HD detected but not readable

[norty303]

I've got a 20gb Western Digital Caviar that is under 2 yrs old that detects in the bios but is unreadable. WinXP setup recognizes the drive but says it is unreadable. Booted into DOS but the drive is not visible so I can't chkdsk or fdisk or reformat.
I've resigned to ordering another drive (Seagate Barracuda, I really like these)

I'm gonna do the freezer trick as a last resort, but any other suggestions gratefully received.

 

[norty303]

Actually just read another post about something similar and it talks about lubricants gunging up. The computers owner did tell me that it was fine the last time he used it which was a while ago. Could it be that the platters are stuck through not being used for a while?

I'll have to try the intertia test......

 

[wizzard2k2]

maybe the drive is unformatted? Or formatted to something that DOS won't (can't) recognize??
Try booting with Partition Magic (or some other partitioning software OTHER than DOS/fdisk) and see if that will let you 'see' the drive

 

[norty303]

The machine was built by me nearly 2 years ago and has now died. It was installed with WinXP and has had nothing changed on it over the time the person has had it. Then one day it said 'no operating system detected' and did the usual novell boot. As I said the HD is detected in the bios and displays on the detection screen on boot but then does nothing. I think it is a physical failure as the drive is still detected, just nothing reading from it

 

[Chris1234]

Older Western Digital drives had a 3 year guaranty. In the absence of a sales slip, Western Digital will accept manufacture date.

As for the problem - I've seen cases where the drive is recognized during bootup but still not usable. This often is a result of the FAT being destroyed. In rare cases, a WD drive goes so bad that it can't accept an FDISK, and I'd have to think this is one of those times.

Western Digital and Maxtor are the best drives and often about the same price or a very little more than any Seagate. And Seagate doesn't offer a 3 year guarenty.

Chris C.