> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alan Gorham [SMTP:alan@MICROTIMA.CO.UK]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2003 2:51 PM
> To:   PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject:      [EE]: How robust is a HDD?
>
> Has anybody had any experience with the SMPS on their PC exploding?
>
> This has happened to me and it seems to have fried most of the PC.
>
> 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?
>
> 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?
>
> 3. Anyone got a spare working Fujitsu MPE3084 that they would part with?
>
It would be very unlikely that the platters/heads are damaged (but
possible).  I've successfully replaced a dead controller board from another
hard drive to retrieve some data with no problems at all.

Unfortuanetly I don't have an MPE3084, but I do have a slightly sick MPE3102
which is the 10GB version. It seems to work but fails the Fujitsu diagnostic
tests.  If you want to give it a go you are welcome to it, but I don't know
if it would work on a smaller drive.  If you value your data I'd suggest not
using a Fujitsu drive ever again. They make the early IBM 7200 RPM drives
look good in reliability terms!

Mike

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic:
[PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads