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10.24.2007 at 05:59PM PDT, ID: 22916411
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Would SATA cables fry hard drives?

Asked by CharleneS77 in Computer Hard Drives, Power Supplies / UPS, Hardware Components

Tags: sata, power

I recently purchased some SATA (power and data) cables to replace my old ones, because one was broke.  After I hooked up the new cables, I turned on the pc power.  For a few seconds, I smelled smoke.  I thought maybe it was some dust that had gotten into the power supply or something like that.  Because of the case fans, it was hard to pinpoint where the smell was coming from.  Then I noticed the computer won't boot ("Please insert system disk").  I can't tell if the hard drives are spinning or not.  How can I tell?  Is it possible that the new cables would have fried my hard drives?    

The hardware (and OS) in my computer consists of (most purchased from Newegg):
-Thermaltake XaserV Damier V5000A Black Chassis: 1.0 mm SECC, Front Door: Aluminum made Modern Tower Computer Case - Retail
-Thermaltake Silent Purepower W0011 ATX 480W Power Supply - Retail Item #: N82E16817153010
-ABIT AA8-DuraMAX LGA 775 Intel 925X ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
-Intel Pentium 4 530 Prescott 3.0GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80547PG3000E - Retail
-DDRAM2 1GB |TWIN2X1024-4200 CORS R - Retail
-SAPPHIRE 100106-RD Radeon X850XT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - OEM
-HITACHI Deskstar 7K250 HDS722525VLSA80 (13G0255) 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM   Item #: N82E16822145048    (2 of these)
-Thermaltake 12" UV Yellow Power Splitter with LED Model A2167 - Retail
-LITE-ON Combo Drive Black IDE Model SOHC-5235K-BKRTL - Retail
-SONY Combo Drive Black IDE Model CRX320E Black - OEM
-SONY Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Windows 98SE/ ME/ 2000/ XP - OEM
-Atech Flash PRO-9 BLACK 11-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal/ External Card Reader - Retail
-Antec 77094 PCI Slot Case Cooler - Retail
-ViewSonic VP191B Black 19" 8ms DVI LCD Monitor - Retail
-Thermaltake CL-P0092 90mm 1 Ball, 1 Sleeve Cooling Fan - Retail (Silent 775 CPU Cooler)
-Western Digital Raptor WD360-00FLC0 36GB (1 of these)
-Microsoft Windows XP HOME Edition with Service Pack 2 - OEM

Old SATA Cables:
-COOLMAX SATA POWER ADAPTER Cable - OEM
Item #: N82E16812104652
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812104652
-I used the stock (Abit) SATA data cables that came with my motherboard.


New SATA Cables:
-OKGEAR 18" SATA II cable with metal latch,UV BLUE Model GC18AUBM - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16812123110
-OKGEAR 6" molex 4pin male to two 15pin SATA Power Cable Model GC6ATAM2 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812123119  

On a side note, I did have some problems in the past when I tried to use the SATA cable that came with the WD Raptor hard drive.  The SATA had the power and data combined into one cable as shown here (the blue cable:
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1746
When I tried to use this cable, it fried the hard drive and I took it back and got a replacement.  I didn't try to use it again and I haven't had any problems since (until this current incident).  What's strange is that I never found any info about this problem when I Googled it.

Can anyone help me figure out if my hard drives are fried/fixable?  I sure hope they are fixable.  I had some very important pictures of some of my childrens' most important milestones on them.

Thank you in advance!

 

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Zones: Computer Hard Drives, Power Supplies / UPS, Hardware Components
Tags: sata, power
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Solution Provided By: jimbecher
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Solution Grade: A
 
 
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