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I have a tower PC that recently had a boot error stating that the hard drive could not be read. When the computer starts up, you can hear the hard drive spinning up normally, just as it had in the past. The computer still says that it can't be read. There are a lot of files that I need to retrieve from this hard drive even if it is permanently broken.
The hard drive is SATA so I decided to buy a SATA to USB converter and a power supply so I could view it on my iMac. I have received the converters in the mail, but when I plugged the power in, the cables got really hot really quickly and the hard drive never turned on. You can feel them heat up in just a couple seconds and smell of the plastic in just a few more. I had it plugged into the computer as well via USB. Im not sure that the wires came in the mail in the correct order because they are twisted as shown: The part on the power end that is the adapter gets very hot as well as the top black and red wires. Are the wires in the correct order or not? After looking online, I am still not sure. Also, this diagram is with the hard drive circuitry side up.
The adapter kit that I purchased from Amazon can be found here and looks like this:
Nope, it's for "How do I use x" type questions, and it has some hardware questions there. – slugster – 2013-03-30T23:11:56.220
To be honest people are probably being a bit harsh by down voting instead of just voting to migrate or close, but that's the crowd that are around this morning :) – slugster – 2013-03-30T23:13:28.713
Wait for it to be automatically migrated - if it does a redirect will be automatically be applied to this page when it is requested. If it just gets closed without being migrated then you can join that site and re-ask the question (you can associate that site with your current login and get 100 rep free instantly). – slugster – 2013-03-30T23:15:34.830
No, don't delete it - that will impact your account and possibly trigger some heuristics. Just let it go. It only takes 1 up vote to negate the 6 rep you've currently lost. – slugster – 2013-03-30T23:18:11.140
@cbbcbail: Do you hear any grinding, clanking or scraping noises when the drive spins? If not, try plugging it into another computer. If that computer doesn't have any problems with it, try replacing the PCB with that of another working drive of the same model. – Blender – 2013-03-30T23:18:43.417
@Blender It appears to spin just as it should. I have no other computer that I could plug it into in any way other than is described above. – cbbcbail – 2013-03-30T23:20:29.613
@cbbcbail: Can you link me to an Ebay or Amazon page for the adapter? – Blender – 2013-03-30T23:24:57.973
@Blender I'd be happy to. Edited with link. – cbbcbail – 2013-03-30T23:27:01.313
If you have a voltmeter handy you can check the SATA power connector vs. the specifications: Wikipedia.
– HABO – 2013-03-30T23:45:10.563I do have a multimeter handy, but i dont think there is any way for me to test voltages inside of this miniature Sata cable withoput destroying it – cbbcbail – 2013-03-30T23:51:22.910