the 8086 so I'm hoping i've learned something in all those years. The drive model is a WD1200BB which was part of an external enclosure that WD provided but I pulled it out to make it an internal IDE slave drive. The drive sounds mechanically sound. The second you provide it power it spins up and sounds like any healthy drive. There are no clicking, crunching or other head related issues with this drive. Kate heard me talking about this when we had both drives plugged into her system but jumpered wrong which caused a seek issue w/ the primary master as both drives were jumpered this way. The problem resolved when I actually set the drives up properly in her system. The real issue is that the systems (Plural) that the WD drive is plugged into do not recognize it even at the BIOS level. This is very typically an issues with the board on the drive itself and not a physical ( ... )

Re: I feel I should chime in..... katryxx August 21 2007, 22:24:49 UTC

Hi sweetness!

partypanda August 21 2007, 17:04:02 UTC

My heart goes out to you.

My computer started shitting itself a couple of weeks ago and my heart stopped when someone said that it might be the hard drive, as I too had never backed any of my stuff up. Fortunately my hard drive is fine and I was able to fix my computer, but holy shit, that is such a horrifying experience. I'm crossing my fingers for you!

katryxx August 21 2007, 22:21:06 UTC

Thank you :) It's good to hear from you! How are ya these days?

partypanda August 22 2007, 16:05:30 UTC

I'm doing awesome! I'm working at a company in Boulder that sells custom built computers and servers (which would suggest I know more about computers than I actually do). I came in as an admin assistant, and moved up very quickly, so now i'm an account manager, and the unofficial manager of our sales team. The company is soooooo amazing, and I love everyone I work with. Next week I get to go visit some of our clients in Chicago, Atlanta, and Miami (beach!). Other than that, I'm still tooling around!