for an old PC that died. Didn't really care enough to fix it (power suppy), just wanted to pull some stuff off the hard drive.

Hooked up the power and the IDE-USB cable itself from the old disk to my laptop and nothing happened. Figured it should already be set to master as it was the only HDD that tower had. Tried going to the boot menu to tell the laptop to load from USB, but didn't see that option. I thought maybe I'd plugged the IDE side upside-down so, like the bumbling idiot that I am, flipped it over and plugged the power back in.

I quickly unplugged it but not before the crackling sound and wisps of white smoke leaking from the old disk. I assume I'm fucked, but just for shits and giggles does anyone have any ideas what I should try next? I REALLY need those pictures of my ex.


$1

1/16/2009 3:00:30 AM

ha, that sucks. If you've got another hard drive around with all the same specs, you can sometimes swap the boards out on them and bring it back to life. There the chance you might find someone willing to let you use their computer (an old one hopefully), you could just plug it straight up and see what happens. The result probably wouldn't be a good one though.

Of course, you should have just called me before you bought anything and used my PC.

1/16/2009 3:50:37 AM

welllllll shucks. but if that works the IDE-USB should have worked too, right?

Anyhow, I need suggestions as to where to go from here


$1

1/16/2009 4:07:18 PM

.

[Edited on January 16, 2009 at 4:13 PM. Reason : .]

1/16/2009 4:11:37 PM

how much is that data worth to you, exactly?

1/16/2009 8:15:30 PM

well the ex thing was a joke but I'd say the data on there was more priceless than liquidatable.


but, for the sake of argument, a couple hundred bucks perhaps


$1

1/17/2009 4:36:34 AM

Find the exact same disk, swap out the electronics.

Ive never done it, but you need a clean place to do it, and depending on the drive you might have to open it.

1/17/2009 9:46:03 AM

if you have to open the drive you might as well kiss your data good bye

there is no way that you can get an clean enough environment at your house

1/17/2009 11:49:47 AM

Update:


I found a guy on craigslist selling the exact same HD as the one I fried, so I bought it off him and switched out the circuit boards. Got it all plugged up to my laptop now and it's working fine, I definitely have my old hard drive back.

The only problem now is I can't find any of my personal shit; my music, documents, pictures, etc. seem to have disappeared. All my program files are there, but when I go to Documents and Settings to try to find all my stuff I inevitably reach a dead end no matter what route I take. I've run several deep searches (hidden files included) but nothing comes up.

What now tww??? Is it the fact that I have the HD set in master mode? Is there a way to force a Dell boot from USB even though there isn't an option for it in the BIOS? SO CLOSE TO CELEBRATION HERE PEOPLE


$1

1/21/2009 8:25:55 PM