I Need my Hard Drive Back, help please : (

[gottagetalife]

I do not have a hard drive on boot up.
bios does not see it.
Can any help me?
It is ok if I loose the info, I just
can't get a new one and really would
love to learn how to try at least to
salvage this one.
thanks all for reading!!

 

[micker377]

What DOES show while booting? Can it see the floppy and/or CD Rom drives? What do you see when you go into the BIOS setup? (any drives?). Are hard drives set to "auto"? Have you tried using the BIOS reset jumper? What motherboard and what OS?

 

[dbData]

Have you tried installing the drive in a second computer? If you have and that computer's BIOS does not recognize the drive you're likely screwed.

I'd suggest replacing the PCB, but that would mean you'd have to buy another drive.


Rick

http://www.data-recovery-hub.com

 

[mainegeek]

It maybe a dead or failing cd-rom drive getting in the way. Maybe try booting with only the hard drive attached. Try clearing the cmos as well.

 

[gottagetalife]

Thankyou all so much for your help and time.
My Bios does not acknowledge any hard drive at all.
It will give me no options when I drive to select
(high performance, or compatable etc...)
It is an old Aptiva P11 266 IBM with little options
for the end user. I can't get a new computer quite
yet so am fiddling my time away here.. but seriously
I had soooo many digital pictures of my children on that
hard drive I a just kicking myself so hard for not
backing them Up!!!!
I was running win 98se with partition magic5...
having partitioned the maxtor 40gig into 3 partitions
C: 6gig d: 8gig E: 25gig..
this worked well for a couple years... but somewhat
unstable... so decided to upgrade to windows 2000
??? bit mistake...
changed the first C: to ntfs file system and left the
D: and E: the same fat file system...
It crashed real hard and thats when all troubles started.
I just unplugged this problem maxtor hd and put
an older 1gig hard drive in with win98se loaded onto
it, with an older 6 gig as the secondary and they both
are there working great.
It would be nice if I could learn how to save the old
Maxtor or even if I could access it to wipe it clean
and reset system on it and partion, format....
need help with all that part.
thanks again all!

 

[gted]

Maxtor has a utility on their website that may help determine what is happening. It does everything from anlyzing the problem to a low level format. It may allow you to get access to the drive even if your box won't normally do it. Suggest being careful to read the info with it. It's straight forward and easy to use.

Good luck

 

[pcs007]

Hi gottagetalife,
It looks like you've got a dead drive. Try connecting it to the computer again and power up & see if you can hear any noise from the hard disk. If there is noise, try connect it as to another computer & run the utility as suggested. If there is no noise, then unless you get professional data recovery service, I can't see any other ways to get the data back.

Good luck

 

[bobw]

gottagetalife,
These suggestions may sound a bit extreme, but several have worked for me. And DON'T laugh at the "refridgerator suggestion" - it's a winner, too. I even have changed the controller card sucessfully several times.

http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6255-5029761-1.html

Be sure to put off the "drop drive" suggestion to near last... If you do get the drive spinning, have a plan - it probably won't spin very long.
If it isn't working now, you have nothing to lose and data to gain.
Bob W


"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you will see every problem as a nail." - Abraham Maslow

 

[bobw]

gottagetalife,
Here is a more direct link to the download - registration with Techrepublic required...

http://techrepublic.com.com/5138-6249-728960.html

Bob W

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you will see every problem as a nail." - Abraham Maslow

 

[garebo]

The refrigerator trick does work sometimes, i have done so.
I have done the "drop" too, but so far i havent been successful with just the drop, needed the fridge trick as well, lol.

Its always worth a shot if all else fails, do the fridge then the drop, then the fridge again if the first fridge fails.
Getting a same or similar pcb board for the hard drive is a better solution than the fridge or the drop if the problem is the pcb board.
what make and model drive is it?



Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[garebo]

I see its a 40 gig maxtor.
Are you saying that when you converted part of the drive to NTFS that is when the drive stopped working?
I would try the maxtor software to check out the drive.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[gottagetalife]

Thankyou everyone for your help.
Sorry this took so long to reply... had to
find a hard drive ^_^
I did finally give in, and put the onld 6 gig in
with a 1 gig backup second hard drive...
I lost "connection" with my old 40 gig maxtor
after installing new operating system (2000)
choosing to change files to NTFS... I had
the hard drive already split into 3 partitions.
Do not know if it was Partion magic, NTFS, or
running symantics dis optimiser that caused the
problem. It still warms up, so I know there is some
life, put it into 2 other computers and the
Bios does not see it at all.
Used older Bios so I could choose the specs, but
nothing seems to work.
Will try the Freezer, Floor and Hammer just for
the fun of it!
Again thanks for your time!

 

[garebo]

Dont forget to try the maxtor utilities before you try all the others!
You are probably right about norton. I NEVER run anything from norton except their antivirus. The other progs, like the disk optim, and all the others? Well, years ago, when i was newer at this, i ran all the norton utilities and i couldnt understand why i was having to re-install win98se all the time. But when i stopped running norton programs then most of my problems went away! It was a bid surprise to find that this supposedly great bunch of programs is actually a pile of junk, with the exception of norton ghost and goback. Thats just my opinion, but i bet its partly shared by most people here as i have read the same type of comments many many times over the years.

Best to leave norton alone, except for the AV, goback and ghost.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips