1.  Hard to say.  If it was an old machine, it could be that some sort of
power surge went through the system when you shut it off.  We could dance
around it for weeks, with many different theories, and still not know for
sure.

2.  I have actually removed the platters from a hard drive and put them into
an identical model (the original hard drive's heads went south) and was able
to get the information from the drive.  I have never tried replacing the
circuit board, but I know that some former co-workers of mine were able to
do this.  It was a 27GB drive (WD I believe) that had some very important
research information on it (though he got a TON of grief about backing up
his data, but I have no room to talk as I haven't backed my system up for
over a year).  Hence, I know it's possible in some cases.  I haven't seen it
done enough to say that it will work every time, but it's certainly worth a
try.

The other alternative is to find a local company that specializes in data
recovery for exactly the type of situation you are in.  My understanding is
that they are very expensive.

Good luck!

Kyle Elmblade
Distinct Computer Solutions
Sales - Upgrades - Training - Consulting
[log in to unmask]
"A closed mouth gathers no foot"

From: "AMD950" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2002 1:27 PM
Subject: [PCBUILD] Fried HD


> Hash: SHA1
>
> Went away last weekend, shutting down all PCs.  Returned to encounter an
> odor of electronic components burning/shorting out.  Discovered that an
old
> HP I use for device programming would not boot.  Turns out the circuit
> board on the HD literally fried; one corner black & crumbling.  Drive
> contains data that cannot be replaced (please no comments on backing up;
> usually back up to cd once a month, but lapsed on this machine for the
last
> 2 months).
>
> Question 1:  What could have caused this?
>
> Question 2:  Is it possible to replace circuit board on HD (if I can find
> it) and maybe recover data?
>
> Ian Carmichael

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