This is just a cry of anguish really but there may be something here to serve as an early warning to others.
Becoming ever more conscious that my main operating system files (XP I'm afraid Eric. I still can't wean myself away to Linux!) are vulnerable to drive failure or virus problems, and so I bought another 160GB drive on EBay intending to use it to clone the C: partition. Whilst waiting for the new drive to appear I got on with composing my retirement association Newsletter - 32 pages of pensioner related information, funnies and, inevitably, death notices.
The new drive arrived and I thought I'd better test it immediately. The Newsletter was 80% finished at this time and in the ensuing unplugging and replugging of drive cables I managed to plug the data cable (IDE) into a drive 180 degrees out of correct orientation. The PC refused to boot and what's more the fans wouldn't power up from the front panel"on" switch. The power supply seemed OK when powered out of the case but it was still a possible cause.
The net result was a new mother board bundle (inc processor, fan and memory), a new power supply (just in case) and a PCI IDE expansion card because modern motherboards only have a single IDE socket and I normally run three drives. This cost about £180. Then followed the usual prolonged XP re-install that I had hoped to avoid by cloning but had managed to cause.
The lessons learned are that firstly it is very easy to force a data cable into an IDE drive the wrong way round. It is keyed so it shouldn't be possible and in any case I should have looked for the red marker on the ribbon cable. Secondly despite what my friendly PC builder told me i.e. that misplugging would not cause any damage because all the pins are buffered, in this case it did, and it was quite expensive. (The CPU, fan and memory are probably OK but a bundle was the quickest and surest way to fix it)
Since I can power the damaged drive up with no nasty noises but the system says it has failed, I'm now looking for another Samsung 160GB IDE drive type SV1604/MBP so I can swap the interface/driver board on the drives and get back my email history, address book, etc. I have that information backed up until June 2008 when I built my latest system and forgot to change the back up batch file with regard to the new installation of Outlook Express. Damn! Has anyone got a drive like this they can sell me, please? Luckily all my data was safe on another drive and after reinstalling XP, Office and Publisher I finished the job.
After being retired for 20 years , intensive fault finding and maintenance are no longer the joy they were in my youth!
Tony