Big Problem!

[Black Panther]

Aleksander, are you online from this same computer right now?

[Aleksander]

Yes. I have connected my old hdd with my 1TB and i am trying to recover all the data for 10 days or even more.

[Black Panther]

Originally Posted by Aleksander Dishnica

Yes i have touched the naked circuit board with foots naked T_T
How can i circuit it out?
And EVERYTHING got trashed, cuz i have all things in the hdd. OS and everything you can think of.

Originally Posted by Black Panther

Aleksander, are you online from this same computer right now?

Originally Posted by Aleksander Dishnica

Yes. I have connected my old hdd with my 1TB and i am trying to recover all the data for 10 days or even more.

How did you manage to boot if the OS is in the 'trashed' HDD?

[_JP_]

So is everything stable and running?

Seems weird to me that although you touched a running board with bare fingers and, as you said, bare feet on the ground, the "probable" short-circuit you caused didn't made more damage to the drive. I guess you just got really lucky and the controller just went messed up, not corrupting the entire data, but not leaving you with a expensive paperweight either.

After you finish recovering your data (all of it), I advise you to download the HDD manufacturer's diagnostic tool, make a boot disk/floppy/USB pen and run some tests to check on the integrity of your HDD. Although you are able to recover the data, something might still be malfunctioning.

Also, being the first who said it, next time you want to check the temperatures, download a monitoring program. I can recommend you a few if you want, just ask.
These programs are designed to read the temperatures of the equipment and help avoiding the situation of having to "put your finger". They read the temperature where it matters and gives you the correct reading.

@Black Panther:

Originally Posted by Aleksander Dishnica

Normally the thread name is big problem. So i am trying to recover all the data except the os cuz i already installed it in my old hdd.

Does it help?

[Aleksander]

I had two partitions in my 1 TB hdd. One had the OS and one had all the data i have gathered for 4 years computing. Now i used the windows xp 64-bit disc, formated the 160 GB samsung and the OS in my 1 TB hdd, but i didn't format the partition where all the data have been. I installed the OS in my samsung hdd. Not in the 1 TB partition cuz after format it said: FATAL ERROR

@_JP_
I had opened a thread before mentioning the temperature of my rig (cpu for instance)
I just was curious of touching the hdd, cuz before it had a lot of high temperature, so when i touched it, it was very hot.
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=124734

[Formula350]

Looks like the partition table got screwed up to me... There is still the chance something else happened though.

I've had a lot of things happen to me when it comes to computers, 90% of the time nothing bad happens. The most related accident I encountered was just a few weeks ago, with a hard drive. I've got limited desk space and since I've been toying with my computer so much, I haven't put it in my computer case. Instead I made a cheap tech-bench with an old motherboard tray. What that leaves is no where to put the hard drives, so I had them stacked flat, one on top of the other. What happened was when I was moving one over (can't remember why, to check a model number maybe?),it slid off the top of the other one and the PCB contacted the cover of the other, which is metal Heard a little pop and the short triggered the power supply's Short Circuit Protection, shutting my PC down. I winced at the pain of my error and proceeded to fire the PC back up. Not a thing happened, everything works as if it never occured!

Now I'm not saying I wasn't lucky, but I've touched bare PCB many of times in the past, to check temps of a component typically (a chip, a voltage regulator, memory, etc) and never had anything occur.

Usually, my bad luck comes in the form of a screw driver slip where I hit the PCB SO many of the times I have somehow gotten lucky enough where nothing has happened, but there has been a time or two where I've knocked off a really small resistor The most memorable case was with the first PC I ever built, the Athlon 550 Slot-A right when it came out! After having it for awhile, for some reason I had the ambition to pull the plastic cover off AND the front heatsink aluminum plate, which required removing 4 veeerry small e-clips. The only way to really get them off is either a screwdriver and pushing/prying, or if it is out in the open grab it with a pliers. It wasn't in the open, it was being pressed on by the spring-steel retention "clip". Long story short, the screw driver slipped off the e-clip and slid against the back side of the CPU area of the PCB knocking of 3 or 4 resistors I was shaking I was so worried! But, that I think was the begining of my luck with computers, as it worked just fine O_O Sold it to a friend of a friend, and it lived out it's life working fine for him heh

[/story]

If I ever touch a component while the PC is on, I do one of two things: Make sure my finger is dry (sweat is basically salty water, which conducts electricity much better), or I use my knuckle. If it's a small space or component, I'll use my pinky finger since it won't contact a large area :P

Now I'm not condoning the action of touching live components, but if you are going to I'm just trying to offer some helpful advice. If you feel the need to touch a component, do it with extreme caution! Not just because the PC is on, but some components get far far hotter than you might think! Some of those big black squares (chokes are their name, some have a 2R on them) can get blistering hot! I learned that the hard way It was a on a laptop motherboard that I was diagnosing (it was old and my own, chill out people lol), never would I have thought it would have ever be that incredibly hot O_O

As for the person who said "use monitoring software", well I guess I'm going to go to you since you must know of some repository of magical software to do this! Not a lot of things on computer parts can have their temps read :\ And some things like RAM, only certain manufacturers have modules that you can read the temps. Same with video card memory. I've also never owned a component that can read MOSFET or VRM temps That leaves either a IR temp gun or a temperature probe, both of which wouldn't work all that well when so many components are in a small space where temperatures differ greatly from one to the next. Only way to get a good idea is by using the Finger Probe, which is free and gives instant feedback

[Aleksander]

Yeah you are right when saying finger probe, just why i did. Now i am going to format all the hdd cuz it didnt find any other data after blackout T_T (well it really happens here)

[Formula350]

Originally Posted by Aleksander Dishnica

Yeah you are right when saying finger probe, just why i did. Now i am going to format all the hdd cuz it didnt find any other data after blackout T_T (well it really happens here)

Well you could still attempt to get it back by fixing the partition table. Might also be the Master Boot Record, but I really don't know. The software side of HDDs is one of the ares I'm not that knowledgeable on

I'd give Partition Magic a go. Otherwise if there isn't anything it can do, there are lots of programs around that can read data off a "dead" HDD. Since yours isn't really dead, it should be able to easily get what you want off of it. Now sadly, I can't offer any suggestions to a program, because the last time I ever used one was a good 7 years ago, and it was a DOS program which sucked lol I have a feeling you would need to use DOS anyways though for direct hardware access.

[_JP_]

Originally Posted by Formula350

As for the person who said "use monitoring software", well I guess I'm going to go to you since you must know of some repository of magical software to do this!

Is it me?
I bet it is me...
I want to know if it is me...

[Steevo]

Touching the wrong two resistors, or pins on a controller chip on a running HDD can send power to the heads causing it to write to the disk. It takes very little power. My 2TB was experimented on by me and yes, damaging a partition especially the first one is easy by just touching certain pins/resistors.


The back of your graphics card is unlikely to cause issues though as it deals with amps and volts, not millionths of amps and tenths of volts.


Sweat is salt water, and thus conductive.

[qubit]

Originally Posted by Steevo

The back of your graphics card is unlikely to cause issues though as it deals with amps and volts, not millionths of amps and tenths of volts.

I beg to differ. Shorting any kind of electric/electronic circuit will cause it to malfunction. And on a graphics card, where the power usage is way higher than a HD (ie the volts and amps are much bigger) the short circuit current can well kill it in milliseconds. Therefore, keeping a graphics card short circuit free is a really good idea.

Now, how conductive is sweat at 3v, 5v? Enough to cause a malfunction? I dunno, so I'll leave that one open. It's certainly not a good idea to leave it there and can cause corrosion if not wiped off.

[Formula350]

Originally Posted by _JP_

Is it me?
I bet it is me...
I want to know if it is me...

heh Probably was. It's on the first page, I think with in the first 10 posts.

Originally Posted by qubit

Now, how conductive is sweat at 3v, 5v? Enough to cause a malfunction? I dunno, so I'll leave that one open. It's certainly not a good idea to leave it there and can cause corrosion if not wiped off.

While I haven't specifically tested it recently, and I know that there is only the voltage passing and not amperage. With that said, I have used a multimeter a lot recently and if you are using your fingers to keep the wires against the probes, that is enough to skew the readings. I wanted to see how much voltage would pass through me and standing on the wire (bare foot of course) and gripping the probe between my fingers will pretty much read full voltage (all DC voltage, from low 2v to 20v)

If you are really interested though I could run some tests and record the outcome :P

[TheMailMan78]

When you get a chance buy one of these



Its a hard driver rejuventator..............





























j/k.

[Formula350]

Originally Posted by TheMailMan78

When you get a chance but one of these

Its a hard driver rejuventator

j/k.

I know what that actually is! Used it before as well heh

[TheMailMan78]

Originally Posted by Formula350

I know what that actually is! Used it before as well heh

Thats a 75 pounder. Should be enough to fix his HD.

[Formula350]

Originally Posted by TheMailMan78

Thats a 75 pounder. Should be enough to fix his HD.

haha This all reminded me of this thread (read the whole thing, it's worth it, at least the posts by the OP)
http://forums.amd.com/forum/messagev...hreadid=130739

[Aleksander]

What is even worse now i don't have the warranty with me T_T as i lost it (recycled)
Is there a way to get a service for my hdd even if not having the warranty?

[Formula350]

Originally Posted by Aleksander Dishnica

What is even worse now i don't have the warranty with me T_T as i lost it (recycled)
Is there a way to get a service for my hdd even if not having the warranty?

If it falls under the manufacturer's warranty, I don't see why not. Of the few things I've warrantied DIRECTLY from the manufacturer, I haven't been asked to provide any proof of purchase (most recent thing was my memory a few years back through Corsair). I'd go to the site and see if they provide an RMA form, as that will have addition info as to what they'll require from you. If they do require a receipt, and you bought the item online, you might be able to get a digital copy from them if you ask nicely

[95Viper]

Originally Posted by Formula350

As for the person who said "use monitoring software", well I guess I'm going to go to you since you must know of some repository of magical software to do this! Not a lot of things on computer parts can have their temps read :\ And some things like RAM, only certain manufacturers have modules that you can read the temps. Same with video card memory. I've also never owned a component that can read MOSFET or VRM temps That leaves either a IR temp gun or a temperature probe, both of which wouldn't work all that well when so many components are in a small space where temperatures differ greatly from one to the next. Only way to get a good idea is by using the Finger Probe, which is free and gives instant feedback

Huh?

I personally don't trust most software to be as accurate as temp probes, but...
HWinfo32 and GPU-z, as well as some others, will pull this info for VRM or MOSfets if they are built for this purpose.

HWInfo

GPU-z

[Formula350]

Originally Posted by 95Viper

Huh?

I personally don't trust most software to be as accurate as temp probes, but...
HWinfo32 and GPU-z, as well as some others, will pull this info for VRM or MOSfets if they are built for this purpose.

HWInfo
Attachment 36484
GPU-z
Attachment 36485

I'll agree that they can be quite misleading in some cases, or quite inaccurate in others. Example is a lot of people say that AMD OverDrive doesn't read CPU temps correctly, and that is probably true to a certain degree (not temp degree heh). I was bored yesterday and was looking at AOD and thought I'd do a test. So I fired up Gigabyte's EasyTune to see what it was saying for a CPU temp and compared it to AOD's list of temperatures. Turns out "Temp2" is the same as EasyTune's. Then I fired up IntelBurnTest to load up the CPU, watching Temp2 and both the Core temps, in AOD. What I found out was kind of interesting. To get Temp2's reading, you take one of the Core temp's, divide by 3, then add the quotient to the original temp (provided you are running all the cores at the same clock). So in my case (these are idle temps): Core temp was 22.5C, Temp2 was 30C. Which makes sense since 22.5 / 3 = 7.5, with 7.5+22.5 = 30! And just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I had loaded the core up just enough to raise the temp to 25c and repeated the process, which came up with the same findings!

Anyways, back on "off" topic lol While yes, there are some pieces of hardware that have the ability to provide temps for certain things, but that is exactly what I had said before SOME do. In my case, nothing provides them. So again as I had mentioned, that leaves us with the only means we have: Finger Probe

[_JP_]

Originally Posted by Formula350

Anyways, back on "off" topic lol While yes, there are some pieces of hardware that have the ability to provide temps for certain things, but that is exactly what I had said before SOME do. In my case, nothing provides them. So again as I had mentioned, that leaves us with the only means we have: Finger Probe

I agree with you, the finger probe is the best when it comes to having an idea of how hot it is at that right moment. But I'd like you to see my point of view, so you don't go thinking I'm not aware of the issues with monitoring programs. I still recommend the monitoring programs to most people because it's safer for them to check out temps this way. It's ok to check with the finger, as long as you know what you are doing, something that Alexsander clearly demonstrated here not to know. Besides, finger probing only gives you at best 5 or 6 levels of measurement:

- Cold;
- Normal;
- Warm;
- Hot;
- Very hot;
- 2nd degree burn.

And there's still the risk of shot-circuit or static voltage.
Most of the times, you can just rely on the BIOS temperature readings to get an idea of how hot your case is running, because some components can get hot very much (e.g. graphics-cards), but they are designed or supposed to run like this (meaning they can handle it) and as long as they run in a correctly built system (air flow), there's really nothing to worry about.

I know not all hardware posses the sensor and some are not that accurate. Still, it's better nowadays compared to what it was years ago. For example, I have a Maxtor that already has S.M.A.R.T. but doesn't have the temp readings and my GPU (in the system specs) that doesn't have one either, but I've always had special attention to the case air flow and the correct cooling so I don't have to put my finger in there and so far I've had no problems related to cooling. (the only thing that worries me actually is the RiAtlo on the card, but I'll get a HS eventually)

P.S.: I wanted to reply earlier to you, Formula, as soon as you confirmed if it was me you meant to talk about monitoring programs.

[Aleksander]

Guys, i got lucky this time, for real. Even if all my 4 year files collection got deleted and i didn't have the warranty, the seller identified the name and the serial number of my hdd. They said it is no need for the warranty letter or additional money, just a repair or a replace of the hdd and it is ready for tomorrow! Anyway thanks to all replies and i really learned a hard lesson i hope it never happens again to me and never happens to you all!

[_JP_]

Originally Posted by Aleksander Dishnica

Guys, i got lucky this time, for real. Even if all my 4 year files collection got deleted and i didn't have the warranty, the seller identified the name and the serial number of my hdd. They said it is no need for the warranty letter or additional money, just a repair or a replace of the hdd and it is ready for tomorrow! Anyway thanks to all replies and i really learned a hard lesson i hope it never happens again to me and never happens to you all!

Good to know, cheers man!

[qubit]

Originally Posted by Aleksander Dishnica

Guys, i got lucky this time, for real. Even if all my 4 year files collection got deleted and i didn't have the warranty, the seller identified the name and the serial number of my hdd. They said it is no need for the warranty letter or additional money, just a repair or a replace of the hdd and it is ready for tomorrow! Anyway thanks to all replies and i really learned a hard lesson i hope it never happens again to me and never happens to you all!

Nice one. Glad you got the drive replaced

Yes, that was a real hard lesson and I never want to hear again that you lost your files because of a lack of backups, ya hear buddy?! There's only one thing you can ever guarantee about a hard drive or SSD: at some point you will lose all your data on it. Period. If it's not due to a software glitch somewhere along the line, then the hardware is absolutely guaranteed to fail eventually. Think of data that you only have one copy of as temporary. Is that really good enough? Thought not. So I say it again my friend:

Backup! Backup! Backup! Backup! Backup! Backup!