does a blown psu break a hard drive

[jakeddog]

when i plugged my coputer back in after changing the cpu cooler the psu made a pop sound and now nothing in my computer moves and i want to know if the hard drive could of been damaged

 

[Rogue Leader]

Most of the time the PSU blows itself up and if its a good PSU it keeps that blow up contained.

You may want to make sure the reason for it isn't that you shorted something out.

That said, its still POSSIBLE it damaged something, however unlikely.

 

[R_1]

yes. if the power cord was inserted into the drive. anything connected to a PSU can be damaged when it blows. better higher quality units are built to prevent this, even then there are no absolutes.

 

[InvalidError]

It depends on what failed. Most of the time, sudden "spectacular" failures (loud pops or sparks) are on the primary side and that type of failure rarely damages anything beyond the PSU since a blown FET or other power device on the primary side cannot send any more power to the secondary side after it has blown up.

What tends to fry components is progressive failure on the secondary side where dying filter caps let an increasingly large amount of ripple through. If nothing fails or shuts down the computer first, those ripples will eventually exceed the absolute maximum of some components and damage them. Excessive ripple will also slowly chip away at all other caps in the system and may eventually cause local regulators to malfunction, possibly destroying them or the chips they power.