Hard disk does not show in BIOS. Extract data from HDD?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kanolsen
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Kanolsen

My IBM harddrive does no longer show up in BIOS after I added another
hdd.
My system.
Faulty hdd: Ibm Deskstar 40gb, no: IC35L040AVER07-0
It still spinns.
IDE 0 = Win2k (Master), CD-ROM (Slave)
IDE 1 = Failed HDD (master), HDD (Slave)
I have tried:
Different hdd on flat cable - it worked.
Changed flat cable - all works except on failed hdd
tried short 40cm, long 80cm cable - worked on all other devices.
changed power cable - all works.
Tried to switch the failed hdd as slave on IDE 0 and 1 - no show in
BIOS.
It worked perfectly before I added a new hdd on the other IDE cable,
so it shouldn't be affected at all.
I have heard something about a MBR, master boot record, which could be
deleted, could that be the one? How do I fix it?
If the hdd has failed, how do I recover info from it using software
when it is not recognised?
Have heard about Disk Investigator but haven't tried it yet. Is there
any other software I can test and maybe get it to work?
http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/dskinv.html
"Discover what's hidden on your computer hard disk and recover lost
data. Disk Investigator bypasses your operating system so you can
directly see the contents of your hard drive: raw drive sectors,
files, clusters, and directories. This is helpful if you want to
verify the effectiveness of file and disk wiping programs. It's also
quite useful if you need to recover previously deleted files."

Thanx for all help - I'll pray (not to be confused with pay) for you
if I get it to work ;)
Kanolsen
 
Kanolsen said:
My IBM harddrive does no longer show up in BIOS after I added another
hdd.
My system.
Faulty hdd: Ibm Deskstar 40gb, no: IC35L040AVER07-0
It still spinns.
IDE 0 = Win2k (Master), CD-ROM (Slave)
IDE 1 = Failed HDD (master), HDD (Slave)
I have tried:
Different hdd on flat cable - it worked.
Changed flat cable - all works except on failed hdd
tried short 40cm, long 80cm cable - worked on all other devices.
changed power cable - all works.
Tried to switch the failed hdd as slave on IDE 0 and 1 - no show in
BIOS.
It worked perfectly before I added a new hdd on the other IDE cable,
so it shouldn't be affected at all.
I have heard something about a MBR, master boot record, which could be
deleted, could that be the one? How do I fix it?
If the hdd has failed, how do I recover info from it using software
when it is not recognised?
Have heard about Disk Investigator but haven't tried it yet. Is there
any other software I can test and maybe get it to work?
http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/dskinv.html
"Discover what's hidden on your computer hard disk and recover lost
data. Disk Investigator bypasses your operating system so you can
directly see the contents of your hard drive: raw drive sectors,
files, clusters, and directories. This is helpful if you want to
verify the effectiveness of file and disk wiping programs. It's also
quite useful if you need to recover previously deleted files."

Thanx for all help - I'll pray (not to be confused with pay) for you
if I get it to work ;)
Kanolsen
Click to expand...

If the BIOS won't see it, FDISK won't see it. You can forget about the /MBR
switch for FDISK.

I'm thinking it might be a Master/Slave issue.

I didn't see it in your note, but did you try the failed drive on a cable by
itself?

Some drives, when by themselves on a cable, must not have a MS/SL/CS jumper
in order for the BIOS to find it. Try it standalone and unjumpered.

Have you tried setting the drives to CS (cable select)? And, if the BIOS
still doesn't report the drive, try switching the drives (still with the CS
jumper setting) on the cable.

If after all that the BIOS still doesn't see the drive, say a couple of Hail
Mary's and pitch the drive - the controller board is toasted.

There used to be an ISA card on the market ages ago that was sometimes found
in a geek's toolbox that would completely ignore the BIOS and get you access
to a troublesome drive. I can't, for the life of me, remember what it was
called and couldn't even speculate whether such a card is even available
today for PCI slots.
 
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