Did I break my hard drives?

igorBOSS

Honorable
Jul 3, 2013
18
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10,510
I wanted to redo the cable management in my case and wanted to improve it slightly. My current power supply is an XFX Pro650w XXX edition (seasonic rebrand). This is a semi-modular power supply so I wanted to replace the original short sata power cable that connects power to my hard drives with another one I had so I can route it to improve cable management. I had some extra cables laying around from a Thermaltake Toughpower Gold 750w power supply so I tried to use a cable that came with it instead of my shorter XFX cable. Anyways, my computer wouldn't boot so I troubleshooted and found out the power to my hard drives was the problem. They no longer show up in my bios, even when using the old XFX cable. I never heard a pop, didn't see any smoke, and there weren't any smells from the hard drives or computer. I also tried putting these hard drives in a different computer and they still were not detected whatsoever. When I feel the hard drives, they do not seem to spin at all but I can feel the logic board on the hard drives getting hot. I did some research and found out modular psu cables are not cross-compatible. So my question is, can I somehow recover my hard drives with my precious data, or are they gone for good?
 
Solution
Yes you killed the logic board on your drive. Never mix and match modular cables. Hell even sometimes in the same brand you cannot, for example the Corsair AXi series has different cables from the HX series even though they have the same pin count.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=advanced%20hard%20drive%20recovery&form=EDGENT&qs=PF&cvid=898cfc0c89dc485caca039a69e480770&pq=advanced%20hard%20drive%20recovery&sbts=1439100024451&nclid=7tG39Hhw%2B%2BM91SWSIDYinw%3D%3D&ts=1439100024451

More than likely you can recover the data using advanced methods which will cost a lot more money than anything you have ever seen but they can pull the platters out and transfer the data to a new drive for you.
Maybe through a data recovery house for lots of money. At the end of the day, a HD plug usually has 12v, 5v, and 2 grounds. If they were wired differently between cables then you could have fed 12v when it was expecting 5v or 12v and 5v across the grounds. No, not all modular cables are the same. Expensive lesson you just learned. Sounds like the drives are toast.
 
Yes you killed the logic board on your drive. Never mix and match modular cables. Hell even sometimes in the same brand you cannot, for example the Corsair AXi series has different cables from the HX series even though they have the same pin count.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=advanced%20hard%20drive%20recovery&form=EDGENT&qs=PF&cvid=898cfc0c89dc485caca039a69e480770&pq=advanced%20hard%20drive%20recovery&sbts=1439100024451&nclid=7tG39Hhw%2B%2BM91SWSIDYinw%3D%3D&ts=1439100024451

More than likely you can recover the data using advanced methods which will cost a lot more money than anything you have ever seen but they can pull the platters out and transfer the data to a new drive for you.
 
Solution

igorBOSS

Honorable
Jul 3, 2013
18
0
10,510


Is there a possibility that I can replace the logic board on the hard drive and have it functioning again? Or is that not recommended?
 
Usually, you have to swap the firmware chip or have a company do it. You could have also fried the motors too by sending too much power if it made it that far. But you can try. It's cheaper.

http://www.hddzone.com/

Yiou buy a board and swap the bios chip, if it has the 8 pin chip. not hard if you know how to solder. swapping the main ic, waaay harder.
 

igorBOSS

Honorable
Jul 3, 2013
18
0
10,510


The main hard drive I need is a Seagate Barracuda 2tb 7200rpm drive. Do these have the 8 pin chip?
 
You would need to get a drive of the same model number so for example st2000dm001 (that is a Seagate 2TB but yours might be different). Then it is just luck as it might work or might might not due to any number of issues such as the firmware version, damage to the controller for the arm or it might power and spin up but not be able to see the data.

That is the only other option you have.
 

RealBeast

Titan
Moderator
If you really need the data, I would not waste the time and money in a DIY effort with questionable potential. Just spend the money and send it to somebody like Seagate data recovery for in lab recovery.

If the data is only moderately important then play away.