This is a generic desktop with an IDE drive. The hard drive stopped being visible. I can boot from a floppy or from a Windows 98 CD, but that is all. I tried resetting the master/slave relationships, but does no good. I physically disconnected and reconnected the cables and nothing. It is not clear to me if I can connect the cables to a different place on the board, so I did not try that. This machine is my file server and I keep it in Windows 98 to run software that cannot run on XP. It also has my CD-RW drive. Data recovery seems to cost up to $1000 or more, and I am not sure I want to do that. Any ideas on things I might try to see if it will wake up?
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hard drive no longer recognized
- Thread starter mmdeaton
- Start date
Do you mean the bios is not detecting the drive?
Did this happen suddenly?
You could try connecting the drive as a slave in another machine - see if its detected and accessible.
You could try connecting it to second IDE connector (presuming the CD drive(s) are connected to that currently) to check its not just the primary connection that's the problem (also while you connected/disconnected it - did you check the IDE cable is not damaged - particularly I've had one short side of plastic connector break - which wasn't immediately obvious).
If the drive really is 'dead' - then suspect expensive data recovery only option if the data is worth it. You may get suggestions to freeze drive or transfer its platters to another identical drive (neither of which I've tried, nor am likely to!) or other suggestions to get drive running long enough to retrieve data.
btw - have you any backup of what's on the drive (considering you say its your file server?)
Did this happen suddenly?
You could try connecting the drive as a slave in another machine - see if its detected and accessible.
You could try connecting it to second IDE connector (presuming the CD drive(s) are connected to that currently) to check its not just the primary connection that's the problem (also while you connected/disconnected it - did you check the IDE cable is not damaged - particularly I've had one short side of plastic connector break - which wasn't immediately obvious).
If the drive really is 'dead' - then suspect expensive data recovery only option if the data is worth it. You may get suggestions to freeze drive or transfer its platters to another identical drive (neither of which I've tried, nor am likely to!) or other suggestions to get drive running long enough to retrieve data.
btw - have you any backup of what's on the drive (considering you say its your file server?)
- Thread starter
- #3
Yes, the bios is not detecting the drive. And it did happen suddenly, although the suddenly was last Fall. I had backed up a bunch of stuff in November. I do not use it very often, since I work off my laptop most of the time and keep things there, or was keeping stuff on the servers at graduate school before I graduated. The issue came up again because the CD drive in my laptop went south and I have been unable to even read the backup CDs. I have no other machine in which to connect the drive, so that is not going to help. I will look at the cables and try changing connections.
dbData
IS-IT--Management
- Jan 2, 2004
- 118
This is normally an indication that the drive has failed. Some models can be recovered in the field, others will need a data recovery service. More information is available at
Rick
Rick
- Status
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