[SOLVED] HELP! I think I just accidentally stabbed my SSD with a screwdriver and broke it!

ThatSourMelon

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Apr 21, 2019
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Long story short, I had to uninstall my gpu, after reinstalling it my motherboard didn’t read my ram, I haven’t touched any other part of the computer but after reinstalling the ram it worked fine… or that’s what I thought.

I have two M.2’s for storage. They are roughly the same speed, but I use the slightly faster one as my boot drive, and the other to store personal files and projects I’m working on, that’s one that stopped showing up in windows. I booted into the BIOS ja sits not reading.

I have an RTX 3080, and I also have a choncky cpu cooler, so the pci switch to “unhitch” my gpu is pretty much impossible to reach with my hands, so I used a screwdriver to try and push it. I slipped a couple times, but it didn’t sound too bad, and it was the only way I knew how to do it. It worked btw, but now I’m really thinking “what if it slipped and hit the M.2?” The M.2 is right next to the pci slot, so I looked and I think I chipped some of the plastic off? How does it look to you: (edit View: https://imgur.com/a/rE4sUFa
)https://imgur.com/a/6ZOvejC
You see on the bottom right of the drive where it connects to the motherboard and that plastic looks a bit chipped off? Idk how it’s supposed to look, and it looks a bit different from the top.

I want to avoid uninstalling and reinstalling it if possible because again, my gpu and cpu cooler are huge and I’d need to uninstall both to reach it, and seeing how this is going that will likely cause more problems… like I said, I have personal files and projects on there that I have spent hundreds of hours on, I can’t lose them! Here’s my full parts list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/qhTkp2
 
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Solution
I swapped the drives, it still doesn’t work. This is it, this is where I die. The data is unrecoverable?
This would have been needed to do before....

ThatSourMelon

Commendable
Apr 21, 2019
363
12
1,715

ThatSourMelon

Commendable
Apr 21, 2019
363
12
1,715
Well then...potentially major damage.

Power OFF.
Remove it.
Take better pics and post them.
Ok, I’m kind of relieved here. Maybe it was the lighting? But it doesn’t look too bad after taking it out, I don’t see any obvious damage but then again idk how to look for it: View: https://imgur.com/a/F9smrYy
I don’t even see any smudges on the motherboard, maybe I’m overestimating the screwdriver slips… Thanks for your help so far! I’m a little scared rn I have so much data on this thing.

I’m having some trouble putting it back in, I really don’t want to have to uninstall the cpu cooler. I’m confident I can though, how does it look?
 

ThatSourMelon

Commendable
Apr 21, 2019
363
12
1,715
That corner has the +3.3V supply and ground pins. They all seem to be present.

That said, there may be a break in the power traces.
How would I tell if there’s a break in the power traces? Did you see my new comment
Ok, I’m kind of relieved here. Maybe it was the lighting? But it doesn’t look too bad after taking it out, I don’t see any obvious damage but then again idk how to look for it: View: https://imgur.com/a/F9smrYy
I don’t even see any smudges on the motherboard, maybe I’m overestimating the screwdriver slips… Thanks for your help so far! I’m a little scared rn I have so much data on this thing.

I’m having some trouble putting it back in, I really don’t want to have to uninstall the cpu cooler. I’m confident I can though, how does it look?
With those new photos can you tell if there is?
 
Ok, I’m kind of relieved here. Maybe it was the lighting? But it doesn’t look too bad after taking it out, I don’t see any obvious damage but then again idk how to look for it: View: https://imgur.com/a/F9smrYy
I don’t even see any smudges on the motherboard, maybe I’m overestimating the screwdriver slips… Thanks for your help so far! I’m a little scared rn I have so much data on this thing.

I’m having some trouble putting it back in, I really don’t want to have to uninstall the cpu cooler. I’m confident I can though, how does it look?
You don't have a backup of all this data?
You are on borrowed time.
 

ThatSourMelon

Commendable
Apr 21, 2019
363
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1,715
A 2-4 bay NAS. Sure.

Still needs a 100% backup (second copy) of whatever data is on it.

You seem to be fixated on the term "server".
And we still don't know if this WD NVMe still works.
Forget the server, someone else mentioned I would need more storage to back up files so I was thinking of making a storage server.

I just reinstalled the SSD, no change. What else can I do?