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View Full Version : "Dead" HD tip


Godfodda
12-31-01, 05:58 PM
Wanted to pass this on so maybe someone would save themselves some $$$.

Several weeks ago I thought I had a dying HD as discussed in a previous thread here). Scrambled to install the backup drive and transfer over recent mails. Spent some bucks getting a new one sent overnight. While playing around inside the case installing the new drive and moving things around, I swapped the cables between the HD and CDR and thought nothing more of it.

Last weekend I tried to burn my usual backup with no luck. Ghost kept giving me errors. Clocked down, played with BIOS. Nothing worked. Finally gave up and went out for a new cable to see if that would help. Never got around to installing it, though.

Pulled out the "dead" drive tonight to test it on a new system (with the just-bought cable) and the damned thing is spinning along fine so far. I'm guessing that I did a bad job of wrapping the IDE cables in my other case. I used the W shape and wrapped them in electrical tape. Apparently it was too tight or something as has partially broken some of the conductors. This is assumption, but I think it's probably the right assumption.

Two morals to the story: :)

Careful how you wrap your IDE cables, and
Don't throw the drive out until you test it on something else.

Gandalf
12-31-01, 06:37 PM
Thanx for the tips man.

:)

mx
12-31-01, 06:42 PM
I usually test them before throwing them away ...but that's a good tip Boss.:cool:

trey_w
12-31-01, 06:59 PM
thanks for the tip, it may save some people alot of time and stress

TranceBear
01-01-02, 03:59 AM
maybe this could be my trouble with my DVDRW, I will see........

iggybaseball
01-01-02, 09:23 AM
Yes, cable problems r the most overlooked. My scince teacher spent 20 min trying to set up the projector to his laptop to show us a powerpoint presentation and he couldn't get it to work. Turned out that he forgot to plug it in.