Clicking hard drive

[congo]

Oh, man, I feel for you rootbeer, but don't be too sad about 3 dozen downloads. I just lost years of work of carefully modded addons through a HDD replacement gone wrong, it was my own fault, I can't replace what I lost though, there will be a new sim out by the time I get halfway through it!

I just felt sick when it happened but hey, life goes on and that is that so I'm not going to fret a bit over it now.


With static electricity, man, if you saw a spark, that's it, over and out, you probably pumped 20,000 volts through some tiny component, and POOF! If you had a sensitive nose near the drive you may have even smelled that distictive and aweful aroma of burning electricals.... bugga. A new 300gb drive as well!

So what's the $275 for? Not a hard drive I hope, because they shouldn't cost much more than $100 ? Unless it was a raptor....... don't tell me it was a 300gb raptor!

[rootbeer]

Hello, congo...

The drive itself was about $180 plus 7.5% tax, so that's another 13 or 14 bucks, then I had it formatted by a man here in Dodge City for another $50 to make sure I got all 300Gb of it and not just 137Gb as you'll get if it isn't partitioned correctly. I can still use the enclosure, I assume. It was about $75, plus tax. Maybe its electronics are fried and that's the real problem. I hadn't thought of that until reading your post just now, but with my luck, I couldn't get so lucky...

I feel for you, Cap'n. To lose so much work in an instant defies words. You have no words. You have no emotion. You can only think back to the hours and hours you spent getting it all just right and how triumphant you felt when it worked as you envisioned. Then to lose it in a small spark or a power drop...

But I don't understand how it got fried so easily. I have touched it many times in the past and sparked it plenty bigger than the one that allegedly did it in. Maybe it just crapped out on its own and the spark is inconsequential in its demise. I don't know...

All I can do is return the dead one to WD and start over. I do have a second enclosure with a 30Gb in it. Maybe I should try the 300 in that one? It's USB 2.0 just like the one holding the 300. What'cha think?

[congo]

I think sparks are a very bad thing, I've actually never zapped a PC or any part of one fortunately, the reason is that the air is almost always moist here and not prone to static. When the air is dry I take precautions.

To earth myself against static damage, I just touch some bare metal on the case before I touch any components, the reason it works is because the 3 pin plug to the PC has an earth wire to ground, hence I hopefully discharge any static to earth through the PC case.

Static + PC = inert matter

[Mick_C]

[quote]right from what your saying the drive is mechanicly fine but the electronics have been fried by static.

[rootbeer]

I'm just going to get it exchanged under warranty and try to forget about it. I suppose I have to jump through a hundred hoops for the exchange. If WD wants the original packaging or the UPC barcode from the box, I don't have it. Am I screwed?

Thanks for all the replies.

[beaky]

My sympathies... it's possible you have a serious static problem there; pretty hard to kill a new WD drive (although it's possible it was defective).

In addition to discharging before working on it (just touch anything grounded to building steel, like an electrical conduit or some plumbing) or using a grounding strap, you might consider doing something to prevent static discharges in general (did I read correctly that you're getting "zapped" sometimes just touching the computer during normal operations?).
Assuming you can't replace the carpeting with something less static-prone, you might want to get a static dissipative or grounded anti-static mat for your computer area. Approaching the computer barefoot might help, too...

[rootbeer]

I live in Nevada, in the desert more or less. It's always very dry here, especially in the summer. We have wildfires rampaging up and down the whole state right now. I can generate static electricity in my bare feet around here. Every time I reach to turn on the lamp over my keyboard, I get zapped. An expletive follows in rapid succession...

I have the drive setting atop my computer case. What I did was to just lightly tap it with the end of my finger before I flipped the switch to turn it on. I suppose if I had grabbed it solidly with all my fingers, discharging any static, it would still be alive today. Oh well, live and burn...

[Mick_C]

I live in Nevada, in the desert more or less. It's always very dry here, especially in the summer...

You live in nevada, we are neighbors then. I live in Arizona and we too are plagued by wildfires right now. Tell you what I could do for you if you decide to try it. You can buy another hard drive of the exact make and model of your Western Digital, then mail both drives to me. I would be happy to change out the IC board for you and if possible, recover the whole lot onto a CD or DVD for you, then you just restore from the CD or DVD with the new drive.

This might save you at least $500 at a recovery shop, and I won't charge you a dime for the service. In the worst case scenario you would be right where you started, but with a new hard drive.

Best case scenario, you would be back on your feet like nothing ever happened. Worth thinking about.
Mick

[rootbeer]

Taking apart the two drives wipes out the warranty on both of them. I'll just send the toasted one back and go from there. They may tell me to go to hell anyway...

[Capt._Viper]

I might offer to suggest the Seagate Line, I started with a 3gig main and a 6gig acc. drive.
I now run a 6gig for the system(ie operating sys.) and use an 80gig for everything else. The only gripe is that I cannot change the processor. (pentium III) Two years on the drives no "probblemoe"

   Charles aka Capt Viper

[rootbeer]

You mean the chip on the mobo is too slow for the drives or the drives require too much out of the chip to run anything larger? I'm confused...

[congo]

He's just whining about his CPU, unrelated to the subject.