Learned a VERY $$$$$ lesson this week

[volsboy1]

I am a computer nut.I build P.C.s for friends and work on servers and supercomputers.
I have been wanting to build me a Monster P.C. for gaming for a long time and finally broke down and did it.I spared no expense I got me a Intel Core i7-3960X with a Asus motherboard,32 gigs of ram,10 harddrives and a Amd 7990 dual core graphics card.The number one problem I have seen over and over is folks buying these huge P.C.s is using cheap power supplies.The 20 buck jobs on ebay that say 1000 watts there is no such thing as a good for that.I buy only Seasonic or Zippy-Emacs power supplies they cost about 300 bucks for just that part.I have collected tons of hard drives and I had everything running great then I plugged in my last three drives so because I always backup and backup everything.I had files from 15 years ago all finally put to new W.D. Red drives I plugged in all the H.D.s and turned on the power and Pop and I saw some type of spark.Well everything is gone all my hardrives which I had about 2000 dollars in my Video card which is another 1000 and my processor and motherboard another 1400 dollars.The power supply is gone also everything that was plugged in is fried it even got my monitor somehow.The Software is more $$$ than all of that..I was crying that is how bad it is pics of Mom everything gone 25+ terabytes gone.I am still in a daze and back using my old P.C..The cause of all of this was the Serial A.T.A. power supply cored that has that L thing on the end of it well all of them were missing that L part is was a defect from Seasonic who I will never use again.The drives are hot swap-able but I don't do that.I always turn off my P.C. my..So folks always check that thing I did not see it and it cost me things that can never be replaced.
That 1.00 thing made in China wiped me out.....

 

[whirlcool]

The power never should have gotten to the motherboard. During the POST (Power On Self test) when you first turn the computer on the power supply should check for a "good" reading from the motherboard saying all is well with voltages and proceed with applying the power to the motherboard. Then the power supply will. Obviously what happened is that the connection to the motherboard that POST uses was good, but the PS didn't realize there was a short in the wires itself.

I'd take the PS back to where you bought the Seasonic PS from and raise holy hell.
I always use Antec power supplies. Never had a problem with one. But I have had problems with OEM power supplies that are installed by the PC mfg. before.

 

[joelippard]

Wes,

Surely the data from those drives could be recovered could it not?

 

[volsboy1]

Seasonic is impossible to work with.The number they have when you call has some Asian guy that can barley speak english tell you to press 5 when you do it rings and rings and then says leave a message.I have tried all week long to get through to them,also when I try to fill out the online R.M.A. it says wrong serial number.The hardrives are bricked/torched, I had about two T.B. worth of flash drives and the rest were Hitachi and W.D.. The power supply was a Seasonic 1250 Platium which is a very advanced P.S..I should have stuck with Zippy P.S. or went with that Corsair Axi made by Flex-tronics and Antec the Delta made ones are great.The power supply is faulity bad I don't know why it dumped all that power 100.Amps on the 12 volt line alone into everything and I mean everything.
It looks like somebody stuck everything in a microwave oven.I am going to send the drives off to see if I have any luck.The Hitachi drives were my favortite drives before W.D. bought them.They were as reliable as Maxtor before they were bought out by Seagate.I just know what they will say these are older drives and we can't find or get a board that will work.I don't know about the flash drives if they can be saved.The P.S should have shut down but no such luck there maybe it was because the Serial plugs were in there but not lined up right.I fried my back up P.C. when I tried to use my Video Card in it.I did not think it would screw that card up but it did I am going to R.M.A. that to New Egg and just tell them it would not come on and hope for the best it's a very $$ and rare card I worry they won't do anything.I am going to buy a Nas storage set next week.I am also going to order the best power cables I can find.That one little thing cause so much damage...

 

[mich2013]

Forgive me for asking..

But, could I see, in photo, what everything looks like, after being hit by such a surge?

 

[mattl]

I've done my share of work on computers and my hunch is that the data is still there on the HDs, it's the motors and controllers that are fried.  I've never done it, but I have been told that is you can get the same HD it is possible to move the controller and such to the old drive and salvage the data.

 

[washer111]

My Condolences

I'm sorry to hear about this unfortunate turn of events that befell you.

What I would like to suggest for you next-time is perhaps to find a "junker" computer system that you can test new, untried and unproven supplies on, and let the PSU fry that instead of thousands of dollars worth of computer equipment (and in your case), memories.

The other thing I'm curious of is your hard-disks: Are all 10 of them the high-speed WD-Red's? I'm aware that these modern WD drives can be set on a delayed spin-up (via jumper), to reduce computer stress on startup. Perhaps all your drives attempted to spin-up at once, over-drew the supply and let it shoot some potent stuff into the system? (Although you'd think an overload would just trip the supply).
My only other suggestion is that you backup your data on your PC (however you like it), then have an "off-site" backup on a lower-powered system in RAID configuration that is always-on or only used as needed for backups.

Again, my apologies to hear you've lost such a multitude of your memories

 

[ovrphil]

I share in your agony, even though my similar experiences were not as huge.

Data recovery is expensive but personal info is the first "but" I utter when it's suggested, too. Perhaps you might look at that option, anyways?? So many years of info. Might be worth getting some quotes....later...

very sorry.

 

[volsboy1]

I would send some pics but,I have thrown out everything and the rest is shipped back to New Egg.Also I don't even have the software for it anymore,I am using my Dads old Mac laptop and I hate it.My god I keep remembering things that are gone.Movies,Games,and all my passwords for sites.I was wondering about I-tunes.I don't have a I-Phone.I was waiting till next month before I kill my T-Mobile Account so I can save that fee.My College Papers that I wrote and all my research every hour I am remembering something else.No I did not have Ten W.D.
Red drives.I had 2 W.D.3Tb's Red drives and 3 W.D.4 Tb's and the rest was older Hitachi Enterprise drives that were 1T.B. and 2 T.B..I had two Plextor 512G.B.s and I had Windows installed on a little Intel 120G.b mSata Drive that was attached to the motherboard.I love that Intel Rapid start software it and I am starting to love Intel Processors and things also.I have always been a A.M.D. fan boy they are so much cheaper and I could not really tell that much of a difference.Well that has changed sense I moved to that monster P.c.Now I am back on a old A.M.D. Bulldozer and huge difference.My Amd is a 8 core but it is so slow compared to the Intel when it comes to some things that I really need fast but game wise there is not so much difference.I am going to have to start all over.I am going to find a place that maybe can help save my data.What brand of Hard drives are good to go with?I have found some remanufacturered Hitachi drives that I am thinking of buying.I have had terrible luck with Sea-gate drives unless there enterprise drives but they are $$$..