Repairing Seagate Barracuda Hard Disk

[sg]

Hi all,

I have damaged my hard disk while trying to connect a laptop hard disk
to the system. The machine was working perfectly, and I have reasons to
believe that what has occurred is a failure in the drive electronics. I
am posting my query to this newsgroup to see if anyone can suggest
possoble ways to check and repair the drive.

My system consists of an ASUS A7v m/b and the hardisk was connected to
the Promise PDC2025 UDMA controller via an 80 conductor cable.

What I was doing was to try and connect a laptop/notebook harddisk as a
slave device. Since, the laptop interface consists of 44 pins, we had a
small adapter that plugs in to the power supply and gives power to the
relevant pins. It seems that inadvertently, I powered one of the data
lines and the harddisk got damaged.

If I connect the hardisk to a normal IDE connector, my system hangs
while trying to detect the IDE devices. If I connect it to the UDMA 100
(Promise) controller, the controller BIOS does not load saying that "No
PDC2025 chip found". Also, I can't seem to feel the motors running.

Any ideas as to how I can troubleshoot/repair the disk. I have a guess
that some connections have blown up.
Many thanks for any ideas whatsover.

Thanks & regards,

Sachin

 

[Art]

Try the drive in a known working system and make sure you did not fubar the
m/b.

 

[sg]

Hi Art,

I did try the narddisk in a known working system and that system does
not detect the drive

Thanks,

Sachin

 

[James Sweet]

Hi all,

I have damaged my hard disk while trying to connect a laptop hard disk
to the system. The machine was working perfectly, and I have reasons to
believe that what has occurred is a failure in the drive electronics. I
am posting my query to this newsgroup to see if anyone can suggest
possoble ways to check and repair the drive.

My system consists of an ASUS A7v m/b and the hardisk was connected to
the Promise PDC2025 UDMA controller via an 80 conductor cable.

What I was doing was to try and connect a laptop/notebook harddisk as a
slave device. Since, the laptop interface consists of 44 pins, we had a
small adapter that plugs in to the power supply and gives power to the
relevant pins. It seems that inadvertently, I powered one of the data
lines and the harddisk got damaged.

If I connect the hardisk to a normal IDE connector, my system hangs
while trying to detect the IDE devices. If I connect it to the UDMA 100
(Promise) controller, the controller BIOS does not load saying that "No
PDC2025 chip found". Also, I can't seem to feel the motors running.

Any ideas as to how I can troubleshoot/repair the disk. I have a guess
that some connections have blown up.
Many thanks for any ideas whatsover.

Thanks & regards,

Sachin

You probably fried the controller chip on the drive, not much you can do to
repair it. If you have data on there you need then sometimes you can recover
it by swapping over the board from an identical drive, this doesn't always
work though.

 

[Andy Cuffe]

What I was doing was to try and connect a laptop/notebook harddisk as a
slave device. Since, the laptop interface consists of 44 pins, we had a
small adapter that plugs in to the power supply and gives power to the
relevant pins. It seems that inadvertently, I powered one of the data
lines and the harddisk got damaged.

Are you sure you're connecting both cables correctly (the IDE cable to
the adapter and the adapter to the hard drive)? I have one of these
adapters which isn't keyed, so it's easy to plug something in
backwards. It shouldn't damage anything, but it will cause the system
to hang. The only thing that could cause damage is plugging in, or
unplugging something with the system powered on, or shorting something
out.
Andy Cuffe
(e-mail address removed)

 

[sg]

Hi Andy,

I *could* have, rather I actually have plugged stuff incorrectly and
the disk is damaged. I unplugged the adapter and laptop hardisk and the
system doesn't detect the disk, nor is the drive detected in another
system.

I have enquired and some people say that they can repair this disk by
swapping out the defective board and putting a new one in. I am hoping
that will work.

Thanks,

Sachin