So this is a strange one, hopefully someone out there knows something or can help. I have an older computer running an Athlon 700, WD 6.? G HD. Has run fine for years running Win98SE. One morning after running it fine the night before, it acts as if there is no power getting to it. Turns out the power supply is dead. No biggie, got a 400W replacement (was a 230 in it) I put it in, make all the connections, turn it on, nothing :( When pressing the power buttonm, the fans on the CPU twitch for a second, but nothing powers up. After messing with all of the connections, I have narrowed it down to the HD. It powered up when I disconnected the HD, but once I reconnect the HD to the power and IDE, same deal, nothing powers on at all. It's really strange and I have never heard of this before, especially where it was working fine a night before and never had any problems with either the PS or HD before that. Dumb me didn't have a backup of the HD so I am pissed and yet still curious about what is causing it to not even run the POST when the HD is connected. Any ideas, thoughts, insight would be MUCH appreciated it. Also, if it is a head scratcher to the end, is there any chance of salvaging anything from this HD by some other way?? Thanks much! d

If you connect power leads to the harddrive and it spins up but when you connect the IDE cable it stops, and you have all connections correct, then the power supply took out something else when it went. Either MB or HD or both.

Try connecting just the power to the HD. If it still fails to power up, then the hard drive is the problem. It's probably got a short.