I’ve done my research on this excellent site, but I can’t find a “seemingly-dead hard drive” question that matches my exact horror: [This post is quite long, so you might want to load it into a text-to-speech program.] I built my own system (hence system manufacturer = “my•self”) a few moths ago, and put in a Western Digital 80GB Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) hard drive (one designed for Original Equipment Manufacturers [OEMs]). Then just a few days ago I bought a second hard drive (this one is a Western Digital 80GB 8MB-cache 7200RPM Parallel[?] Advanced Technology Attachment [EIDE]). Yesterday I went to install Mandrake (“Mandriva”) Linux 10.2. However Mandrake 10.2 does not support SATA, only [E]IDE/ATA. If the SATA drive were plugged in, the Linux installer would simply hang at the step where it went to install drivers for the SATA hard drive. Therefore I would unplug the data cable for the SATA drive before powering the system to install Linux, and reconnect the data cable for the SATA drive before powering the system to boot Windows XP. Some people would say this is not entirely safe; unplugging the data cable but not the power cable, but I found no ill effects from doing it—except one!! When I went to start up Windows from the IDE drive at one point, I realized I had left the data cable for the SATA drive unplugged. (I noticed this when I went to play music that was on the SATA drive and the music would not play.) So I shutdown and powered of the system…then to my utter horror when I went to re-plug the SATA data cable, I saw that the SATA power cable was ajar!! It was at an angle of about 35 to 40 degrees from the proper horizontal. Resulting in the appearance that the power cable was dangling by only one contact—it was not cleanly away from the socket. So I disconnected what part was connected and prayerfully reconnected both the power and data cables (to the SATA drive). Then I started up Windows from the IDE drive and my fear coalesced into the true horror: Windows XP on the IDE drive did not show the SATA drive’s FAT32 partition in My Computer. Like the procrastinating fool that I sometimes am, I had allowed un-backed-up and irreplaceable data to pile up on the SATA drive. What I find most petrifying is that I don’t know exactly what amount of damage is likely to have been caused. I know there are more steps I should take, such as looking at the BIOS to see whether the drive shows up at all, and I know I shouldn’t really be posting yet, but we can work out the details as this thread proceeds. My bottom-line question is: My hard drive also has a four-pin power attachment—is there any realistic chance that I only burned-out the SATA power system, and that the 4-pin might still work? [Yes I should feel the hard drive to see if it runs at all, but I had to the emotional poison out of my system by posting immediately! >.<] My ultra-thanks for any help ^_^

Well..it is really sooooo long. You should focus on the problem instead of explaining every detail to us comp newbies. After quick skimming on your post. Here is my thoughts. I don't think your hard drive is damaged unless you managed to plug the power cable in the wrong way. (upside down) Why dont' you take it out and plug into a Windows system and see if it can detect in BIOS or Windows. If it can be detected in bios, you can download diagnostic tool from manufacture to check and fix the drive. BTW, i would unplug the power cable and leave the data cable pluged when i don't want a drive it on, no problem so far.

Thanks, yes, it is too long, I just had to get all that out of my mind. I'll try the BIOS idea. I've just felt it's one of those quantum thought-problems, where you put a gun in a box with a cat and rig the gun to fire if a particle has a certain state and not to fire if it has the other state. So until you open the box to observe the result, the cat may be both alive and dead. I just have to get over it, and TRY somthing :)

Just wait a few days. Believe me, you'll know if Shrodinger's cat is dead without looking.

Some SATA drives come with both SATA power plugs and the regular 4-pin molex connectors since some systems might not have SATA connectors from a new PSU yet. You can probably unplug the SATA power plug and switch to the molex power plug. I don't know if any damage would have been done if you had cross-connected pins on the SATA connector. And yes, if you don't want a drive to appear, unplug the power and leave the data connector there. Otherwise, your hard drive will still be powered up when your system is up.

HAHA, great one about the cat! Ah, well we didn't manage to answer wether there is a high or low probablitiy of damage... However, thankfully it was some sort of software problem, so it seems; my hard drive is now fully responsive.