Just because a wrong SATA cable was plugged in, a player mistakenly burned a 14TB hard drive and 14 years of data.

More than 14 years of data are gone, and the hard drive cannot be started. Recently, a post in the PC section of the Reddit forum attracted widespread attention. User HellBlade64 shared his harrowing experience,A 14TB Seagate Exos X16 hard drive that stored 14 years of data was instantly burned due to a non-standard power cord plugged in. All unbacked videos and game videos recorded by Shadowplay and other precious data were lost.

"I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed in myself," HellBlade64 confessed in the post. He knew that mixing modular power cables was risky, but he still plugged a non-standard SATA power cable into his Seasonic Focus power supply.

When he restarted his computer,There was only a "click" sound, and the computer immediately became unresponsive. After unplugging the hard drive, the computer returned to normal, but the 14TB hard drive completely failed and there was no response when connected to an external card reader.

Tomshardware believes that,The fundamental problem is a lack of standardization among power supply manufacturers, and even differences between different models of power supplies from the same brand, where cable pin definitions can be completely different. Also, a friendly reminder, do not mix wires between power supplies, even if they are of the same brand, unless the power supply manufacturer guarantees compatibility.

SATA hard disk 12V (drive motor) and 5V (logic circuit) share the same power cord. If you use a non-standard power cord, the two cords may be connected reversely.Once the voltage is reversed, the hard disk controller lacking a protection circuit will be instantly burned by the 12V high voltage.

The "click" sound that players hear is likely a protection trip triggered by the power supply to avoid short circuit damage to itself, which also prevents the computer from restarting until the hard drive is removed.

However, in the past 20 years, modular power cords have not been standardized, and many power products (including this 6-year-old power supply used by users) lack safety cut-off functions for incompatible plugs, so similar tragedies are inevitable.

Regarding data recovery, some netizens suggested that if only the electronic components are damaged, there may be a chance to recover the data by replacing the hard disk controller circuit board through a professional company.

However, data recovery is expensive and not foolproof. The most fundamental solution is still multiple backups.