smoke coming from hard drive

toby56 · 03-07-2009, 08:20 PM

i was working on a friends computer about to back up files from a hard drive (theres 2 hd in his system, this one was for media) and then i saw smoke coming out of the hard drive when i was gonna back it up. So im pretty sure im screwed in the situation, windows doesnt show the hard drive anymore, but is there anything i can do to pull data off the disk? stick it in a freezer maybe? i really dont want to send it off to the "pros" I was thinking i could buy the exact same hard drive and just take out the chip board and put it in the smoked hard drive and see what happens.

bengal85 · 03-07-2009, 08:23 PM

No way it probably toasted the whole thing chip board and all I wouldn't mess around with it.

fmw · 03-07-2009, 10:54 PM

It's history. Sorry.

3uL · 03-08-2009, 01:51 AM

Yeah. The harddrive is R.I M (rest in miserable)

If you still had warranty go do RMA.

Twist86 · 03-08-2009, 04:07 AM

Yep its dead.

One way to lower this EVER happening again is make sure the HDD is cooled. It will prolong the life of the HDD.

I took a 80mm fan put 4 1 inch screws in the holes so it blows under my HDD...drops temps 8-14c.

Sheringan · 03-08-2009, 04:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Twist86

Yep its dead.

One way to lower this EVER happening again is make sure the HDD is cooled. It will prolong the life of the HDD.

I took a 80mm fan put 4 1 inch screws in the holes so it blows under my HDD...drops temps 8-14c.

This is also what I did to my computer. Large blowers that standard is a big help.

hackapelite · 03-08-2009, 09:20 AM

Usually, smoke coming out of your hard drive is a bad sign. I would try to get all data off it ASAP, as it might be on its way out. Too many people have ignored warning signs like this; by the moment your house burns down it's usually too late, at this point the disk is probably unreadable.
</smart@$$>

Quote:

One way to lower this EVER happening again is make sure the HDD is cooled. It will prolong the life of the HDD.

This is only true to an extent; the engineers take the heating in account when designing HDs, and their safe operating ranges are usually around 30-50 degrees. Going above as well as below these limits increases the chances of failure; so while extra ventilation is certainly god if your HD temps are topping 60, you also need to make sure that they run above 35C just to be safe.

This is one of the reasons HDs on their way out usually die at bootup - because the drives are still cold and more prone to failure.

fmw · 03-08-2009, 01:31 PM

Cooling is not the answer. Data backup is the answer. All hard drives fail eventually. Every single one fails if you use it long enough.

03-07-2009, 08:20 PM	#1 (permalink)
toby56 New Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 3	smoke coming from hard drive i was working on a friends computer about to back up files from a hard drive (theres 2 hd in his system, this one was for media) and then i saw smoke coming out of the hard drive when i was gonna back it up. So im pretty sure im screwed in the situation, windows doesnt show the hard drive anymore, but is there anything i can do to pull data off the disk? stick it in a freezer maybe? i really dont want to send it off to the "pros" I was thinking i could buy the exact same hard drive and just take out the chip board and put it in the smoked hard drive and see what happens.

03-08-2009, 01:51 AM	#4 (permalink)
3uL Gold Member Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 345	Yeah. The harddrive is R.I M (rest in miserable) If you still had warranty go do RMA. __________________ AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 3GB Kingston DDR2 800 80GB+320GB Western Digital HD Gainward ATI Radeon HD3850 512MB DDR3 Gigabyte Superb 550 PSU

03-08-2009, 04:07 AM	#5 (permalink)
Twist86 Diamond Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Missouri Age: 23 Posts: 2,327	Yep its dead. One way to lower this EVER happening again is make sure the HDD is cooled. It will prolong the life of the HDD. I took a 80mm fan put 4 1 inch screws in the holes so it blows under my HDD...drops temps 8-14c. __________________ Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 400x8- 3.2ghz / XFX GTX 260 868mb 192 Core 2x2GB G-skill PC6400 DDR2 800 / Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 (rev. 1.0) / TX750w Corsair PSU Antec 900 Case / 1680x1050 Acer X223W 22'' Logitech S-220 Speakers / Windows 7 Ultimate x64

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03-07-2009, 08:23 PM	#2 (permalink)
bengal85 Gold Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Michigan Posts: 450	No way it probably toasted the whole thing chip board and all I wouldn't mess around with it.

03-07-2009, 10:54 PM	#3 (permalink)
fmw Gold Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 474	It's history. Sorry.

03-08-2009, 01:31 PM	#8 (permalink)
fmw Gold Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 474	Cooling is not the answer. Data backup is the answer. All hard drives fail eventually. Every single one fails if you use it long enough.