Hacking The Micro Card Reader ruined my Hard Drive. :|

[elmnt61]

I sit here now with a failing 120 GB Hard Drive in my Powerbook becuase of the Card reader that came with my R4. There are a few different card readers that R4 is pacakaged with. The one I'm talking about is the transparent Blue one, somewhat of a trapazoid shape. The thing is a piece of crap....very cheap feeling.


Anyway, I was doing some ROM transfers and the thing disconnected by itself, TWO times. Making me have to 'force-shut down' once and restart another time.

Since then, my hard drive started making noises....next thing I know, it's status is now "failing". The damage has affected TONS of my files... currupting random pictures, movies, roms, tons of things...THings that were not even involved in transferring. I cannot back up these files because they're currupted and can't be copied.


Yes, I have a Mac, and I know a lot of you don't, but I'm just warning you. I highly advise you to get a durable USB card reader if you think yours feels cheap. Before I found out my computer was fried, I actually exchanged the reader where I bought my R4. The guy gave me a MUCH better black one that is VERY durable. If only I had gotten this one first.


RIP Powerbook.

And no, I'm not under warranty.

 

[enarky]

Your HDD going bonkers at the same time you connect that card reader for the first time is definitly just a coincidence. There's no way a USB device can harm your HDD without causing major damage to other components of your computer.

 

[Killermech]

I don't see how the microSD usb reader can corrupt your HD.. in worst case it would be able to produce some circuit eletricity breakout which would happend very rarely. As the reader to get enough electricity to actually be able to do any proper damage to the hardware, would have to be pretty resistent, which it isn't (the faulty ones). As it tends to "blow up" just as enough electricity is given to the reader as it has no restriction, making it overheat and pretty much breaks instantly without a chance to properly do any damage other than to itself.

My theory of what actually damaged your HD clusters would be this part:

Anyway, I was doing some ROM transfers and the thing disconnected by itself, TWO times. Making me have to 'force-shut down' once and restart another time.

The HD is very sensitive at rare times when force shuting down the comp. In most cases nothing happends though.

Too bad about your HD though.

 

[elmnt61]

I"m not sure I get what you're saying.... if you're saying that my HD is broken because of the force-shut down, then yes, I completely agree with you. The USB reader ejecting is what caused my computer to freeze, which made me have to shut down. (I waiting a LONG time...been here before)

If not, then all I can say is this is the only thing that was out of the ordinary that I've done w/ my computer, and I"m certain the sound started right after it happened.

 

[Killermech]

As I said, the force shutdown causing the HD clusters to break is just a theory. You did mention random stuff getting corrupted though, which would mean clusters in different areas. If it was purely cause of the force shutdown, then only a certain area of clusters would have been damaged.

BTW, you never mentioned if the actual usb reader broke/overheated etc. Is it still "working"? Then the disconnects could have been caused by something else, software related as it maybe isn't even a faulty usb reader you have if it still works.

 

[elmnt61]

No, I don't think the USB reader was "faulty", it was essentially just poorly made. The outer shell would come completely off sometimes, and I could put it back together, but it still felt flimsy.

People did mention on this forum that some had a hard time getting a mac to recognize the USB drive when they put it in the slot. The answer was to "just push harder", and that worked. That answer meant that you needed more force for whatever reason for Macs. The "pre-mature" ejecting happened because this USB drive isn't made well to stay in. If this is just on Macs, then so be it, but The R4 says it's Mac compatible.

I'm not saying the USB drive physically broke my HD, i'm saying the act of it ejecting before I wanted it to is what broke my HD. Ejecting while transferrring files, as you know, can damage both drives, but it froze my computer completely....I waited 45 minutes and it was still frozen. So I was forced to shut it down. When I came back... the clicking started.

 

[MudKicker]

I think you hard drive was going to die either way.

The card reader part is just the first sign of your machine going.

 

[adgloride]

It a coincedence you hard drive broke when you used the card reader. No way can a card reader break a hard drive.

 

[Tsunami_bomber]

Yeah, I'd say your drive was on it's way out the door, and pointed a finger at the card reader before it walked out.

 

[digital_sin]

tottaly agree, it's not possible for it to ruin or even touch any files on your hard drive, let alone cause physical damage!

 

[dazinith]

so far i have been on boards where Saints Row, Gears of War, Tony Hawk Project 8, and Viva Pinata 'broke my xbox 360'.. they are just coincidences.. especially in this case whereby the power consumption of the usb device is regulated by its controller, not by the device itself.

 

[elmnt61]

My hard drive is no more than THREE months old, so no it was not on the way out. If you read the thread, you would see that the USB reader caused my computer to freeze, which made me have to force-shut down, which DID ruin my hard drive. It was obviously writing something to my disk when I shut down...and noow the structure is all screwed up.

 

[IxthusTiger]

You live near a store in the US that sells flash carts? Where is it?

 

[elmnt61]

Nope, Hong Kong... The Golden Computer Centre... you guys would piss your pants at how amazing it is

 

[trugoy]

I have the same card reader, tested on a G5 and on a Powerbook titanium G4... and it's working fine... sorry for your HD... I'll wait some other news before try again that reader btw

 

[adgloride]

My hard drive is no more than THREE months old, so no it was not on the way out. If you read the thread, you would see that the USB reader caused my computer to freeze, which made me have to force-shut down, which DID ruin my hard drive. It was obviously writing something to my disk when I shut down...and noow the structure is all screwed up.

Have you tried repairing the harddrive? I know the PC has the chkdsk program that will repair anything that is wrong with the file system. I'm not sure how you'd go about trying to repair the harddrive on your apple powerbook. If the harddrive has broke, with it only being 3 months old it should be still under guarantee and come under a manufacture defect. You should get a new harddrive, you'll loose all your data but thats why they always tell you to back up.

 

[Shadowhunta]

My hard drive is no more than THREE months old, so no it was not on the way out. If you read the thread, you would see that the USB reader caused my computer to freeze, which made me have to force-shut down, which DID ruin my hard drive. It was obviously writing something to my disk when I shut down...and noow the structure is all screwed up.

Sorry but i'm gonna have to disagree with you on this one,HDD's being what they are (glass or metal platters in a "stack") they are very tempremental things,sometimes failing for no reason at all it seems,even brand new HDD's failing right out of the box!
Trust me,i'm a PC engineer,and at work i have dealt with many failing HDD's,and very VERY rarely will forcing the computer into a shut down cause actual physical damage to the HDD,in fact i don't think i have EVER heard of that,tbh it was probably just a coincidence...and anyway think yourself lucky its just a hdd..i once plugged in a USB device that was faulty and was kicking out wattage when it should'nt have been,i plugged it straight into the motherboards onboard USB...BOOM! one dead motherboard..now this happened TWICE before it turned out that the USB device was faulty!!

Tony

 

[aristo]

My hard drive is no more than THREE months old, so no it was not on  the way out. If you read the thread, you would see that the USB reader caused my computer to freeze, which made me have to force-shut down, which DID ruin my hard drive. It was obviously writing something to my disk when I shut down...and noow the structure is all screwed up.


Sorry but i'm gonna have to disagree with you on this one,HDD's being what they are (glass or metal platters in a "stack") they are very tempremental things,sometimes failing for no reason at all it seems,even brand new HDD's failing right out of the box!
Trust me,i'm a PC engineer,and at work i have dealt with many failing HDD's,and very VERY rarely will forcing the computer into a shut down cause actual physical damage to the HDD,in fact i don't think i have EVER heard of that,tbh it was probably just a coincidence...and anyway think yourself lucky its just a hdd..i once plugged in a USB device that was faulty and was kicking out wattage when it should'nt have been,i plugged it straight into the motherboards onboard USB...BOOM! one dead motherboard..now this happened TWICE before it turned out that the USB device was faulty!!

Tony

I totally agree with this...
I also had an USB device blown my motherboard... Everybody told me it was a conincedence, but I knew it was that USB device, because
as soon as I plugged it in, computer was acting funny, then a dead motherboard.

 

[Psyfira]

My hard drive is no more than THREE months old, so no it was not on the way out.

Um hang on: if the hard drives only 3 months old but the laptop's out of warranty then does that mean you've swapped the one that came with the powerbook for it?

I'm just asking because if you brought the hard drive brand new then surely the new hard drive is still under it's own warranty from the drive manufacturer?

 

[imaginey]

My hard drive is no more than THREE months old, so no it was not on the way out.

Um hang on: if the hard drives only 3 months old but the laptop's out of warranty then does that mean you've swapped the one that came with the powerbook for it?

It could just mean that in the US if you don't pay for extra warranty instore you tend to get 30 days at best - anyone can correct me if I'm wrong though! So the laptop could be out of store warranty assuming it's the same age as the HD (ie. 3 months), although it's likely there's some sort of manufacturer warranty. Contrast this with my 8 month old graphics card dying a couple of months back - just returned it to where I bought it and got a full refund (OK, it being over 6 months old complicated things slightly - they wouldn't refund without sending it back to the manufacturer to check it out first - but same end result).