View Full Version : 2 dead hdd's
Crap :'(
For some reason after moving home I now have 2 dead hard drives. Both are Samsung HD103UJ 1Tb drives and it appears that a little black thingy near the sata connections on the pcb has burned on both.
Could it have something to do with the fact that I plugged them into a powered USB hub? Or could it be a faulty power supply (I swapped the plugs around when one wasn't working and then the other stopped)
Is there anyway of me getting the data off these or are they a write off?
I know I should have backed them up, but I was too cheap to buy another 2Tb of storage.
Trying to work out what you have done.... Do you mean you put them in an enclosure and then connected to a USB supply? Normally these are powered for 3.5" drives.
Either way it burned connectors is never a good sign. I actually have two bricked HD103UJ drives infront of me, post a pic up.
I do think that if you really want data back then you will have to go for data recovery which will cost loads.
http://www.wossi.co.uk/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=3073&g2_serialNumber=1
They were in Integral enclosures, originally connected up via usb direct to the pc, then when I moved I connected them through a powered usb hub. If it looks like it's gonna cost a lot then I'll write the data off and start again, they were only tv shows but close to 2tb of tv shows and I have no idea what I had.
Connecting the enclosure to a powered USB hub shouldn't be a problem but I think the fact that both drives died after being plugged in does imply that it was the hub to blame.
You could probably get the data off if you have an identical new drive by taking the PCB off the new drive and putting it into the old one. I've done it a few times when it's been an electrical rather than a mechanical failure.
*smacks forehead* I forgot I have an identical drive in the pc.
How dangerous is it to the spare hdd to do this as it's almost full and not backed up :(
Back up the donor drive first! If you've killed two PCBs, I'd work under the assumption that killing a third is likely.
USB powered hub is an unlikely source of trouble because 3.5" drives don't draw power from there - they need 12v supplies and USB is 5v.
Unless of course the power supply for the hub has failed and is overvolting - in which case I'd expect the hub or the USB to IDE bridge in the enclosure to die first.
Duff enclosure (or power supply for the enclosure) is a more likely candidate. If it's just the one enclosure that has caused both drives I'd treat that as suspect.
I feel your pain :( I have two bricked/dieing HD103UJ 1Tb drives here. Both are going back to Samsung under warranty as they are dieing through sector failure.....
I will sell you one of them if it will get you out of crap (knocked down obviously) and send the other one back. I'm not giving it away though as its a £60 drive that I can send back for replacement. Let me know if this will be of any help.
Back up the donor drive first! If you've killed two PCBs, I'd work under the assumption that killing a third is likely.
USB powered hub is an unlikely source of trouble because 3.5" drives don't draw power from there - they need 12v supplies and USB is 5v.
Unless of course the power supply for the hub has failed and is overvolting - in which case I'd expect the hub or the USB to IDE bridge in the enclosure to die first.
Duff enclosure (or power supply for the enclosure) is a more likely candidate. If it's just the one enclosure that has caused both drives I'd treat that as suspect.
2 enclosures, I think it's 1 of the power supplies as 1 was working till I swapped the cables round. Only problem now is that I don't know which cable is dodgy :(
I feel your pain :( I have two bricked/dieing HD103UJ 1Tb drives here. Both are going back to Samsung under warranty as they are dieing through sector failure.....
I will sell you one of them if it will get you out of crap (knocked down obviously) and send the other one back. I'm not giving it away though as its a £60 drive that I can send back for replacement. Let me know if this will be of any help.
I might take you up on that offer if I can figure out which cable is faulty.
2 enclosures, I think it's 1 of the power supplies as 1 was working till I swapped the cables round. Only problem now is that I don't know which cable is dodgy :(
Ouch! Think you've got your answer but finding which one is likely to be expensive. Finding a friend with a drive they don't mind sacrificing would be the way to go.
I think I may have figured it out. The Lacie external hard drive I have uses the same kind of connections, I'm wondering if that cable was used instead it would cause this problem. Need to root around the back of the cabinet to check the power supplies.
EDIT: It seems I was correct, the pins on the lacie cable are the other way round to the other cable, I ended up putting 12v through a 5v connection :( At least I know what the problem is so will spend tomorrow moving stuff around to get the drive in the pc empty and try and get the data off the 2 drives.
That's definitely it then. Expensive mistake. :(
I think I'd best learn from that too given the number of enclosures I have. I've got a label maker so I think I'll tag the end of the power leads to make sure I don't do that.
Expensive indeed, tbh you'd think those type of connections would be the same regardless of who made them though. Nevermind, I might try labelling them myself now.
Well, so far so good *touch wood* I am currently transferring the last 113GB from one dead drive onto whatever free space I have. I thought it was going to be fiddly taking the PCB's off and putting them back on, but it turns out that it's jsut a few screws. Just hope the next drive can do the same now other wise it's 1TB of tv shows down the drain. Fingers crossed.
Del Lardo
28-07-2009, 00:11
If you need some space I've got a spare 1TB disk that I won't need for a couple of months if you will cover postage.
If you need some space I've got a spare 1TB disk that I won't need for a couple of months if you will cover postage.
Cheers for the offer, need to see if I can first recover the other drive then how much space I have. Should know in about 40 odd minutes or so.
EDIT: Swapped the PCB's over again and I'm now transferring over 600GB which leaves 150GB left which means there is enough space on the last external drive \o/ Hopefully this will all be done tomorrow morning before I leave for work.
Glad it's all worked out (touch wood)! That's quite some recovery there!
Looks like one of my disks is dying too. Weird intermittent lockups that would take the drive offline for an hour (enough to fail the RAID mirror), and then it'd come back online and the RAID would rebuild. Did that a few times before I caught it. Oddly it's the newest disk, swapped in after a previous disk error, that is causing trouble. Oh well, I've bought enough disks to populate my second Drobo so I'll just break the mirror, backup to the Drobo, and use both until one dies.
It looks like Lady Fate is annoyed with me for some reason. The 500gb Lacie I have is also fried, I didn't think I had powered up, but it seems that I may have also used the wrong plug on that one :( Annoying mainly as I could have done with the space, instead I'll have to chuck stuff onto my laptop now.
That's not good, but guess that was inevitable because the same result would have happened - 12V where 5V was expected.
And it looks like I was wrong - it's not the disk I swapped, it's the original one on the same channel. I swapped back in the one I'd taken out last time and it's rebuilding. Not expecting it to last forever but may as well use it until it fails. 22 screws and 7 cables later and it's done. I might plug the old disk into an IDE channel somewhere and read off the SMART data to see what happened. :)
Looks like one of my disks is dying too. Weird intermittent lockups that would take the drive offline for an hour (enough to fail the RAID mirror)
Is it ironic that I was listening to Queen when another disk in the array popped its clogs (I heard it let go - I've heard a disk clicking for months but didn't know which one it was, and now I do). Another one bites the dust.
Ah well, they're all getting on a bit now so c'est la vie. Oh and it's on the other channel this time. Syncing everything up with the Drobo then I'll go yank the power for that disk (CBA to remove it as I don't have a spare any more).
PS - really need to find time to go rationalise all my data. I've got far too much crap floating around from god knows when. Easier said than done unfortunately.
Edit - OK, so the other disk is clicking. This backup better hurry up and finish (I do have most of it backed up already, fortunately).
Well, having had one disk go down, my RAID controller appears to have killed off the other disk in the RAID 1 pair at 06:42 this morning. That was a closer call than I expected. :shocked:
Note to self: must make more regular backups.
The Hard Drive is Dead
http://www.saabcentral.com/phpgallery/albums/Allsorts/Richard1TombFntrvd.jpg
Long live the hard drive!
Just checked and all three were purchased in July 2006. I'll wager they all have three year warranties. :/
LOL. Just got into the controller. The array status was 'Dead'. You're not kidding. ;D
I'll have to fettle with the innards of the PC to get the drives out, and I really can't be bothered. I'll also have to fettle with the innards of another PC to test them (I assumed they all had three year warranties - I was wrong. Five \o/).
I was thinking of getting some new drives for when Win 7 turns up. What drives are good atm as I haven't been looking into these sort of things for ages.
Thanks in advance :)
EDIT: Was thinking about a 100-150Gb drive just for Windows and any other applications then a 1-1.5Tb drive partitioned for storage and games.
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