Added new primary hard drive but cant access info from old hard drive 4

[rdy4trvl]

I have replaced my old hard drive (HD-O) with a new hard drive (HD-N) because the operating system was corrupt and could not be repaired without erasing HD-O according to Dell. HD-N now is working fine with MS XP. However I can’t get the computer to recognize HD-O (tested and operational) so I can transfer (or even access) all of my data.

Here are my settings and additional info:
HD-N (Primary Drive 0) – Western Digital 120 MG, Primary master with the jumper settings set to “Cable Select”, connected to the end or last IDE connector
HD-O (Primary Drive 1) – Western Digital 60 MG, Primary slave with the jumper settings set to “Cable Select”, connected to the middle IDE connector

System Setup is set to detect Primary Drive 1 (set drive type to “Auto”). Boot sequence is set to CD-Rom first then HD-N (drive C)

When I start as configured above, all I get is a blank screen.
Without HD-O connected I start up fine (except I do have to hit F1 at startup to load XP because the system is looking for Primary Drive 1).

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? Thanks

 

[kiddpete]

After you start up, see if drive 1 is listed under sytem management. If it is, you may be able to get Windows to attempt a repair. This worked for me recently.

 

[felixc]

Blank screen, huh. Sounds like the bus interface of your drive has a problem. Can you try it as the sole master on the secondary channel and see if the same thing happens?

 

[rdy4trvl]

Felixc,
Most of what you said sounds good (interface problem) but is over my head. Does ... connecting my old drive to the secondary drive connector on the cable accomplish the same thing (not sure what you mean by the secondary channel)?
I'll also run a complete diagnostics on the drive tonight – would that detect a bus problem?
Thanks
Doug

 

[tomaso11]

He's saying connect it to where your optical drives plug in.
I would suggest reset jumpers to slave and master and replace the ribbon cable with a round type as they can get pinched with the Dell clamshell type case as you close it.

Thomas

 

[1101001100110101]

I would agree with tomaso11, try setting one jumpered to master and one to slave and forget the cable select.

But also you could do what felixc sugguest, which is make both masters. Leave the bootable drive alone as a master on your primary ide. Then disconnect your cd-rom and connect the 2nd hard drive on its channel.

 

[rdy4trvl]

Update...and not a pretty one. I've tried most everything shown above (thanks!) except connecting the drive to the optical plug. I gave in and had CompUSA look at it and they were unable to fix it.

The really odd thing is that the drive passes the Dell diagnostics (hour+ test) but the screen just goes blank when the computer boots as explained in my more recent post at

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=915365

. The suggestion there was to run FDISK...which I've never run but guess at this point I might as well give it a shot unless someone else has any ideas.
Again, thanks for all the ideas!

 

[Freestone]

You really should try setting the drive as Master on the Secondary IDE interface as suggested by rdy4trvl, and seconded by 1101001100110101. Get it off of the Primary IDE interface, period. You seem hesitant to try this. If you are unsure what to do to accomplish this, post back.

 

[rdy4trvl]

Freestone,
Heres why I was hesitant - I've tried the drive in both positons (but not Master on the Secondary IDE) and installed a new cable - would this yeild any different results?

I did try it just a minute ago...but didn't have the setup correct. I set Primary drive 0 to "off", Primary drive 1 to "auto" but the system is looking for the drive (there is nothing connected to the primary IDE)- what else do I need to change?
Thanks

 

[Freestone]

Set the new hard drive (HD-N) as Master on the Primary IDE channel, and set Primary drive 0 to AUTO.

Set the old hard drive (HD-O) as Master on the Secondary IDE channel, and set Secondary drive 0 to AUTO.

Do not connect anything else on either IDE cable.

I'm not familiar with the BIOS nomenclature you use, Primary drive 0 and 1. I think this means Primary Master and Primary Slave, respectively. You can probably leave all drive settings to Auto as BIOS should detect no Slave drive present on either interface.

You now have two Master drives, each on their own IDE interface. This eliminates any interaction between the drive electronics, which you never did before as they were on the same interface, and hopefully will enable you to boot XP off of you new drive andaaccess the data on your old drive.

 

[rdy4trvl]

Freestone,
Thanks for the additional clarification. Unfortunately, I get the same results - just a black screen. The BIOS does not seem to identify the drive - shows as "unknown" - not a good sign I suspect.
Any other suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks again.

 

[Freestone]

Can you get DOS to boot at all or is it the black screen syndrome too? DOS Boots disks are available at

http://www.bootdisk.com/

 

[rdy4trvl]

Sorry Freestone, a couple beginner quesitons:
Is the DOS Startup disk I can create under the A: Format function the same as your DOS Boot Disk?
Then, when I have this disk, how do I use? Set the BIOS to boot to A: then...I get a C: prompt where I can run a DIR on my old disk????
Thanks

 

[Freestone]

Format A: by itself won't create a bootable disk, but you have the point of my earlier terse post. The idea is to get to a DOS prompt to see if you can see anything on your old disk.

The boot disks from the link I gave provide some tools, mainly FDISK, that may also reveal something.

But even before you go further, you must answer this: was your old drive formatted FAT32 or NTFS? If the latter, then

http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm

has a link for a program that will create a DOS boot disk that allows for reading NTFS drives.

I'm going the floppy route because all data recovery tools I'm familiar with work from within a Windows environment, which you can't get to with the old drive attached, though I've just found this, but haven't had time to evaluate:

http://www.file-recovery.net/soft.htm

 

[dcs97]

Did you go into the BIOS and check if the secondary master was set as AUTO or as CD-ROM?
Also, I would try and see if the old drive will detect when it is connected as the master on the secondary channel without anything else connected. If not then try it on the primary IDE as the master and see if it detects.

 

[rdy4trvl]

DCS97
Thanks for the suggestions - I've tried the drive in every possible position I could think of with the appropriate BIOS settings. It appears as though the boot sector of the drive is my problem. I've sent the drive to a lower cost (with limited abilities) recovery operation. If anyone is interested in the outcome - just drop me a note.

 

[warpdrve]

Another solution is simply purchase a External USB Drive housing and install the drive into there ... I'm not sure if Dell's these days come with Firewire so make sure it's USB. The External housings are about 30 - 35 or perhaps less on ebay ... the nice thing about this is that you now have a portable hard drive.

Hope this helps.

Regards - Michael

 

[rdy4trvl]

Just to close the loop on this exercise - the problem was with sector damage in the bootup area of the hard drive - Freestone - your suggestions probably would have solved the problem but were over my head. I had a small company in WI recover the data for less than $200.

Thanks for all your suggestions!
Doug

 

[Freestone]

Doug, thanks for taking the time to post the resolution to your problem. At least you were able to get your data back. Not everyone is so lucky.