Question Power supply wipes hard drives?

[theseawulf]

I replaced a power supply in my system and it appears to have wiped a whole partition. "My PC" now shows 3 drives like it normally would, but the drive that contained all my programs has been somehow unformatted. I've done nothing to the hard drives, so my question is why is one of the drives just gone? If I try to access the drive it says it doesn't have a recognizable file system and asks if I'd like to format it!

How can this happen?

 

[rgd1101]

psu doesn't wipe hardware.
upload a screenshot of disk management to imgur.com and post the link here

 

[USAFRet]

I replaced a power supply in my system and it appears to have wiped a whole partition.

Doesn't work like that.
As requested above, screencap of your current Disk Management window.

 

[Tanabata]

I replaced a power supply in my system and it appears to have wiped a whole partition. "My PC" now shows 3 drives like it normally would, but the drive that contained all my programs has been somehow unformatted. I've done nothing to the hard drives, so my question is why is one of the drives just gone? If I try to access the drive it says it doesn't have a recognizable file system and asks if I'd like to format it!

How can this happen?

That's impossible. You can't wipe anything by switching power supplies. Show us your disk management, there's something in here, but not because of the power supply.

 

[theseawulf]

Impossible? That's what I thought! I think there actually may be some renaming of drives, swapping c's, d's and e's but it's still looking weird. Something, got unpartitioned or deformatted or, something. It didn't look like this before.

Also, I've actually managed to find most of my apps on what is now the E drive which used to be the D drive(I assume).
App data still appears to be stored on my C drive. So C drive hasn't changed apparently. Windows is kind of there too.

Here is that screen shot though. It still looks kinda goofy to me. I'm leaning in the direction of believing this will not be a big problem but I'd still like to understand what is going on if you can help <3

https://imgur.com/a/auCa3rf

View: https://imgur.com/a/auCa3rf

 

[USAFRet]

Impossible? That's what I thought! I think there actually may be some renaming of drives, swapping c's, d's and e's but it's still looking weird. Something, got unpartitioned or deformatted or, something. It didn't look like this before.

Also, I've actually managed to find most of my apps on what is now the E drive which used to be the D drive(I assume).
App data still appears to be stored on my C drive. So it hasn't changed apparently. Windows is kind of there too.

Here is that screen shot though. It still looks kinda goofy to me. I'm leaning in the direction of believing this will not be a big problem but I'd still like to understand what is going on if you can help <3

You were moving things around and relabeling partitions?

With this replacement PSU, is it a modular?
Did you use only the cables that came with the new PSU?

 

[theseawulf]

You were moving things around and relabeling partitions?

With this replacement PSU, is it a modular?
Did you use only the cables that came with the new PSU?

Nope. I haven't touched the hard drives.

Earlier today I was playing the Sims and the computer froze. I had to hold down the power button to turn it off and it never came back on. I took it to a shop and replaced the power supply. When I got it back home, I had to point apps to their data location because shortcuts were broken. Game apps like EA app ran but didn't know previously installed games were still stored somewhere on one of the drives. I had to find and point the apps to their game data to make them run again. One game loaded when I clicked the shortcut, but the games settings were not the same and had reverted back to default settings. That confuses me too.

I never attempted to rename or change anything about the hard drives. I've left them alone except for filling them up with my own crap lol. The PC is for casual gaming and Netflix and stuff. I watched the tech install the PS and he didn't mess with the hard drives either.

Windows did freak out on the first few boots. We turned on the power and got to windows eventually, but we saw so me auto pc repair stuff and it acted as if it were setting Windows up for the first time. Each instance of it trying to diag itself or set something up it locked up and had to be restarted.

It was back and forth almost arguing with itself as if in existential crisis but it finally came around. Maybe Windows did something it wasn't supposed to? Why would Windows be messing with drive partitions though anyway? 😵

 

[theseawulf]

You were moving things around and relabeling partitions?

With this replacement PSU, is it a modular?
Did you use only the cables that came with the new PSU?

I watched the tech, he plugged the new PS to the existing cable extensions already plugged into the hardware. At first it didn't work. So he tried using the new cables and removed all original cables. He also reset the motherboard, I saw the CMOS battery come out. When he started with it like that, the machine came on. He re-installed the original extension cables, and plugged the new PS into them and this time it worked. Next he plugged up the hard drives, gpu etc, and made sure it booted which it did. Albeit in crisis mode lol. It replaced the original manufacturer PS, it is not modular I don't think. Looks very similar.

 

[USAFRet]

I watched the tech, he plugged the new PS to the existing cable extensions already plugged into the hardware.

Unless the new PSU is an exact, 1:1 replacement of the old one....specific make/model....this may be an issue.
So...is it?

 

[theseawulf]

Unless the new PSU is an exact, 1:1 replacement of the old one....specific make/model....this may be an issue.
So...is it?

I really doubt it. The PS fit in the case but it was slightly larger. Again it looked very similar but this was pulled from one of the techs shelves. The computer is a Dell and I doubt they're using the same brands probably.

I'm really glad it worked. And if all I have to do is fix some broken links I can live with that. I feel it could have been much worse.

But it is very confusing why any of the hard drives would be different at all.

 

[USAFRet]

I really doubt it. The PS fit in the case but it was slightly larger. Again it looked very similar but this was pulled from one of the techs shelves. The computer is a Dell and I doubt they're using the same brands probably.

I'm really glad it worked. And if all I have to do is fix some broken links I can live with that. I feel it could have been much worse.

But it is very confusing why any of the hard drives would be different at all.

You have an utterly clueless tech guy.

So everything is mostly working?

 

[theseawulf]

Yes, I know for sure now that some of the broken links

You have an utterly clueless tech guy.

So everything is mostly working?

Actually he was really smart. He knew how much wattage my old PS used before I could even read 460W on the sticker, based on what kind of video card I had(you might not be impressed by that but I was lol). He's been in it for 30 years and I didn't see him do anything I didn't expect. He installed a new 700W PS, verified it worked, and the PC should have been good from there. When I got home I noticed the broken shortcuts.

I went to school to learn computers a long time ago and I'm so out of date I would have to just start over if I wanted to do it again. But the PS is not rocket science. He put it in the same way I would have. I just let him because he offered LOL

I've double checked and some of those shortcuts were pointing to the D drive. That data is now on the E drive and D drive is unreadable. Is just WEIRD O.O

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, I know for sure now that some of the broken links

Actually he was really smart. He knew how much wattage my old PS used before I could even read 460W on the sticker, based on what kind of video card I had. He's been in it for 30 years and I didn't see him do anything I didn't expect. He installed a new 700W PS, verified it worked, and the PC should have been good from there. When I got home I noticed the broken shortcuts.

I've double checked and some of those shortcuts were pointing to the D drive. That data is now on the E drive and D drive is unreadable. Is just WEIRD O.O

Clueless, as in using cables from the old PSU with the new one.
Period.

And there is much more to a power supply than just the number next to the W.

 

[theseawulf]

Clueless, as in using cables from the old PSU with the new one.
Period.

And there is much more to a power supply than just the number next to the W.

Okay well maybe. I hadn't thought of it like that before... 🤔

I figured a computer would just see power as power LOL