problem with hard drive

Avid Gamer wrote in message
om...

I have a Western Digital hard drive that is only 6
months old (still in warranty) that apparently has
failed. Western Digital (to my dismay) will not / does
not do data recoveries and only wants to replace it.

Thats universal with all hard drive manufacturers now.

I would like some suggestions from the
group on what to do/ how to proceed...

A Japanese would disembowel itself |-)

The story goes like this:

I was building a computer for my mother and had disconnected
my hard drive on my computer and connected the drive from hers
to make a Norton Ghost image of it in case anything happened to it

Good approach, even without that risk of getting molested.

(she is just learning to use a computer for the first
time in her life). Add children under age 10 using it
too to the equation and you see why I backed it up!

Yep, and its generally worth doing for any system anyway.
The short story is that hard drives are so cheap now that it
makes a lot of sense to image it as soon as its working properly.

Anyway, I backed up her hard drive to another spare I had,

Its generally better to do an image creation over the
lan, even with PCs which which arent used on a lan.
They normally do have a NIC now, and when they dont, the
cost of a decent cheap second hand PCI NIC is peanuts.

Just plug the system into your hub for the image creation.

disconnected everything and went to reconnect my hard drives
again (I have two drives- one before-mentioned WD drive and
a Samsung 60GB drive). The cable for the WD drive didn't
want to connect. It was very hard to push on (80-pin EIDE
drive/connector). I was tired by that time from finishing the
work on building her computer and wasn't in the mood for
this so I (stupidly) forced it on. This was likely my downfall!
Maybe this pushed something out of alignment or something?

Most likely you had the ribbon cable in backwards and the
forcing you did basically forced the pin in the missing pin
position into the plastic in the connector at the block pin position.

You might have managed to put it onto the pins that are
meant to be used for the ribbon cable connector and at
least one or two of the jumper pins adjacent or something.

When I turned on the computer, I heard a popping noise

Thats unusual with a ribbon connector thats reversed.
Which makes it more likely you managed to force it
on some of the jumper pins or something.

along with a grinding-type noise. I assume this is a head crash?

Nope, its more likely you've killed the logic card electrically.

I was hoping I just had not connected it right or
something (but knew better) and tried disconnecting
it and reconnecting it with a new cable. Same results...

So, the question is, what is the probability of retrieving data myself?

It may be possible to get another identical model drive and
swap the logic card between the new drive and the dead one.

Corse if you had an image of your own drive, you wouldnt need to |-)

The computer no longer even recognizes the drive, much less accesses it.

I know somebody that says I could remove the cover from the drive
and help it spin the drive up when it attempts to after turning on the
power, but he also says it's like a crap shoot (may or may not work).

Its very unlikely indeed that forcing the cable on wrongly has
produced damage to the drive that that approach will help with.

I hate to have a data recovery company do it, as the drive is a 120GB
drive which is full short of about 7 GB! They (www.DriveSavers.com)
quoted me as around $3000!

Yeah, recovery aint cheap. Much cheaper to buy another
identical drive model and try a logic card swap.

Help!?! Oh, and sorry for the loooooooong-winded post!

Its a mere waif of a post |-)

Thanks for the response Rod!

My next question is, how to do the logic card swap? This is an area in
computers that
I have never messed with. Can you possibly explain? I wouldn't even know
what a
logic card was if I had my finger on it!

"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...

Avid Gamer wrote in message
om...

I have a Western Digital hard drive that is only 6
months old (still in warranty) that apparently has
failed. Western Digital (to my dismay) will not / does
not do data recoveries and only wants to replace it.

Thats universal with all hard drive manufacturers now.

I would like some suggestions from the
group on what to do/ how to proceed...

A Japanese would disembowel itself |-)

The story goes like this:

I was building a computer for my mother and had disconnected
my hard drive on my computer and connected the drive from hers
to make a Norton Ghost image of it in case anything happened to it

Good approach, even without that risk of getting molested.

(she is just learning to use a computer for the first
time in her life). Add children under age 10 using it
too to the equation and you see why I backed it up!

Yep, and its generally worth doing for any system anyway.
The short story is that hard drives are so cheap now that it
makes a lot of sense to image it as soon as its working properly.

Anyway, I backed up her hard drive to another spare I had,

Its generally better to do an image creation over the
lan, even with PCs which which arent used on a lan.
They normally do have a NIC now, and when they dont, the
cost of a decent cheap second hand PCI NIC is peanuts.

Just plug the system into your hub for the image creation.

disconnected everything and went to reconnect my hard drives
again (I have two drives- one before-mentioned WD drive and
a Samsung 60GB drive). The cable for the WD drive didn't
want to connect. It was very hard to push on (80-pin EIDE
drive/connector). I was tired by that time from finishing the
work on building her computer and wasn't in the mood for
this so I (stupidly) forced it on. This was likely my downfall!
Maybe this pushed something out of alignment or something?

Most likely you had the ribbon cable in backwards and the
forcing you did basically forced the pin in the missing pin
position into the plastic in the connector at the block pin position.

You might have managed to put it onto the pins that are
meant to be used for the ribbon cable connector and at
least one or two of the jumper pins adjacent or something.

When I turned on the computer, I heard a popping noise

Thats unusual with a ribbon connector thats reversed.
Which makes it more likely you managed to force it
on some of the jumper pins or something.

along with a grinding-type noise. I assume this is a head crash?

Nope, its more likely you've killed the logic card electrically.

I was hoping I just had not connected it right or
something (but knew better) and tried disconnecting
it and reconnecting it with a new cable. Same results...

So, the question is, what is the probability of retrieving data myself?

It may be possible to get another identical model drive and
swap the logic card between the new drive and the dead one.

Corse if you had an image of your own drive, you wouldnt need to |-)

The computer no longer even recognizes the drive, much less accesses it.

I know somebody that says I could remove the cover from the drive
and help it spin the drive up when it attempts to after turning on the
power, but he also says it's like a crap shoot (may or may not work).

Its very unlikely indeed that forcing the cable on wrongly has
produced damage to the drive that that approach will help with.

I hate to have a data recovery company do it, as the drive is a 120GB
drive which is full short of about 7 GB! They (www.DriveSavers.com)
quoted me as around $3000!

Yeah, recovery aint cheap. Much cheaper to buy another
identical drive model and try a logic card swap.

Help!?! Oh, and sorry for the loooooooong-winded post!

Its a mere waif of a post |-)

Outragiously fast reply!

Okay, I will try this. Thank you!

BTW, should I attempt to make sure it is *exactly* the same model *before* I
buy it (explain the story and ask clerk for permission at the store)? The
info (as listed on the drive) is:

Western Digital Caviar WD1200BB-00CAA1 (120GB)
'stamped' (manufactured on) on board: 2060-001092-007 Rev A

Should I make sure that the model number listed on the new drive is
*exactly* WD1200BB-00CAA1
and the revision is the same or do you think some of that stuff not being
the same may not matter?

Thanks again!

P.S. Have you ever did this successfully?

"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...

Avid Gamer wrote in message
...

Thanks for the response Rod!

My next question is, how to do the logic card swap?
This is an area in computers that I have never messed
with. Can you possibly explain? I wouldn't even know
what a logic card was if I had my finger on it!

Its the usually green board with square or rectangular
black blobs soldered onto it thats on the bottom of the drive.

You basically just unscrew the screws that are holding
it to the bottom of the drive and unplug it from the drive.

With some drives you also have to unplug the flat flexible
ribbon cable that goes into the sealed enclosure to the heads
and those can at times not be very obvious how to unplug them.

Dont under any circumstances try taking the top cover off the drive.


"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...

Avid Gamer wrote in message
om...

I have a Western Digital hard drive that is only 6
months old (still in warranty) that apparently has
failed. Western Digital (to my dismay) will not / does
not do data recoveries and only wants to replace it.

Thats universal with all hard drive manufacturers now.

I would like some suggestions from the
group on what to do/ how to proceed...

A Japanese would disembowel itself |-)

The story goes like this:

I was building a computer for my mother and had disconnected
my hard drive on my computer and connected the drive from hers
to make a Norton Ghost image of it in case anything happened to it

Good approach, even without that risk of getting molested.

(she is just learning to use a computer for the first
time in her life). Add children under age 10 using it
too to the equation and you see why I backed it up!

Yep, and its generally worth doing for any system anyway.
The short story is that hard drives are so cheap now that it
makes a lot of sense to image it as soon as its working properly.

Anyway, I backed up her hard drive to another spare I had,

Its generally better to do an image creation over the
lan, even with PCs which which arent used on a lan.
They normally do have a NIC now, and when they dont, the
cost of a decent cheap second hand PCI NIC is peanuts.

Just plug the system into your hub for the image creation.

disconnected everything and went to reconnect my hard drives
again (I have two drives- one before-mentioned WD drive and
a Samsung 60GB drive). The cable for the WD drive didn't
want to connect. It was very hard to push on (80-pin EIDE
drive/connector). I was tired by that time from finishing the
work on building her computer and wasn't in the mood for
this so I (stupidly) forced it on. This was likely my downfall!
Maybe this pushed something out of alignment or something?

Most likely you had the ribbon cable in backwards and the
forcing you did basically forced the pin in the missing pin
position into the plastic in the connector at the block pin position.

You might have managed to put it onto the pins that are
meant to be used for the ribbon cable connector and at
least one or two of the jumper pins adjacent or something.

When I turned on the computer, I heard a popping noise

Thats unusual with a ribbon connector thats reversed.
Which makes it more likely you managed to force it
on some of the jumper pins or something.

along with a grinding-type noise. I assume this is a head crash?

Nope, its more likely you've killed the logic card electrically.

I was hoping I just had not connected it right or
something (but knew better) and tried disconnecting
it and reconnecting it with a new cable. Same results...

So, the question is, what is the probability of retrieving data
myself?

It may be possible to get another identical model drive and
swap the logic card between the new drive and the dead one.

Corse if you had an image of your own drive, you wouldnt need to |-)

The computer no longer even recognizes the drive, much less accesses
it.

I know somebody that says I could remove the cover from the drive
and help it spin the drive up when it attempts to after turning on
the
power, but he also says it's like a crap shoot (may or may not
work).

Its very unlikely indeed that forcing the cable on wrongly has
produced damage to the drive that that approach will help with.

I hate to have a data recovery company do it, as the drive is a
120GB
drive which is full short of about 7 GB! They (www.DriveSavers.com)
quoted me as around $3000!

Yeah, recovery aint cheap. Much cheaper to buy another
identical drive model and try a logic card swap.

Help!?! Oh, and sorry for the loooooooong-winded post!

Its a mere waif of a post |-)

Avid Gamer wrote in message
...

Thanks for the response Rod!

My next question is, how to do the logic card swap?
This is an area in computers that I have never messed
with. Can you possibly explain? I wouldn't even know
what a logic card was if I had my finger on it!

Its the usually green board with square or rectangular
black blobs soldered onto it thats on the bottom of the drive.

You basically just unscrew the screws that are holding
it to the bottom of the drive and unplug it from the drive.

With some drives you also have to unplug the flat flexible
ribbon cable that goes into the sealed enclosure to the heads
and those can at times not be very obvious how to unplug them.

Dont under any circumstances try taking the top cover off the drive.


"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...

Avid Gamer wrote in message
om...

I have a Western Digital hard drive that is only 6
months old (still in warranty) that apparently has
failed. Western Digital (to my dismay) will not / does
not do data recoveries and only wants to replace it.

Thats universal with all hard drive manufacturers now.

I would like some suggestions from the
group on what to do/ how to proceed...

A Japanese would disembowel itself |-)

The story goes like this:

I was building a computer for my mother and had disconnected
my hard drive on my computer and connected the drive from hers
to make a Norton Ghost image of it in case anything happened to it

Good approach, even without that risk of getting molested.

(she is just learning to use a computer for the first
time in her life). Add children under age 10 using it
too to the equation and you see why I backed it up!

Yep, and its generally worth doing for any system anyway.
The short story is that hard drives are so cheap now that it
makes a lot of sense to image it as soon as its working properly.

Anyway, I backed up her hard drive to another spare I had,

Its generally better to do an image creation over the
lan, even with PCs which which arent used on a lan.
They normally do have a NIC now, and when they dont, the
cost of a decent cheap second hand PCI NIC is peanuts.

Just plug the system into your hub for the image creation.

disconnected everything and went to reconnect my hard drives
again (I have two drives- one before-mentioned WD drive and
a Samsung 60GB drive). The cable for the WD drive didn't
want to connect. It was very hard to push on (80-pin EIDE
drive/connector). I was tired by that time from finishing the
work on building her computer and wasn't in the mood for
this so I (stupidly) forced it on. This was likely my downfall!
Maybe this pushed something out of alignment or something?

Most likely you had the ribbon cable in backwards and the
forcing you did basically forced the pin in the missing pin
position into the plastic in the connector at the block pin position.

You might have managed to put it onto the pins that are
meant to be used for the ribbon cable connector and at
least one or two of the jumper pins adjacent or something.

When I turned on the computer, I heard a popping noise

Thats unusual with a ribbon connector thats reversed.
Which makes it more likely you managed to force it
on some of the jumper pins or something.

along with a grinding-type noise. I assume this is a head crash?

Nope, its more likely you've killed the logic card electrically.

I was hoping I just had not connected it right or
something (but knew better) and tried disconnecting
it and reconnecting it with a new cable. Same results...

So, the question is, what is the probability of retrieving data myself?

It may be possible to get another identical model drive and
swap the logic card between the new drive and the dead one.

Corse if you had an image of your own drive, you wouldnt need to |-)

The computer no longer even recognizes the drive, much less accesses it.

I know somebody that says I could remove the cover from the drive
and help it spin the drive up when it attempts to after turning on the
power, but he also says it's like a crap shoot (may or may not work).

Its very unlikely indeed that forcing the cable on wrongly has
produced damage to the drive that that approach will help with.

I hate to have a data recovery company do it, as the drive is a 120GB
drive which is full short of about 7 GB! They (www.DriveSavers.com)
quoted me as around $3000!

Yeah, recovery aint cheap. Much cheaper to buy another
identical drive model and try a logic card swap.

Help!?! Oh, and sorry for the loooooooong-winded post!

Its a mere waif of a post |-)

Avid Gamer wrote in
message ...

Outragiously fast reply!

Sorry about that |-)

Got to live up to my name sometimes you know |-)

Okay, I will try this. Thank you!

BTW, should I attempt to make sure it is
*exactly* the same model *before* I buy it

Yes.

(explain the story and ask clerk for permission at the store)?

Yes.

The info (as listed on the drive) is:

Western Digital Caviar WD1200BB-00CAA1 (120GB)
'stamped' (manufactured on) on board: 2060-001092-007 Rev A

Should I make sure that the model number listed
on the new drive is *exactly* WD1200BB-00CAA1
and the revision is the same

Yes.

or do you think some of that stuff
not being the same may not matter?

If you cant find the same revision, its worth trying a later one.

Thanks again!

P.S. Have you ever did this successfully?

Yep.


"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...

Avid Gamer wrote in message
...

Thanks for the response Rod!

My next question is, how to do the logic card swap?
This is an area in computers that I have never messed
with. Can you possibly explain? I wouldn't even know
what a logic card was if I had my finger on it!

Its the usually green board with square or rectangular
black blobs soldered onto it thats on the bottom of the drive.

You basically just unscrew the screws that are holding
it to the bottom of the drive and unplug it from the drive.

With some drives you also have to unplug the flat flexible
ribbon cable that goes into the sealed enclosure to the heads
and those can at times not be very obvious how to unplug them.

Dont under any circumstances try taking the top cover off the drive.


"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...

Avid Gamer wrote in message
om...

I have a Western Digital hard drive that is only 6
months old (still in warranty) that apparently has
failed. Western Digital (to my dismay) will not / does
not do data recoveries and only wants to replace it.

Thats universal with all hard drive manufacturers now.

I would like some suggestions from the
group on what to do/ how to proceed...

A Japanese would disembowel itself |-)

The story goes like this:

I was building a computer for my mother and had disconnected
my hard drive on my computer and connected the drive from hers
to make a Norton Ghost image of it in case anything happened to it

Good approach, even without that risk of getting molested.

(she is just learning to use a computer for the first
time in her life). Add children under age 10 using it
too to the equation and you see why I backed it up!

Yep, and its generally worth doing for any system anyway.
The short story is that hard drives are so cheap now that it
makes a lot of sense to image it as soon as its working properly.

Anyway, I backed up her hard drive to another spare I had,

Its generally better to do an image creation over the
lan, even with PCs which which arent used on a lan.
They normally do have a NIC now, and when they dont, the
cost of a decent cheap second hand PCI NIC is peanuts.

Just plug the system into your hub for the image creation.

disconnected everything and went to reconnect my hard drives
again (I have two drives- one before-mentioned WD drive and
a Samsung 60GB drive). The cable for the WD drive didn't
want to connect. It was very hard to push on (80-pin EIDE
drive/connector). I was tired by that time from finishing the
work on building her computer and wasn't in the mood for
this so I (stupidly) forced it on. This was likely my downfall!
Maybe this pushed something out of alignment or something?

Most likely you had the ribbon cable in backwards and the
forcing you did basically forced the pin in the missing pin
position into the plastic in the connector at the block pin position.

You might have managed to put it onto the pins that are
meant to be used for the ribbon cable connector and at
least one or two of the jumper pins adjacent or something.

When I turned on the computer, I heard a popping noise

Thats unusual with a ribbon connector thats reversed.
Which makes it more likely you managed to force it
on some of the jumper pins or something.

along with a grinding-type noise. I assume this is a head crash?

Nope, its more likely you've killed the logic card electrically.

I was hoping I just had not connected it right or
something (but knew better) and tried disconnecting
it and reconnecting it with a new cable. Same results...

So, the question is, what is the probability of retrieving data
myself?

It may be possible to get another identical model drive and
swap the logic card between the new drive and the dead one.

Corse if you had an image of your own drive, you wouldnt need to |-)

The computer no longer even recognizes the drive, much less accesses
it.

I know somebody that says I could remove the cover from the drive
and help it spin the drive up when it attempts to after turning on
the
power, but he also says it's like a crap shoot (may or may not
work).

Its very unlikely indeed that forcing the cable on wrongly has
produced damage to the drive that that approach will help with.

I hate to have a data recovery company do it, as the drive is a
120GB
drive which is full short of about 7 GB! They (www.DriveSavers.com)
quoted me as around $3000!

Yeah, recovery aint cheap. Much cheaper to buy another
identical drive model and try a logic card swap.

Help!?! Oh, and sorry for the loooooooong-winded post!

Its a mere waif of a post |-)