Hard Drive stopped working but works in other computer?

[lewk]

Okay, here's my situation;

My friend went away for a few days, leaving his PC (Windows XP) at home. When he got back he attempted to turn it on and nothing happened. The fan spun for literally a second and then stopped.

After doing this, pressing the power button did nothing unless you were to unplug the power chord and plug it back in and power on, and then it would just do what it did before.

So after a while of fiddling around, i figured out that when you unplug his hard drive, the computer powers on and sits at the BIOS screen reminding me of the missing hard drive.

So now we know what the problem is. However i brought his hard drive home and plugged it into my computer externally (USB) and it worked. All his files and folders are still on the hard drive and it's working fine.

So what does this mean? Can anyone shed any light on the matter? Hard drive randomly conflicting with it's fellow hardware after 2 years of flawless behavior?

Thanks for the help guys

[quaxo]

Ah good Lewk, you found your way over here and got your post up. 

Like I was saying in chat, something may have happened to the power supply, although it's strange that it starts without the hard drive. Perhaps it is overloaded by that one last piece.

Like I mentioned in chat, try swapping it with a known working drive and see if it will boot.

Do you have another working power supply? Might try swapping that out and see if it boots with the original hard drive. (This is more of a pain than the first suggestion, but it will help rule out the PSU.)

[JJ 3000]

Could be the data cable

[Geek-9pm]

Don't blame the hard drive. Most hard drives are faithful workers and only ask that you treat them gently. Do not use them as paper weights, nor for driving nails into the wall.
Now power supply are something else. They claim to be tough and can dish it out. And you can drive nails with them and they will still work. Beware! When you least expect it, they will play sick and will not get out of bed.

So you unplug them from the juice and they pretend to be all right. Unless you put in an old hard drive that is having trouble with a dirty motor. It ask the power supply for just bit more on the 12 volt line and the power supply says 'No' I am not going to do any more, my capacitors are weak and my diodes are getting hot, I am gong to play sick until they get rid of you.'

It is the power supply. They really know how to fool you into thinking it was somebody else. Never trust an old Power supply. They are an evil breed.

[Kurtiskain]

Don't blame the hard drive. Most hard drives are faithful workers and only ask that you treat them gently. Do not use them as paper weights, nor for driving nails into the wall.
Now power supply are something else. They claim to be tough and can dish it out. And you can drive nails with them and they will still work. Beware! When you least expect it, they will play sick and will not get out of bed.

So you unplug them from the juice and they pretend to be all right. Unless you put in an old hard drive that is having trouble with a dirty motor. It ask the power supply for just bit more on the 12 volt line and the power supply says 'No' I am not going to do any more, my capacitors are weak and my diodes are getting hot, I am gong to play sick until they get rid of you.'

It is the power supply. They really know how to fool you into thinking it was somebody else. Never trust an old Power supply. They are an evil breed.

This gave me my L0L of the day

But yes, I aggree. Try a known working PSU, or try just the bare minimum without CD/DVD/graphics cards (if possible)/PCI cards, but add the drive and see what happens.

Also, plug the drive back in and unplug the data cable, does it start then?

[lewk]

Good suggestions there lads, cheers

I'll let you know how i get on 

[BC_Programmer]

indeed, the power supply can be a fickle beast, not unlike the chair crapping monster I described previously.

As geek said, they like to place the blame on somebody else. To place my own anthropomorphic spin on it:

Code: [Select]

CD-drive: crap- he's burning at 48x again... I'm gonna need some more 12V here.

PSU: *sigh*, i suppose.

Secondary Hard Drive: Wow, my burst rate is really going up because of this burning! some more 12V here.


Floopy drive: I'm just spinning up for no reason in particular. More 12V.

PSU: Enough. None of you are getting ANY more 12V until I'm restarted.


Windows: a device has dissapeared from the system without being removed
Windows: a device has dissapeared from the system without being removed
Windows: your floopy drive needs a fix.

Windows: *can no longer access pagefile on secondary hard drive*

Windows: *I know- I'll just create a new pagefile on C:! Nobody will know, MWA HAHA!

*create pagefile on C:*


MS word: Hi, VMM? it's me, Word. Say, could you grab my swapped pages from the pagefile? thanks.

Windows: La dee da, I'll just look through my selectors... nope, sorry MS Word, you don't appear to own any pages at all.
*Stamps PAGE FAULT on pagefile memory request form*

Word: *gets form* AUUUUUUUUUUGH! *POOF*

Windows: this program has encountered a problem and needs to close.


*repeat similar for every single running process*

 ;D

[lewk]

Well well well, what a surprise.. You guys were right

Went out and bought a new power-supply and there ya go, all works perfectly.

Cheers guys  you know your stuff

[quaxo]

Well well well, what a surprise.. You guys were right

Went out and bought a new power-supply and there ya go, all works perfectly.

Cheers guys  you know your stuff

Good deal, Lewk. Happy we were able to help you out! Come back anytime you have more issues or just to hang out and learn something. 

[Kurtiskain]

or just to hang out and learn something. 

Hopefully just this one

I agree, too. This forum is a great place to learn new skills, gain knowledge and also help others with it

[lewk]

Yeah, i think i've found my new home haha