hard drive issue not working

  • Thread starter Thread starter lenny109
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lenny109

Hi,
I have been trying to sort out a start up problem with my computer and have
managed to get it down to a Harddrive issue.

I have two hardrives in my computer, a Master and a Slave. The Master has
Windows XP on it and the Slave is really only for storage. Everything has
been fine until yesterday when the whole system stopped working.

I have now noticed that if both drives are in the machine niether of them
are recorgnised in the start up sequence but if I take the Slave out then
the computer recorgnises the Master and loads Windows just fine.

I have tried installing the slave on another machine as a slave also as the
Master on both machines but my Bios is never able to 'see' the drive. Also
if it is installed as a Slave on any machine then I am unable to 'see'
either HD.

Why is that and also is there any way that I might be able to recover the
(defective?) drive? I have tried puting it into the freezer but that hasn't
helped
 
lenny109 said:
Hi,
I have been trying to sort out a start up problem with my computer and
have managed to get it down to a Harddrive issue.

I have two hardrives in my computer, a Master and a Slave. The Master has
Windows XP on it and the Slave is really only for storage. Everything has
been fine until yesterday when the whole system stopped working.

I have now noticed that if both drives are in the machine niether of them
are recorgnised in the start up sequence but if I take the Slave out then
the computer recorgnises the Master and loads Windows just fine.

I have tried installing the slave on another machine as a slave also as
the Master on both machines but my Bios is never able to 'see' the drive.
Also if it is installed as a Slave on any machine then I am unable to
'see' either HD.
Click to expand...

That's a pretty big clue that the drive electronics have failed. Continued
poking at it probably will not help.

If the drive does not spin up and/or the BIOS does not recognise it it's
unlikely that any software you can buy will recover anything.
Why is that and also is there any way that I might be able to recover the
(defective?) drive? I have tried puting it into the freezer but that
hasn't helped
Click to expand...

You may need to contract the services of a data recovery company. If the
electronics have failed, they will remove the drive platters and mount them
on other electronics to recover data. This can be... not inexpensive.
I've seen it go between $1000 and $5000 CDN, but results have been good.

As a reference, this is the kind of company I mean (and this is in fact the
company I have used), there are others:
http://www.actionfront.com/

HTH
-pk
 
Data recovery services are really expensive.
http://www.disasterrecoverygroup.com/
http://www.datarecovery.net/default.html
http://www.drivesavers.com/

and the Google list goes on and on. You did have a backup, didn't you?

Last quote I had was $1500+ for an ancient 8.4gb drive. They don't get just
the fles and folders you want, it's all or nothing. You can't specify only
the files which are important to you.

If it's really not detecting on any PC, then chances are high that it really
is dead and you're looking at one of the above companies to do something.
Whether you want to pay their charges or not is up to you. It's nearly
always cheaper to cry for a day or so over the lost and unbacked up data and
get a new drive.
 
lenny109 said:
Hi,
I have been trying to sort out a start up problem with my computer and have
managed to get it down to a Harddrive issue.

I have two hardrives in my computer, a Master and a Slave. The Master has
Windows XP on it and the Slave is really only for storage. Everything has
been fine until yesterday when the whole system stopped working.

I have now noticed that if both drives are in the machine niether of them
are recorgnised in the start up sequence but if I take the Slave out then
the computer recorgnises the Master and loads Windows just fine.

I have tried installing the slave on another machine as a slave also as the
Master on both machines but my Bios is never able to 'see' the drive. Also
if it is installed as a Slave on any machine then I am unable to 'see'
either HD.

Why is that and also is there any way that I might be able to recover the
(defective?) drive? I have tried puting it into the freezer but that hasn't
helped
Click to expand...

The hard drive has failed and so much for home remedies. If
the data is that important, then pay for its recovery. But for
tomorrow, develop a sound backup strategy that always includes
having a running backup and a permanent archive.
 
The freezer trick only works (sometimes) if you have a mechanical failure,
such as a problem with the drive bearings. If you have an electrical problem
with the drive controller, freezing will do nothing.

What about your backups?

If the information is very important you can contact Drive Savers at
www.drivesavers.com or the fine people at www.ontrack.com. Note: very
expensive!

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"
 
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