Part of my hard drive exploded! Help needed. - Hardware & Software

I might get you pics later but it's unlikely as I'm on some awful Linux-powered laptop... Anyway, last night my a microchip on my hard drive exploded leaving a white mark on it, and half a smaller chip missing (revealing a coil inside). This happened while it was switched on, and I believe the PSU to be at fault (please tell me if you somehow know otherwise). The PC reports that there is no bootable media inserted, although it DOES manage to spin the drive. What should I try? I have no backups AT ALL of ANYTHING so knowing how much I should be prepared to pay would help. I can only pray it's not as high as I've heard.

IF you're really REALLY lucky, then you can just get another identical harddrive, and swap out the pcb's, and it'll work fine and dandy afterwards.

I really hope there wasnt anything valuable on that drive. It is broken beyond repair. The only way to recover any data off it would be to find an identical drive and replace the logic board with the new one, this however is a very difficult process and may require a clean room/area and pcb soldering skills. It's not doable unless you have good experience with pcb soldering and handling. As for the PSU, what kind is it (wattage/make), did it come with your case (or prebuilt pc), or did you buy it separately when you built the pc? Shitty PSU's can over-volt on various lines and cause things to blow.

If you get the same model HD, exact same one, you can swap out the main circuitry. I've done this before and it works. You just have to be careful when you're doing it.

I'm pretty sure as long as the disk in intact, you can still retrieve the data, although it's not an operation to be undertaken by a single person, if the hard drive is still under warranty, send it back to the manufacturer and tell them you'd like them to recover the data for you, if not, I'm sure there are some services out there which will remove the disk and retrieve the data for you, for a fee of course.

[QUOTE=cosmic duck;17531343]I really hope there wasnt anything valuable on that drive. It is broken beyond repair. The only way to recover any data off it would be to find an identical drive and replace the logic board with the new one, this however is a very difficult process and may require a clean room/area and pcb soldering skills. It's not doable unless you have good experience with pcb soldering and handling. As for the PSU, what kind is it (wattage/make), did it come with your case (or prebuilt pc), or did you buy it separately when you built the pc? Shitty PSU's can over-volt on various lines and cause things to blow.[/QUOTE] I really hope you're wrong, as everything I've created in the last 3/4 years was on there. I was due to back it all up tomorrow. The irony is horrible.

[QUOTE=DementNeo;17532869]I really hope you're wrong, as everything I've created in the last 3/4 years was on there. I was due to back it all up tomorrow. The irony is horrible.[/QUOTE] Heard of backups? [b]Edit:[/b] Hmm I'll read to the end of the sentence next time

[QUOTE=apwd007;17532915]Heard of backups?[/QUOTE] I think he has.. You should read the [I]whole[/I] post before commenting.

[QUOTE=DementNeo;17532869]I really hope you're wrong, as everything I've created in the last 3/4 years was on there. I was due to back it all up tomorrow. The irony is horrible.[/QUOTE] How old is the hard-drive, and what model??

A very new Samsung 1TB, about 1/2 month(s) old Samsung claim no responsibility over my data, so apparently I'll need to find an external method of repairing it

[QUOTE=DementNeo;17533468]A very new Samsung 1TB, about 1/2 month(s) old Samsung claim no responsibility over my data, so apparently I'll need to find an external method of repairing it[/QUOTE] Is it the F1 Series?? Because the 1 Terabyte version of the F1 series are prone to fail prematurely, while the 750 gigabyte model is damn reliable.

It's the F2 series. It's my fault for continuing to use the PSU after a stick of my RAM died, I suppose.

When I saw it was a 1TB Samsung, I shit my pants. I have an F1 though... *backs up*

[QUOTE=Van-man;17531287]IF you're really REALLY lucky, then you can just get another identical harddrive, and swap out the pcb's, and it'll work fine and dandy afterwards.[/QUOTE] The only problem with that is you need the EXACT SAME firmware on the board too, or it won't work... so you're really taking a gamble there.

[QUOTE=Pixel Heart;17533977]The only problem with that is you need the EXACT SAME firmware on the board too, or it won't work... so you're really taking a gamble there.[/QUOTE] Correction. It needs to be the same, or newer firmware. If it's an older firmware, then he's screwed.

[QUOTE=DementNeo;17533771]It's the F2 series. It's my fault for continuing to use the PSU after a stick of my RAM died, I suppose.[/QUOTE] Hey at least it isn't a Deathstar, I mean Deskstar :v: Plug it in, wonder why it's not working, :saddowns: for a bit, then bitch. I really am risking my data on one of their "fixed" revision, but what the hell, it's not dead yet.

[QUOTE=hexpunK;17534552]Hey at least it isn't a Deathstar, I mean Deskstar :v: Plug it in, wonder why it's not working, :saddowns: for a bit, then bitch. I really am risking my data on one of their "fixed" revision, but what the hell, it's not dead yet.[/QUOTE] Ohboy, I've had my fair share of problems with deathstar harddrives. One moment it doesn't work, the other moment it's working fine.

This is one reason why I love Windows 7, automatic backup software built in.

[QUOTE=Roast Beast;17535636]This is one reason why I love Windows 7, automatic backup software built in.[/QUOTE] A) I use Windows 7. B) Where was it supposed to back it up to? Only one HDD was plugged in.

[QUOTE=DementNeo;17536170]A) I use Windows 7. B) Where was it supposed to back it up to? Only one HDD was plugged in.[/QUOTE] Wasn't really referring to your case, just hard drive failures in general. I never bothered with regular backups until I got Windows 7.

Replacing the controller board on the drive is a long shot and usually doesn't work. About the only thing you can do to get the data back would be to send it to one of those data recovery places, which is extremely expensive. If there's stuff on the drive that you can't live without then be prepared to pay $500 or more for service at one of those data recovery places.

Eeep, that's not really much of a choice. All I can do is hope you're wrong. I should be getting a price quote tomorrow, from the repair lab suggested on the Samsung site. Apparently I can get [i]up to[/i] a 40% discount from them too, as it's a Samsung drive.

I had a drive (deathstar hurf) that died with all of my stuff on it and the absolute cheapest recovery job I could find is $500, and that was without a guarantee they could even recover the data.

nothing scarier than the silent tick tock sound of your hard drive R/w arm.. then you hear it thrash around... sounds like pandoras box has been opened in your hard drive.. you get crc errors, big popups corrupted hard drive messages... programs crash, explorer crashes, then you get a bsod. reboot... hdd isn't detected... fucking scary good thing i backed it up

you can fix it, if it was only the circut then you can go about buying the exact same drive and replacing it, takes a while but it can be done

You could try asking Samsung very nicely to send you a new board from the same model / revision, with the same firmware which yours has. They should be able to work out what setup is required from the drive's serial number.

There are some services that can get the data off, though it will cost a few thousand. You can try a PCB swap if you feel like it. [editline]11:49AM[/editline] [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__2A3hSe_Dc[/url] Hard drive failings are not fun :(

[i][highlight]£515[/highlight][/i] At my age there's no way I can afford this, so I'm going to have to look for details on a PCB swap I guess... that or phone Samsung? [editline]05:03PM[/editline] Plan's made: 1) Buy a new HDD 2) Buy a new PSU 3) Get a job 4) Recover the old HDD I need advice on my new PSU, my old one was an Arctic 600W (who the hell is Arctic? this is probably why it failed) [url]http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135514[/url] - Corsair's a good brand, right? I hear their name a lot. Let me know, please.

Yes, Corsair is a good brand.

[QUOTE=DementNeo;17550690][i][highlight]£515[/highlight][/i] At my age there's no way I can afford this, so I'm going to have to look for details on a PCB swap I guess... that or phone Samsung? [editline]05:03PM[/editline] Plan's made: 1) Buy a new HDD 2) Buy a new PSU 3) Get a job 4) Recover the old HDD I need advice on my new PSU, my old one was an Arctic 600W (who the hell is Arctic? this is probably why it failed) [url]http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135514[/url] - Corsair's a good brand, right? I hear their name a lot. Let me know, please.[/QUOTE] What are your PC specs? Chnces are you might not need 650W so you can save money there. If it helps, I run a quad core, 4870, 2 hards drive, DVD burner and 4GB RAM off of 460W and my PC runs fine.