Killed four of my 3tb hard drives this weekend!

Been using UnRaid for a while now and have built up quite the collection of data.

I have (had) 8 Western Digital Red 3TB drives as my data array protected dual parity drives.

I have just bought a Lian Li D8000 as I had outgrown my old Fractal R3. I was in the process of moving everything across this weekend. Booted up and UnRaid couldn't see two of my drives. Powered down and swapped some drives around, booted up again and UnRaid couldn't find four of my drives.
Did some more moving round and couldn't get any of the four to be seen my UnRaid, they weren't even spinning.

After some more checking I realise that I had managed to plug a molex in upside down on to one of the Lian Li Backplanes I had installed. Both drives that were connected had their PCBs fried. When I moved the drives around to test I had fried another two!

See how easy that is here:


That was 12tb of data gone in the space of 10 minutes all because of one stupid mistake!

Using one of my good drives I was able to swap PCBs with a dead drive and get it spinning again. However I would need to swap the ROM chips on the PCB to get the dead drive working again and be able to access the data.

Just wanted to get some opinions.

1) Over and above frying the PCB am I likely to have done any damage to the hard drive itself (i.e. will I be able to get the data back?)

2) If I can get a working PCB with the ROM chip swapped from a dead drive is that a potential permanent fix, or just enough to get the data off of the drive?

I could live without the data so am not going to spend loads of money getting them back to life, but if I could do it for around £50-£75 per drive it something I'd consider.

That's a devastating mistake to make, I feel for you :/

You keep backups right?

Hi Ekim.

Sorry to hear you've ended up in such a tough situation.
Swapping the PCBs alone as you've already figured out, more often than not won't help with data recovery. This along with everything else you might try (the ROM chip swap) will void the warranty of the drives. Basically I can't tell for sure if the data is intact, but chances are that the files are still on the platters and that you've probably fried only the PCB. However, if you're not willing to go with a professional solution, such as a data recovery company, it might not do you any good, but you're free to try at your own discretion.

Oh, and just for the sake of being cautious, if you manage to get them to a working state, if everything seem to be in working order after running all the necessary diagnostic tests, having in mind you've got some redundancy, you could continue using them. But again, it's up to you.

Good luck! I really hope you're able to get what you need out of those HDDs.
Boogieman_WD

bledd said:

That's a devastating mistake to make, I feel for you :/

You keep backups right?

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None of the data was critical so I can cope with losing it. All of my important data is backed up over multiple locations. With Unraid I had redundancy so that if I were to lose two drives I'd be able to recover I just never anticipated losing four drives in one go!

Boogieman_WD said:

Hi Ekim.

Sorry to hear you've ended up in such a tough situation.
Swapping the PCBs alone as you've already figured out, more often than not won't help with data recovery. This along with everything else you might try (the ROM chip swap) will void the warranty of the drives. Basically I can't tell for sure if the data is intact, but chances are that the files are still on the platters and that you've probably fried only the PCB. However, if you're not willing to go with a professional solution, such as a data recovery company, it might not do you any good, but you're free to try at your own discretion.

Oh, and just for the sake of being cautious, if you manage to get them to a working state, if everything seem to be in working order after running all the necessary diagnostic tests, having in mind you've got some redundancy, you could continue using them. But again, it's up to you.

Good luck! I really hope you're able to get what you need out of those HDDs.
Boogieman_WD

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Thanks for coming back to me, didn't realise we had a WD Rep on here! I'm weighing up what I want to do. I definitely don't want to pay lots of money for data recovery - but if a PCB/ROM swap works then I'd happily do it.

All of the drives all have some level of warranty on them, I'd assume that my mistake would have invalidated the warranty?

Well yup, you're right. I was preoccupied with warning you about what could void the warranty than to think of the fact that it has already been voided. Good point, sorry about that.

WD will have no liability for any Product returned if WD determines that:
is attributable to misuse, improper installation, alteration (including removing or obliterating labels and opening or removing external covers (unless authorized to do so by Western Digital or an authorized Service Center)), accident or mishandling while in the possession of someone other than WD.

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(please refer to: WD Worldwide Warranty Policy and Limitations).

Sorry, once again. Good luck, fingers crossed!

No.2 is your only real bet of getting your data back. You will need to buy exactly the same PCB, exactly the same model number, serial number etc. If not, then it won't work.

There are specialist companies out there who will be able to copy the file index from the bust PCB to your new PCB, then it should be a case of fixing the new PCBs to your disks. I can't recommend any companies though, sorry. Depending on what company you use, you may be looking at the top end of what you're prepared to pay. Research thoroughly and reach out to some companies and get quotes.

Good luck.

I've managed to find a company in the US who have all of the PCBs I need (exact replicas) and have managed to find a local electronics repair company who are happy to do the ROM chip swap for me. Think I should be able to get it all done for around £50 per drive, if not a little more. Fingers crossed it works. If not it will just have to be a *very* expensive lesson

Ekim said:

I've managed to find a company in the US who have all of the PCBs I need (exact replicas) and have managed to find a local electronics repair company who are happy to do the ROM chip swap for me. Think I should be able to get it all done for around £50 per drive, if not a little more. Fingers crossed it works. If not it will just have to be a *very* expensive lesson

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Maybe house insurance would cover you? That must be very gutting I feel so bad for you, at least I've read about a easy mistake so will be double checking myself from now on with stuff like this.

You might (and it's a really big might) be able to go to lian li and claim poor manufacture of the backplane power connector since it shouldn't be possible to plug a molex connector in upside down since like SATA power and data connectors they're keyed to only go in one way (unless things have changed since I last had to deal with a power supply).

Doubt you'd get very far from that angle but you absolutely shouldn't be able to reverse insert a molex connector if manufactured to correct specs without putting significant force and noticeably deforming it.

I just took the backplane out to inspect it a little closer.

Here it is:



Not deformed in any significant way.

Here is it with a molex connected to it with the key the wrong way around.

https://goo.gl/photos/PxSzn9Ljy8jPZRGk7

I took a few photos at a few different angles as it is tough to see. I didn't have to give it any extra force to get it in the wrong way. It just goes.

I might ping an email to Lian Li and see where that gets me. Will keep exploring my options at the same time.

No harm in trying to contact Lian Li to see what they say, you shouldn't be able to connect the molex connector the wrong way round without using force.

keep us updated as interested in their reply.

Sorry to hear about the issue in the first place as thats a lot of HDDs to go wrong.

From those photos, it looks like the plastic used for the molex connection isn't as rigid as it should be as there is a noticeable bump on the top part of the socket which is most likely how you managed to plug it in the wrong way around.

I would suggest if at all possible getting some video footage of being able to plug the molex connector in the wrong way around without having to put too much force behind it as it would add to the evidence that it wasn't manufactured to a quality standard (or they might just say that you should have used the SATA power connector instead).

demonix said:

From those photos, it looks like the plastic used for the molex connection isn't as rigid as it should be as there is a noticeable bump on the top part of the socket which is most likely how you managed to plug it in the wrong way around.

I would suggest if at all possible getting some video footage of being able to plug the molex connector in the wrong way around without having to put too much force behind it as it would add to the evidence that it wasn't manufactured to a quality standard (or they might just say that you should have used the SATA power connector instead).

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I've pinged them an email, will see where I get to. I would have used the SATA power connector however I have 10 of these things inside my case. My PSU only has so many SATA connections! I think I have 6 SATA connections and the other four are molex.

Made a very quick video showing how easy it is to install the molex connection upside down on these:

There is a bit of waffle at the start, but if you watch from around 1 minute you can see how easy it is to install the wrong way around.

Plastic they used for the socket is too flexible if it accepts the plug upside down.

A much more rigid socket made of hard plastic would not let you do that without breaking it.

Wow, that material is rubbish. I'd definitely call that 'normal force'.

They need to ditch molex already.

I feel for you mate. Hope you get it sorted out.

I did exactly the same with a pair of 1.5TB drives a few years back. Only difference was that mine was with molex -> sata splitter cables.

I should have paid more attention to the slight smell after the first one, and not plugged the second one in without checking downstream!

Incidentally also run unRAID, great isn't it? Now the docker/KVM functionality is stable it is awesome, not running any regular desktops now.

IanAG said:

Incidentally also run unRAID, great isn't it? Now the docker/KVM functionality is stable it is awesome, not running any regular desktops now.

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I love it. I moved to it after ditching WHS about three years ago. The software really has come on leaps and bounds. As part of my recent upgrade I have installed a GPU to allow me to stream games to my TV and laptop. However until I get the array working again I'm forced to wait a while!

Managed to source 4 replacement drives and got some options in the pipeline in terms of data recovery. Fingers crossed I shouldn't be down for too much longer.