How hard is it to toast a HD?

[TrueBlueLS]

I've got a Maxtor 60 gig that just went out on me today. I had it hooked up to my sister's HP to back up her files and reformat her system. Everything worked fine up until I replugged the drive back in after getting her OS installed. Her computer or mine would not recognize the drive. I cannot even hear anything spin up on the drive. If it was hooked up to a power supply that only supplies 100W (HP), could it have been fried? If it was statically ruined, I would have felt a shock, right?

 

[Spyro]

I'm not to sure about static, but I've never had any hard drives of mine die like this.

 

[bozo1]

If it was statically ruined, I would have felt a shock, right?

No - the voltage/current/whatever required to damage or destroy electronic components is much lower than the voltage/current/whatever level it takes to feel or see it.

That being said, I highly doubt that's the problem.

 

[TrueBlueLS]

Originally posted by: bozo1

If it was statically ruined, I would have felt a shock, right?

No - the voltage/current/whatever required to damage or destroy electronic components is much lower than the voltage/current/whatever level it takes to feel or see it.

That being said, I highly doubt that's the problem.

Any insight on possibilities?

 

[everman]

It is possible but unlikely that you zapped a chip on the controller (underside of the drive).

 

[TrueBlueLS]

Originally posted by: everman
It is possible but unlikely that you zapped a chip on the controller (underside of the drive).

Is there anyway to swap controllers out from a different hard drive? I'd like to be able to get my school work off this drive.

 

[jschuk]

If you have an identical Maxtor 60GB, then you can try swapping the controller board. Keep in mind that if the drive itself is bad, you can fry the controller board. That being said, I have tried this maybe a dozen times on laptop drives and have only been successful twice (could have been that the drive was bad too for some of those cases).