unsure of the exact problem (hard drive)

[Jlet19]

please do not be discouraged by the length of this post.
i just used kill disk and i was preparing for a reformat with xp but i decided to install a new fan. well while i was i was testing it to make sure it was workin fine but then i noticed the 2 wires(non insulated) touched each other, then my comp turned off. after 5 mins i could turn it on.

well i decided to put a diff hard in this time since it is quiter (no data on it), but it wasnt getting any power and the disk wasnt spinning.

so i put the molex cable in the old hard drive and it was spinning then the fan wires touched each other again and after 5minutes or so i could power it on. well i uninstalled that fan b.c of this

here is the problem now...

when i go to power on my computer the hard drive will not spin and it wont do nothing. neither of the hard drives. but when i plug the molex cable into a dvd drive the dvd drive has power?

wat should i do? Thanks

[not important]

It sounds as though the Hard drives have shorted. May I ask why there were two bare wires on the fan?

[Jlet19]

well this was a powerful fan pulled from an xbox, and i needed to make the fans wire longer so i cut the wire then added a larger wire between the both pieces of the orginal wire to make it longer. this ended up maked 2 spots on the wire that had no insulation around them and there is obviously 2 different wires on a fan and they had these conjoined points on them that touched.

so u think the hard drives shorted?

do u think the power supply took some damage?

[Gizmo]

Have you tried different power cables? Could just be that the power connectors themselves got zapped, or possibly even the hard drive's power connectors which would mean the hard drives are goners. Do you have access to another computer to try them in? What brand and wattage is the PSU?

[Jlet19]

it is an old computer so it is a 200W. i used the power cables on the dvd drive and the dvd drive went on.

it is an 200w astec

[glc]

I think you have 2 new paperweights, unfortunately. Astec power supplies are almost indestructible - hard drives are a LOT more sensitive.

[Jlet19]

thanks guys for all ur help. it looks like i will be buying a new hard drive.

thanks again this is a great site

[Jlet19]

heres the problem:

when i put the hard drives in my computer, and when they do not have a ATA cable in them they will power on only if they are on cable select or slave.

but in my xbox they power on with an ATA cable in them? what do i need to do to fix this?

all drives are zeroed out

[Jlet19]

ok so doing some more expirmenting i have found that it is not the ata cable, or any cable, it is only when i have an ata cable connected to the motherboard and hdd that the hdd wont power on

[Gizmo]

When you say that, it sounds like you just have a faulty cable. Faulty data cables can sometimes prohibit a drive from powering on and spinning up, either if they're not connected solidly or if they they have some failed wires inside. Is your drive a WD by any chance?