I’m working on this girls computer and I am trying to recover data off of the hard drive. Now, the hard drive is bad. It won’t boot and I’m having a hell of a time trying to get it to stay on for me to get the information off using an external casing. I was turning it on, getting a few files, then it would crash again. Over and over and over. Well, on one of my attempts last night, I touched the top of the hard drive and it shocked me. I immediately swore and attempted to replug in the hard drive. Now, it will recognize that I’ve plugged something in but it won’t fully install or recognize the hard drive.
Well, for one there shouldnt be voltage on the top (metal casing) of the harddrive. The question is - how did the top get live charge? Did you perhaps touch some of the electric circuits on the exposed side of the HD to some metal? That would ground and short out said ciruitry and could lead to a charge buildup to the metal casing.
I have one of my HDs lying upside down on the metal floor of my computer case and have had no problems with this, so the metal casing is clearly not connected directly to any electronics inside the HD, as that would quickly zap it.
As for your problem - most likely you’ve zapped the controller electroniocs on the hard drive, and solving this requires for someone qualified to replace the circuit board with a new working one.
Probably the other way around. He probably walked across a carpeted floor or slid across an upholstered chair and touched the drive.
Remember, always discharge yourself before touching the computer parts. A simple way to do this is to keep the computer plugged in and just touch the (metal) case before you do anything.
Good point. I assumed this happend while sitting at the computer only moving to plug/unplug the HD, which is more than I should have assumed based on the OP.
But in that case it should have no adverse effect on the HD electronics as far as I can see, as the case is shielded from the circuits.
Oh - one other thing - when you plug the HD in, Surbey - do the HD actually spin up and make that irritating whiny noise? If so, at least the HD itself is probably okay, if not the controller.
no, no noise is being made from the drive. I only, I think, made contact with the top of the hard drive, not the circuit board at all. Just the metal case.
I was sitting at my computer however I do tend to generate a great deal of static on my own. Not sure what thats about…
Electronics are fairly resistant to static shock these days. In my old computer store a regular late night activity involved taking “retired” parts, powering them up and abusing them until they fail. This involved attacking motherboards, drives, memory and CPUs with tools, electric shocks, plyers, water, ice, and any number of things you’d expect to kill a computer straight away. Some of this stuff survived hours of abuse before it stopped working.
One static zap from your finger to the top of the hard drive is fairly minimal and I’d suspect it did no damage. If you had zapped the controller card on the bottom of the drive then maybe.
One thing you might try with the drive is to freeze it. Stick it in the freezer in a plastic ziplock bag for about 24-48 hours. If you have some freezer gel packs, get them nice and chilly as well.
Take the drive out of the freezer, hook it up to the computer and pack the gel packs around it. If you have a gray static bag, place the drive in that first before wrapping it in gel packs.
Fire up the computer. If you can access the drive WORK FAST. It’s hard to say how much working time you’ll have before the drive warms up and fails again. Sometimes a fresh chilling will give you some more time.
Keep in mind this isn’t good for a drive so only do it to drives as a last ditch effort to recover data.
A metal box is effectively a “faraday cage” (if you want to google that term). The static discharge is going to flow around the surface of the box and not go inside of it. Unfortunately, the may most drives are made, the control board is right there on the surface of the box on the other side, so most likely, you toasted it. Electronic parts are more resistant to static than they used to be, but basically if you can feel the zap to the point where it makes naughty words come out of your mouth, you are up in the tens of thousands of volt range. Your hard drive’s electronics work on 5 volts.
The amount of static you generate depends on a lot of things. The ones you have the most control over are things like the carpet you are standing on, the clothes you are wearing, and the humidity in the room. A different rug might make a big difference. Increasing the humidity will help. Wearing shoes that aren’t made out of synthetic rubber might help. Experiment with different clothing.
When working on electronics, the proper way is to place the case on an anti-static mat. Then attach a ground strap to your wrist, and plug it into the mat. Now you can safely handle parts without zapping things. Since most folks (including myself) are too lazy to do things properly, the least you can do is touch the metal part of the computer case before touching anything else inside it.
I don’t have a lot of faith in the freezer thing in this case. That works best for drives with worn out motors and bearings. I can’t say for certain, but I’m about 90 percent sure you toasted the controller board.
