Hard Drive Trouble Again

[dustinwadams5]

I had two hard drives in my computer a 40gb and an 80gb with the 80 being the master and the 40 being the slave. I had them sitting inside my comp because I was still doing work on it. The computer got bumped and one of the hard drives slid wrong on the other I guess, but I smelt smoke and turned off the comp and moved the hard drives apart. One part of the 80gb hard drive on the board on the bottom had a small part where it had burnt. Now my computer won't even detect a hard drive is present. Can anybody tell me 1 - How it got burnt by another hard drive? 2 - Is it pretty much kaput or is it salvagable?

[Cooldad79]

I would say since they where just sitting in there and not fastened securely, they weren't properly grounded and when they touched it created a ground between the two. I would say that they are not in very good shape at this point. Just my opinion.

[dodgehighforeve]

By on the bottom, you mean the circuit board? If you made a conncection between two points, and the case of the second, it could short it out. My guess would be that, if the 80 is still set as the master, and is no good, your mobo won't find either. Or, you could have burned up one of your IDE slots when they shorted out.

Try pulling the 80gb, and set the 40 as a master. If it works, then chances are your mobo, and IDE controller are fine. You might be able to get a replacement board for the 80gb, but chances are the board is shot, and possibly the internal electrical components could be also.

Feel free to jump in Tee, you've been doing this longer than I have.

[Tee]

Most likely you toasted the controller on the 80 gb drive. Like DodgeHigh says, try switching them and see if at least the 40 gb is detected. You could always use the secondary IDE channel and disable the primary if it turns out to be the IDE controller that is blown.


First thing you should do is reduce the system to the simplest configuration. Put one drive in the system on the primary IDE channel and set the drive as a standalone (usually no jumper). See if you system dectects it- if so your Primary MB IDE controller is good, along with the cable. Then try the same with the 80gig as a standalone- my guess is, this is when you will see the problem. I am betting that you toasted the hard drive controller board on the 80 gig drive. It still may work as a slave unless essential circuitry has been damaged.

[dustinwadams5]

It recognizes the 40g and I am using it as the master, but even as a slave drive it just doesn't even show that the 80g is hooked up, so I guess it's pretty much shot.

[Tee]

yep.

Walk away with a lesson learned. Always properly mount all drives and add-in cards.

[dustinwadams5]

Thanks anyways, but the board itself isn't damages it's just one I don't know what you call them(electronics aren't my strong suit.)little black box thing on the board that was damaged. Any way to repair that part or no?

[Zeb]

Probably couldn't repair the drive yourself anyway and sending in would cost more to repair than to buy a new one IMO.