Bent HDD pins along with black screen and white underscore.

[H. Finner]

So yesterday I got home and tried to boot my computer after being away for two days and I got my bios screen to load normally, then it went straight to a black screen with only a blinking white underscore at the top left. I first tried re-seating my ram and when that didn't work I re seated the bios battery and neither made a difference. I then tried to switch out my sata cables with my two 1tb HDDs but instead found out that my Hard drive with Windows and personal files on it had bent power pins. There is supposed to be a little plastic piece holding all the pins straight on the Hard drives power port but I found the plastic piece in the bottom of my case split in two. I couldn't slide it back on the pins to at least try and reguide back them back into a power cable.
ANYWAYS if this was an issue with my other HDD that ONLY had games on it, I would be able to boot through my other one with Windows and all my files on it and just have to buy a new hard drive.

After finding the bent pins, I pulled out the working Hard drive and tried to see if I could re straighten the pins on the other one to force them back into one of the L shaped power cables. It can easily slide out with the pins but I got it taped down and if it is held a certain way, it will recognize that the HDD is running but I will still have the black screen with a white blinking underscore... I am going to try and do a repair through a usb/DVD with Windows 10 on it later.

any advice?

 

[Achint2000]

The underscore blinking means your HDD isn't working or the PC isn't able to read data properly from it. (I had the same issue about 7 years ago when a HDD fell off my hand (i was 13 xD) and there was just an underscore blinking and nothing.)

Make sure any other SATA devices aren't faulty and take the HDD to the nearest service center and ask them to repair it, as I'm sure your data is perfectly fine but the I/O (input-output) isn't working.

Note: THIS IS NOT A SOFTWARE ISSUE. DO NOT ATTEMPT REPAIRING as chkdsk can end up destroying the drive!

 

[H. Finner]

So I should just pull out all other sata devices and see if it will work solo?

I am also just considering getting a new HDD with Windows since a few files I need are in onedrive. That would run me about $75 and then I asked a few different local repair guys and they all were in range from 100-250 to recover data... I'm super broke right now and in college so that doesn't help

 

[Achint2000]

No - Don't recover data. Take it to the nearest service center (Which brand is your HDD?) and ask them to repair it under warranty and mention there should be no data loss. I'm hoping they'll fix it soon, and just as expected.

If you don't have any important files on it and dont need them right now, and can afford a new drive and windows, keep the current drive aside safely somewhere and get the new one.

I'm about to go to college next year and I can already understand you must be busy. You can get the drive repaired in free time. Make sure you check how long the warranty will last. If it's not under warranty, they can charge a small amount of money as just the I/O is broken but rest of the drive is (or must be) perfectly fine.

 

[H. Finner]

Alrighty, but just to clarify, the only bent pins are for the power part not Sata. When I get the power part plugged in and working, the bios recognizes the drive but just brings the black screen with the underscore going.

 

[Achint2000]

If you can make sure the SATA Power pins are properly working at all times, that's bad news, that underscore means that your HDD is damaged and can't be read.

Still, get the new HDD, install windows on it, see if that windows can read files from the HDD. And get the current HDD serviced anyway, as improper power might damage it.

Or, wait for a better answer.

 

[mbarnes86]

Hi

The physical damage is unlikely to be covered by any warantee or garantee unless this happened within a short time of delivery of a new pc and you had not opened the case previously to cause this damage

The cost of repairs will exceed the cost of a new hard disk

The hard disk propably needs a new circuit board and transfer of the firmware from the old circuit board to the new one

There are specialist companies who can do this for you but unless you have critical data that needs recovering, just get a new hard disk

This may be a good opportunity to buy a SSD to replace the broken hard disk

Regards
Mike Barnes