*sigh* Something Broke

[Donziboy2]

If the computer was unplugged how could it be affected or was your internet connection still pluged in?
Also I managed to kill 4 Deathstars a few years ago. 2 From power outages while computer was running and 2 more from comp freezing and me hitting reset button.... Arms hitting platter sound is something you should avoid. But after adding a surge/power backup ive had no harddrive issues. And I doubt your cpu was affected most likely the cheap thermal paste completely dried up over time. If you can take your harddrives to a friend and connect them to his/her computer. Run them threw checkdisk and see if you get alot of sector errors. But if you plug them in and they keep making large ammounts of noise i would back them up Before you run Checkdisk.

[Cold Catalyst]

If the computer was unplugged how could it be affected or was your internet connection still pluged in?
Also I managed to kill 4 Deathstars a few years ago. 2 From power outages while computer was running and 2 more from comp freezing and me hitting reset button.... Arms hitting platter sound is something you should avoid. But after adding a surge/power backup ive had no harddrive issues. And I doubt your cpu was affected most likely the cheap thermal paste completely dried up over time. If you can take your harddrives to a friend and connect them to his/her computer. Run them threw checkdisk and see if you get alot of sector errors. But if you plug them in and they keep making large ammounts of noise i would back them up Before you run Checkdisk.

CheckDisk ran last night after the storm. No errors

I think the CPU chip fried from overheating. I swapped it out with an older one and my computer now attempts to load up, rather nothing at all (with the original chip)

I swapped out both the PSU and Harddrive with ones out of a scarp computer. (All my old parts, before I got new ones). When I put those in the Harddrive started to clatter, so I turned it off ASAP to prevent damage.

I think I'm going to cut my loses, save some money, and start over. I've been replacing parts on that rig ever since I got it. I'm tired of it breaking down every 6 months. I'll be happier with a newer, more stable P.C. 6 Years is too long for your first PC.

[WalkinTarget]

Last resort .. double freezer bag the drives and put them in the freezer for about 8 hours .. get the new drive(s) installed and then hook up the old one(s) as a secondary or using an external IDE/USB cable. CompGeeks sells a kit for $20 that does that .. its very effective for pulling data off of a bare drive without the hassle of plugging it into the PC.

Edit: added link to Amazon drive kit: http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-USB-DS.../dp/B000HJ99DI

The freezer trick is an old one that basically causes the drive actuator platter to sometimes 'unstick' (technical term here) from a platter surface. If it touches the platter, it will corrupt the data, but there are parts that can be salvageable.

http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/200...over-data.html

[juneau]

What are the chances of two drives and a CPU chip going bad all at once

Ever if HDD's are cheap, it's still money that I do't have.



I was only struck by lightning via a phone charger in the basement ( I happened to be sitting on it, entered my theigh and went out my feet ((mostly my right foot), my comptuer was unplugged on the 2nd floor.

How do you know the CPU is fried? From what you have said so far it's just stuck to the heatsink with thermal paste. This happens to pretty much every chip.

[Warhead]

knoppix is great for situations like this, leave the hard drives out, till youre ready to retrieve whatever you can. mean while, burn a knoppix disc and see if you can nail down whatever else may be causing problems.

[{CLR}geneSW]

How do you know the CPU is fried? From what you have said so far it's just stuck to the heatsink with thermal paste. This happens to pretty much every chip.

+1.

K, lets see here... You think the CPU is fried because it's stuck to the bottom of the heatsink. This (as mentioned above) is very common with cheap thermal paste. Harddrives are making a clicking noise ( I know those aren't your exact words, but it's a noise other them hummmmmm). Could be a problem with those, I would follow WT's advice. Just out of curiosity have you tried replacing the ram (running on 1 ram stick at a time) to see if the ram is bad?

[WalkinTarget]

Good advice from seiko !!! Unfortunately, you are faced with possible multiple failure points at this time, and you simply can't eliminate ANYTHING from the testing routine.
The only thing to do is migrate parts over to another rig to test. I'm lucky enough to have about one of everything, so its only a matter of time before I find my culprit.
Strip out all extra cards other than video, go with one stick of RAM, load a bootable Live CD (Knoppix, Ultimate BootCD) and have that diagnose your drives.

A Live CD runs ENTIRELY from the CD< it does not modify or copy ANYTHING to the hard drive, so it should be tool #1 to troubleshoot a possibly corrupted drive.