Hard Disk Recovery

boso

Yeah, I know.

I work in IT, and I should know better.

I figured out I made a mistake about 2 seconds after ordering this PC (2 and a half years ago).

And silly me, I should have been backing up my data. Like I said, I should know better.

Once bitten.....

boso

anewhope wrote: »

Have you checked that all of the cables are seated correctly, then if they are, removing devices one by one to see if anything changes? I wouldn't expect a failure on a hard drive to prevent POST.

Yeah, I tried all this. I gave the PC to another technician who had a look, he thinks the processor's fried.

totalsolutions

If you are in IT and you are asking a technician for help, er what do you do? Can you rule out the PSU? You do know you need the exact same raid controller to get the data off? Give the motherboard a good strip and clean reseat the CPU + heat compound measure the voltages from the PSU. I don't think the drives have had it.

boso

totalsolutions wrote: »

If you are in IT and you are asking a technician for help, er what do you do? Can you rule out the PSU? You do know you need the exact same raid controller to get the data off? Give the motherboard a good strip and clean reseat the CPU + heat compound measure the voltages from the PSU. I don't think the drives have had it.

I used to work with hardware years ago, but now I've been doing software for a few years.

The PSU is working.

I didn't realise that I needed the exact same RAID controller, I was thinking about going out and getting one and seeing if it would work.

I did take out the CPU and reseat it (well the other technician did) , it came on for a second, and then died again, which is why we think the CPU is at fault.

totalsolutions

A quick google............

dell. support.dell.com

http://forums.techarena.in/vista-hardware-devices/1051472.htm

Tid bits of info gleaned

After seeing this a couple of hundred times over the last few years, it's
probably the power supply.

Flashing amber = power supply
Steady amber = motherboard

But check the motherboard for "swollen" capacitors. I have seen the MB go
and then take the PS with it.

I have a network of about 70 Dell Dimensions. A few, 2 or 3, have had a
flashing yellow power light. They have regular ATA power supplies, I don't
know about yours. Replacing the power supply fixed them.

totalsolutions

>I didn't realise that I needed the exact same RAID controller

I believe I'm right about that , thinking about it, each software vendor has there own way of laying down the data right controller, chipset, software version

boso

Yeah, but I can get the power supply to switch on if I disconnect the motherboard. (allowed me to remove DVD in drive)

Another option I found online was the power button, but that wasn't the problem either.

I think at this point, I might be best off calling Dell Out of Warranty support to see what they can do.

totalsolutions

Best option for sure or ebay for the exact motherboard

Pull the motherboard and look under it?? Shorts/spiders/ etc.
Any swollen capacitors ??

basmic

Out of interest, what hardware is in the Dell?

The reason I ask, is because you might be able to get a cheap "old" processor to test if the current one is dead. Or even some DDR ram. Or even take the CPU from the machine into a known working machine which you know will take the CPU.

There must be some sort of software method to recover RAID drives - all it would have to do is read the raw data each drive and put in on a single drive. Surely RAID isn't too cryptical for todays processors?

totalsolutions

Hardware to their own requirements, that's the problem not standard off the shelf parts. If you try connecting to another raid controller its going to start writing to it then you are fcuk'

What model?