Re:loads of stuff (Score 1)

Something like this happened to me. I had a Compaq computer where pin 1 was labled wrong on the motherboard (I didn't know it at the time) and I only had a non keyed IDE cable, so I plugged it in and turned on the computer. Well, the hard drive started pouring smoke and there was a small fire on it (there was some melted stuff on the PCB on the underside of the HD). I immediately got a Keyed IDE cable and found out that Compaq did pin 1 backward. Anways, the Hard Drive still worked for 2 years after that. It wouldn't work as a boot drive for some reason though, but worked great as a slave.