That deserves this:

"Seriously, how could anyone be stupid enough to do THAT?" replies. 

HA!  You guys crack me up.

I've seen folks FORCE a keyed memory module into a slot in the wrong direction;  FORCE a keyed molex connector on in the wrong direction;  and a variety of other things that makes me wonder "what were they thinking?" ==> but I confess I've never actually seen anyone drill into their private parts !!  :)

 

THAT definitely got a laugh -- and fortunately it was an "almost" and not an actual event !!

 

... I am the absolute representation of why parity and backup are 2 VERY different things, both of which are required if you care about your data.  It may have cost a fair bit of money, but it was my backup server, so no data lost.

 

Glad to hear you were well backed up.  As I'm sure you know if you've followed any of my posts, I am a BIG believer in backups.    ALL of my data exists in at least 3 places (including 2 fault-tolerant servers); and my "important" stuff (pictures, financial records, etc.) exists in at least 5.

 

Not that it'll make my wallet feel much better

If you wish to attempt to salvage some or all of the drives, I highly recommend getting in touch with http://www.donordrives.com/. I'm not affiliated, just a satisfied customer. They may be able to fix the drives for less than the equivalent market value, so at least your wallet isn't hurt quite so badly. If you actually needed the data, those guys are worth their weight in gold in this situation.

 

Absolutely second donordrives.  I've recovered several drives for other folks using PCB's from these guys.

 

There's a VERY good chance that what happened to your drives was an instantly "fried" circuit board; and that the heads, motors, and platters are all fine.    I'd at least buy ONE PCB and replace it to see if that's the case.  It's VERY simple to replace a PCB on a drive -- you just need to have the right screwdriver and a new PCB.

 

Donordrives has most PCB's available in the $50 range.  Worth buying one to see if that's the issue ... and, if so, it's probably worth it to fix all of your drives with capacities above 2TB.

 

If you need a set of Torx screwdrivers in the right sizes for hard drives, this little set works great => unfortunately not all drives need the same size for PCB removal, but I've not found any drives where this set won't do the trick:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001KBEO1O/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

... I am the absolute representation of why parity and backup are 2 VERY different things, both of which are required if you care about your data.  It may have cost a fair bit of money, but it was my backup server, so no data lost.

 

Glad to hear you were well backed up.  As I'm sure you know if you've followed any of my posts, I am a BIG believer in backups.    ALL of my data exists in at least 3 places (including 2 fault-tolerant servers); and my "important" stuff (pictures, financial records, etc.) exists in at least 5.

 

You'll be glad to know I had a backup for my drill mishap too Gary, it was on the left side....    Not offsite though.

Not that it'll make my wallet feel much better

If you wish to attempt to salvage some or all of the drives, I highly recommend getting in touch with http://www.donordrives.com/. I'm not affiliated, just a satisfied customer. They may be able to fix the drives for less than the equivalent market value, so at least your wallet isn't hurt quite so badly. If you actually needed the data, those guys are worth their weight in gold in this situation.

 

Absolutely second donordrives.  I've recovered several drives for other folks using PCB's from these guys.

 

There's a VERY good chance that what happened to your drives was an instantly "fried" circuit board; and that the heads, motors, and platters are all fine.    I'd at least buy ONE PCB and replace it to see if that's the case.  It's VERY simple to replace a PCB on a drive -- you just need to have the right screwdriver and a new PCB.

 

Donordrives has most PCB's available in the $50 range.  Worth buying one to see if that's the issue ... and, if so, it's probably worth it to fix all of your drives with capacities above 2TB.

 

If you need a set of Torx screwdrivers in the right sizes for hard drives, this little set works great => unfortunately not all drives need the same size for PCB removal, but I've not found any drives where this set won't do the trick:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001KBEO1O/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Thanks again, that's great to hear.  I did some Googling and Ebaying to see if I could find some "broken" versions of my drives to steal the PCB off of, with no luck, but I'll definitely hit these guys up for a PCB.  I have 3 Toshiba 5TB PH3500U, and 1 Toshiba 5TB X300.  All would be worth the $50 to get 'em working again!  I'll contact them and see about ordering 1 PCB to test with.

... You'll be glad to know I had a backup for my drill mishap too Gary, it was on the left side....    Not offsite though.

 

8)

 

I've actually known a couple folks who had to have one of their "backups" removed -- and they assured me that everything was just fine with the one that still remained !!  [And had a couple subsequent children, which proves rather unequivocally that everything was indeed still quite functional  ]

 

Poor them.  Luckily I'm still running a RAID 1 array here. 

Poor them.  Luckily I'm still running a RAID 1 array here. 

 

Wow... #NerdHumorFTW #LoveIt

 

In that situation, RAID 0 sounds quite painful, and RAID 5 is just weird.

Back on topic => Let us know if a PCB replacement does the trick with your "fried" drives 

Back on topic => Let us know if a PCB replacement does the trick with your "fried" drives 

 

Yeah, I'd be interested in this too.  Tried it myself a couple of years ago, but it didn't work for me with some Samsung drives....

I will absolutely report back.

Note that on some modern drives you need to swap the BIOS chip on the old PCB with the replacement.  Donordrives can, I'm sure, tell you if that's required for your specific drive.