Computer won't turn on with dead hard drive plugged in can I recovered the data

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Jateen Patel

Reputable
Mar 16, 2014
3
0
4,510
Hi,

I had an external 500gb hard drive which recently died due to someone plugging in the wrong ac adapter into the back causing what I assume is a power surge. There are no scorch marks on the PCB so can't conclusively say that's the cause, but I'm guessing. When I took this hard drive out of the case and plugged it into my computer the computer won't even turn on.

Could someone clarify if this is a PCB issue, and can be resolved by replacing the board. Or am I screwed and won't be able to get the data off the drive w/o going to a data recovery center?


Hard drive specs
Sticker #: 0A29778
PCB #: 0A90026
Main chip: 0A55895
P/N: 0A35415
MLC BA2831
S/N rv07050c
Model hdp725005gla360


Thanks
 
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J

Jateen Patel

Reputable
Mar 16, 2014
3
0
4,510
Hi snowctrl

Thanks for the quick response. I removed all hard drives/ dvd burner from my desktop computer and plugged in my hard drive into the sata port that my main drive was connected to and then turned on my computer. My computer was off during the hard drive install.

Let me know if you were asking something else.

Thanks again!

 
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J

Jateen Patel

Reputable
Mar 16, 2014
3
0
4,510
Hi snowctrl

Thanks for the quick response. I removed all hard drives/ dvd burner from my desktop computer and plugged in my hard drive into the sata port that my main drive was connected to and then turned on my computer. My computer was off during the hard drive install.

Let me know if you were asking something else.

Thanks again!

 
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P

Paperdoc

Polypheme
Ambassador
Oct 19, 2006
11,280
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69,340
OK, a few points to verify for us, and some stuff to try.

You say your computer will not turn on. Do you mean it acts completely dead with no activity at all? Or, do you mean that it begins to start up with fans and indicator lights, but completely fails to boot?

IF the "faulty" HDD can work at least partially, your machine should be able to get part way into the POST sequence, at least while showing messages on the screen. That is, at least is should get as far as trying to detect the only HDD installed to see if it will respond. BUT, even if it gets there, what you did was create a machine that cannot possibly boot up.

Your machine NEEDS to have its normal C: drive installed in its usual place to boot from. You cannot boot from a different HDD. If you want to try to examine the contents of the "faulty" HDD, it needs to be installed internally also, but connected to a different SATA port. It also needs a power supply attached to it - you don't mention that.

Now that I think further, you might need ALL of your regular HDD units installed in the machine, plus the "faulty" one. Depending on how your OS was installed initially, it is possible that you have the OS on the C: drive unit and other important files (OS backups) on a different HDD, so both of those would need to be present for the machine to boot.
 
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snowctrl

snowctrl

Distinguished
Sep 10, 2013
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There was no need to dismantle your desktop PC - all you needed was a spare Sata port to connect the faulty drive to.

Rebuild your desktop PC and get it working as it was. Then attach the faulty drive to a spare Sata port (and also a spare power connector so it has power) and boot, and the PC should boot as normal, after which Windows will find and attempt to install the faulty drive as an additional drive. Once it has done this, you will be able to try and copy everything off it.

Make sure you have up-to-date anti-virus software incase there are nasties on the faulty drive
 
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