Risk to my computer from dead HD?

Factual Questions
1

My old computer was fried recently. I need to recover stuff from the HD, and I’ve found software online that promises to do that - or at least to maybe do that. If it doesn’t work, I’ll have to see about shipping it off to professional recovery people.

I was all set to plug the old HD (set to slave, of course) into the new computer when my son asked whether there was any chance it would harm this computer. I said that I didn’t know, but I did know where to ask. :slight_smile:

So. Can it hurt this computer if I plug the old HD into it?

If I do it, but can’t recover my data - or can’t recover enough of it, is there anything I need to know about sending the HD off for data recovery? I realize it will probably be quite expen$ive. :frowning:

2

  1. It shouldn’t hurt your computer if you plug the old drive into it. However, it might not work with your new hard drive on the same cable. Make sure your old drive is set to the “slave” position, either by its placement on the cable, or by its jumper settings on the drive itself.

  2. If you want to be absolutely safe, spend about $30 and get an external hard drive enclosure. This will allow you to plug in your “dead” hard drive into it, and connect to your current computer via a USB cord. Sometimes, the simple act of doing it like this is enough for you to be able to see your data.

  3. The best programs for retrieving data from a dead hard drive, in my opinion, are the GetDataBack and FinalRecovery programs. They’ve worked wonders on 99.9% of the hard drives I’ve had to rescue.

Good luck in your task.

3

It won’t hurt the new computer. What happened to the old one? Did the computer die or did the hard drive go bad? If the computer just got old and sick and passed away, there shouldn’t be anything wrong with the old hard drive and you should be able to plug in the old drive and have all your data without needing a program to recover it.

4

[QUOTE=tygerbryght]
So. Can it hurt this computer if I plug the old HD into it?
[/QUOTE]

The only way that HDD could possibly do any real harm is if the death of the previous computer involved some kind of hard short in the hard drive in question.

The only time you really need an advanced recovery place is if you have a corrupt RAID-5, or a physically failed drive. Alot of your basic computer shops have decent software for reading through corrupt/blown partitions. We use the active@recovery software here and have had pretty good results IMHO.

If you do have a physically failed drive with data of serious value, contact the drive manufacturer. All of them have departments that do data recovery work and or repairs on failed drives. It isn’t cheap, but they know their own drives up down and sideways. If anyone can read it or fix it, they can.

5

[QUOTE=drachillix]
The only way that HDD could possibly do any real harm is if the death of the previous computer involved some kind of hard short in the hard drive in question.

The only time you really need an advanced recovery place is if you have a corrupt RAID-5, or a physically failed drive. Alot of your basic computer shops have decent software for reading through corrupt/blown partitions. We use the active@recovery software here and have had pretty good results IMHO.

If you do have a physically failed drive with data of serious value, contact the drive manufacturer. All of them have departments that do data recovery work and or repairs on failed drives. It isn’t cheap, but they know their own drives up down and sideways. If anyone can read it or fix it, they can.
[/QUOTE]

The local shop said that the power supply, motherboard & HD were all dead. Computer had been flaky, then we had a bad storm. After the storm, the speaker system began to make noises and smoke. For that reason, I think the power supply is where the problems started.

The power supply itself was a replacement (not a familiar brand name, but I was determined to have a higher capacity). This was the third time that computer had been zapped: First time (4-5 years ago?) blew the modem. Second time blew the power supply (3 years ago?).

IOW, this was a hard luck box. Not to mention that I live in a spot subject to storm-caused outages (Its predecessor was also zapped in the modem). I think I need to move. :frowning:

This machine I’m using now is hooked to a UPS. I’m thinking maybe I should get my son to crawl under the desk and plug the DSL/phone line thru the UPS. I’m tired of having the power company promoting new hardware/parts sales.

6

The external drive housing finally arrived, and we’re trying to install the HD in it. There’s just one little problem. This housing is designed to be used for either a HD or an optical drive, and I’m not sure about the third wire and plug. The housing came with some instructions, but they’re like most such instructions - inadequate and at least somewhat misleading.

It’s obvious what to do with the power hookup, and the HD ribbon plug. It’s that third plug. My son is wondering if he’s supposed to hook it to something in the jumper section on the end of the HD. I’ve never heard of hooking anything to the jumper wires - just using a jumper to set the HD as master, slave, or whatever.

Is the third plug supposed to be used with a HD? Or is that just to plug to an optical drive? Or for something else entirely?

7

Can you post a picture of it? It’s possible that it’s a cable for a SATA drive, which is another type of hard drive. Or it could be a cable for a floppy drive.

8

Without seeing it’s hard to say for sure, but it could be the audio cord for a CD/DVD Rom drive (optical drive). If that is correct, you won’t use it for a hard drive.

9

[QUOTE=RJKUgly]
Without seeing it’s hard to say for sure, but it could be the audio cord for a CD/DVD Rom drive (optical drive). If that is correct, you won’t use it for a hard drive.
[/QUOTE]

Ah, I bet you’re right.

Tyger, does it look lke this?

10

Mine has a audio hook up for cd or dvd drives. which is what I would say your son sees. The only thing a hd should have connected is the power and ribbon cable you already have attached.

11

[QUOTE=tygerbryght]

It’s obvious what to do with the power hookup, and the HD ribbon plug. It’s that third plug. My son is wondering if he’s supposed to hook it to something in the jumper section on the end of the HD. I’ve never heard of hooking anything to the jumper wires - just using a jumper to set the HD as master, slave, or whatever.
[/QUOTE]
Highly doubtful it’s meant to be hooked up to the rear jumpers of the drive.

More than likely, it’s a power hookup for the external enclosure’s LED indicator lights. I have several USB and E-SATA external enclosures and all of them have small cables (4 pins, 2 wires) intended to be hooked up to the interior circuit board. If you look, I bet you’ll find four tiny pins lined up in a row on the board marked LED.

12

[QUOTE=JSexton]
Ah, I bet you’re right.

Tyger, does it look lke this?
[/QUOTE]

Not exactly, but very close. My son put everything together, complete with screws, so that nothing could possibly get lost. :slight_smile: Thanks to good ol’ Arthur Ritis, I can’t use a screwdriver anymore. But I looked at it carefully the other night, when he asked.

{He was pondering where to plug it in the jumpers section, what the orientation should be, and which row it should be used on, and starting from which end. He hasn’t ever done this before. He was trained on his job to set up and take down individual PCs in small LANs on mobile work sites, but not on fixing the innards of individual PCs. He is a conscientious sort, who wants to do the job Right.}

It is (of course) a female plug, with one fewer receptacles than the number of jumper pin pairs on the back of the HD. I told him I’d never heard of anything plugging into the jumpers, but he was sure it plugged in somewhere. From what others are saying; he’s right. Just not into the jumpers. :wink: Whether it’s audio, or to power the LED drive operating indicator (like used to light up on the front of a desktop when a given drive was reading or writing).

Some time back, I worked on computer guts a lot, and I’ve replaced HDs enough, years ago. But I’ve never installed an optical drive, or set up any kind of external drive, so …

Thanks, everybody, for the input. I think we should be able to figure out whether it’s for a LED indicator or not, between us.