Hard drive Beeps/Wont load

[Kangol2]

Ok

DiamondMax Plus 8 HDD 20Gig
433Mhz Celeron
192 RAM
Windows Xp

Ok Whenever I start the Pc the hard drive Arm will scan the Disk back and forth and give me a patteren of low-toned beeps (porbably four times) -Each time the Arm reaches the outside of the disk and then the HD shuts down.
The Pc will then tell me that the "Operating system could not be found" as if the hard drive was not even installed.
This is almost definatly an internal HDD problem because I hooked a friends HDD up to my PC and it worked with no apparent problems.....Hooked my HDD up to his and the same thing happened.
Just before it started I took mine out to replace it as a slave to my friends hard drive as a master on my system (He was gonna tranfer some files)-Everythingt was working fine before and his still works...
ohh, and I hooked up the Maxtor Floppy Diagnostic utility and it could not detect the HDD either...

Now, Im not a complete moron. Ive always worked on my PC myself, have installed various hardware myself with no problems I couldnt figure out on my own (or by way of the internet ) I handled it very gently and know to discharge any possible electro static before handling any computer componants.


Any help would be much appreciated, Ill have Internet access all night, being stuck over here from the damned Ice storms and all..
would love to get my Pc working again asap
Im not taking it to Comp Usa or any other place because I dont have piles of cash lying around.

 

[Accessdabbler]

What do you mean the arm moves to the edge? Did you open up the hard drive?

 

[IONSystems]

Whatever you do, DO NOT open up the drive. How important is the data on the drive? It needs to be RMA'd, but data still may be recovered off it. Do not attempt to power it on anymore, it will continue to corrupt the data.

Chris Biggers

http://www.ionsystems.net

ION Systems, Computer Sales and Service
Data Destruction services now!

 

[Kangol2]

I never said I wasnt a moron, just not a "complete moron"...
Im a do it yourself type, even if that means opening up a HDD and "doing it myself"

"? It needs to be RMA'd, but data still may be recovered off it"

?
What is that?
Can the HDD be fixed or is it shot?
There is no "Crucial" data on there that Im willing to pay big money to get transffered...
But how much would that cost?
Ive got the original(also broken) 8Gig drive that came with my computer that Id love to get data from.

 

[Accessdabbler]

RMA'd means to return it to the vendor. It stands for Return Material Authorization.

If you've opened up the hard drive and exposed the platters it is basically destroyed. Hard Drives are hermetically sealed to prevent dust from entering. Your chances of recovering the data on the drive is low now.

 

[davidmichel]

There is one thing to try.
Put the hard drive in a freezer zip lock bag. Now put it into the coldes part of the freezer. Leave it there overnight. In the morning hook it up and try it out. Sometimes this gives you one lasts chance to get the data off. So be prepaired just in case it works to be able to copy all the data off.

By the way if you return the drive for warrenty repair you will not get the data back.