Computer won't turn on after hard drive is plugged in

[achensherd]

My mom fried her external hard drive the other day by plugging in the AC adapter for her laptop into it. Hoping that the hard drive itself is okay, she asked if I could check on my computer(s). So, I plug the bare hard drive into one of my computers and push the power button -- but the computer won't turn on. Only after removing the hard drive and killing the power for a few seconds is the computer able to turn back on.

Thinking it might be the computer, I tried again, with the same results. I then tried it on another computer, but again, the computer won't turn on with the hard drive plugged in. I had even tried it at my mom's workplace with one of the computers there, and that one wouldn't turn on either until the hard drive is removed and the PSU is dis/reconnected.

Is the hard drive so dead as to not allow whatever it's plugged into to not turn on? What's going on?

 

[badge]

My mom fried her external hard drive the other day by plugging in the AC adapter for her laptop into it. Hoping that the hard drive itself is okay, she asked if I could check on my computer(s). So, I plug the bare hard drive into one of my computers and push the power button -- but the computer won't turn on. Only after removing the hard drive and killing the power for a few seconds is the computer able to turn back on.

Thinking it might be the computer, I tried again, with the same results. I then tried it on another computer, but again, the computer won't turn on with the hard drive plugged in. I had even tried it at my mom's workplace with one of the computers there, and that one wouldn't turn on either until the hard drive is removed and the PSU is dis/reconnected.

Is the hard drive so dead as to not allow whatever it's plugged into to not turn on? What's going on?

My vote would be a dead hard drive.

 

[blunc]

the short answer is: the drive is toast.

the long answer is:

the AC adapters I have seen for laptops are usually supply 20v to the laptop, plugging one of these into an external harddrive which usually has an adapter that supplies around 12v to the drive would probably cause some components to fail on the external drive.

based upon your description of what happens when you connect the drive to other computers it looks like the drive has a main power line shorted to ground, this usually causes computer power supplies to power themselves off automatically as self protection.

 

[ZOldDude]

Sounds like the drives interface is smoked...a blown diode.

If your good you can replace the protection diode or the interface itself,but with 320Gb HD's going for $89 USD retail every place why bother.

 

[achensherd]

Aww man... well, thanks guys. The reason she wants it back so bad is because she had a lot of important documents on it. She treated the external drive as her main storage, and no longer has those documents anywhere else.

Z0ldDude, do you know where I can get instructions or a diagram showing me what would need to be replaced (or where it is)? What does the protection diode look like? If that's all that's required to get the drive running again, I'd take a shot at it.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

You could probably replace the electronics board on the hard drive and have a shot at recovering the data. That probably is easier than trying to replace an individual component. Just make sure the electronics board you use is from the exact same model hard drive. You may also need some kind of drive recovery software like GetDataBack.