On 20 Dec 2004 03:08:22 -0800, "sg" wrote:



What I was doing was to try and connect a laptop/notebook harddisk as a
slave device. Since, the laptop interface consists of 44 pins, we had a
small adapter that plugs in to the power supply and gives power to the
relevant pins. It seems that inadvertently, I powered one of the data
lines and the harddisk got damaged.


Are you sure you're connecting both cables correctly (the IDE cable to
the adapter and the adapter to the hard drive)? I have one of these
adapters which isn't keyed, so it's easy to plug something in
backwards. It shouldn't damage anything, but it will cause the system
to hang. The only thing that could cause damage is plugging in, or
unplugging something with the system powered on, or shorting something
out.
Andy Cuffe