I was trying to fix my Dad’s PS3 (he recently passed away) nothing was working, so I connected the HDD from the PS3 into my PC. Upon plugging in the SATA cable, the entire PC shut off. I unplugged the HDD, but now when I power on the PC, the fans just run at max speed and nothing else happens. I don’t know how to troubleshoot this problem.
SATA was explicitly designed to do exactly this. The long pins are for ground.
Mistakes can still occur. Just because it is designed to be resilient does not mean that it’s infallible.