Alan Gorham wrote...
> Has anybody had any experience with the SMPS on their PC exploding?

Not exploded but failed, yes.  And I refer to them as PSU's so more people
will understand what I'm talking about.

> This has happened to me and it seems to have fried most of the PC.

You were unlucky.  Mostly a power can die without harming the rest of the
computer.

> The most valuable/least easily replacable part of the system is my
hard-drive.
> Although I've kept back-ups of most of the important data, it would be
nice to
> think I could rescue my
> existing drive.
> Three questions
> 1. What damage would a massive spike (such as that caused by a SMPS going
bang)
> do to a HDD?
>      Dead controller board, dead drive platters or both?

Mostly kill the controller board.

> 2. If it's just the controller board that has gone, then could I swap it
with a
> known working board form an identical HDD?

Unfortunately some drives have calibrations for the platters stored on the
boards thus making a card-swap very hard to do.  There are however many
drives that calibrate themselves as they are powered up, and they allow you
to du just such a swap.

> 3. Anyone got a spare working Fujitsu MPE3084 that they would part with?

Sorry, can't help you there, but if you really want the data, there are
company's that can retrieve them. (Like ibas.)


    KreAture

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