(regular)

Wed Dec 12 2007 08:11 PM

Hard drive not running

I purchased a new desktop running XP.
My old desktop (XP) had 2 hard drives of which one was a 20Gb. This hard drive I have recently tried to run as an external HD on my new PC as I have much needed information on it relating to an association of which I am the secretary.
This hard drive will not start up in an external case. The case is OK as I have tried another smaller hard drive in it and that started up as I could hear it running.
This 20Gb hard drive will not run fitted directly in the computer either as I have tried it. (Hope the warranty still stands!).

Anyway, what I would like to know....is there any way I could get this hard drive to 'fire-up' so I could at least download the information on it, to another hard drive?
I cannot understand why it does not work now as it did in my old PC.

(regular)

Wed Dec 12 2007 08:14 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

Did you change the jumper on the back of the drive to make it a slave before you connected it to your new PC?

(regular)

Wed Dec 12 2007 08:23 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

Hi greysts....the answer is yes.

(regular)

Wed Dec 12 2007 10:48 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

G'day Evacuee.

What make is the HDD?.

(regular)

Thu Dec 13 2007 08:03 AM

Re: Hard drive not running

Is the spare drive recognised in the BIOS?

(regular)

Thu Dec 13 2007 04:00 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

Hi Sandhound.....The drive is a Western Digital WD200.

Greysts.......How do you access the BIOS?

I did get a guy on another Forum tell me to wrap the hard drive up and put it in the freezer for a couple of days....!! Weird eh? Am I supposed to think that is a leg pull.....!!????

(regular)

Thu Dec 13 2007 04:09 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

When you first switch on the PC you may see a message something like 'Press F1 for Setup'. It may be another key like Del or F1. Do you see such a message?

(regular)

Thu Dec 13 2007 05:09 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

I finally found that it is 'delete' to get to my BIOS.

As follows.....

Primary IDE Master......Hard Disk
Primary IDE Slave.......Not Detected
Secondary IDE Master....CD/DVD Rom
Secondary IDE Slave.....Not Detected
S-ATA 1...... Not Detected
S-ATA 2..... Not Detected

Hope this helps.

(regular)

Thu Dec 13 2007 08:07 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

Certainly does. Was your old drive connected when you found this info? If it was then it should have appeared as either the Primary or Secondary IDE Slave.

Can I check how you've added your old drive into the system. There is a grey ribbon cable running from the motherboard to the maid hard drive. Halfway along that cable there should be a spare connector into which you should plug your old hard drive. There should be one or two spare 4 pin power leads lying around as well. Use one of them to power up the old drive. Now remove the jumper completely from the old disk and let the BIOS identify it. Power up and re-check the BIOS to see if it can now see the drive.

(regular)

Fri Dec 14 2007 12:54 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

Thanks 'grey'

I will check on your instructions this evening.....gotta go out now....Xmas shopping and all that, don't know where the moneys coming from...oh well!

Catch ya later.....!!

(regular)

Sat Dec 15 2007 08:16 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

Well 'grey'' I was not able to continue working on the PC until this afternoon and I have had quite an interesting time.

I plugged in the 'old hard drive' exactly as you told me but it loaded up very slow and I missed pressing delete so it went through the usual start up procedure. In the end windows could no load as I received a message as follows
(Windows Root)\system32\ntoskrnl.exe

I turned the PC off and restarted several times and in the end I disconnected the 'old hard drive' restarted and I am back here now.

When I finally got into the BIOS it showed exactly as it had as I mentioned in my previous posting.

(regular)

Sat Dec 15 2007 09:17 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

So that means the BIOS recognised the old hard drive first time round which is good. Going back to the new hard drive have you tried resetting the jumper on that? It should be possible to set it to Master with Slave present rather than Master and No Slave. Keep the old HD fitted and see what happens when you reboot.

(regular)

Sun Dec 16 2007 04:02 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

Hi 'greysts'

It seems I must have misled you when I said...... plugged in the 'old hard drive' exactly as you told me but it loaded up very slow and I missed pressing delete so it went through the usual start up procedure..... in my previous post.

The problem hard drive did not fire up at all. I was referring to the PC starting up very slowly and the message which followed. Sorry about that.

I changed the jumpers as you advised but still the old hard drive did not fire up.

I am coming to the conclusion that its had it!

Mind you I have two more HD's both 20gb and a 2Gb one and none of those are recognised either. Does that help?

(regular)

Sun Dec 16 2007 04:21 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

Quote:

I changed the jumpers as you advised but still the old hard drive did not fire up.

And it didn't register in the BIOS?

(regular)

Sun Dec 16 2007 08:29 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

Unfortunately it did not.

(regular)

Sun Dec 16 2007 08:40 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

Then it sounds pretty terminal to me. If you actually replace the new HD with the old one does it get anywhere?

(regular)

Sun Dec 16 2007 10:52 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

I'm afraid thats a no also.

If I replace the hard drive with the old one, nothing happens except I get the message.....

File missing....(Windows Root)\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
replace file and restart computer.

I also suppose that its going to cost me lotsa money to get my data recovered too?

Oh well...!! Thank you very much for your efforts and I wish you all the best for Christmas and the new year.....Evacuee

(regular)

Mon Dec 17 2007 10:13 AM

Re: Hard drive not running

In that case I don't think the hard disk is totally dead else it wouldn't have got past the BIOS to start looking for files on the hard disk. Has the PC got a floppy disk drive or do you have a bootable Windows CD?

(regular)

Mon Dec 17 2007 01:09 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

Well that might be a relief!

I have a floppy drive and the original XP Prof. disk.

Just a curiosity question. Does it matter in which order the drives are connected to the grey lead? Should the main drive with the OS be the first connection or can it be the last connection on the lead as mine is.

I appreciate the time you are spending on this with me. Time is not a factor to me as I am a retired 'old wrinkly'!! Thanks.

(regular)

Mon Dec 17 2007 02:15 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

Quote:

I am a retired 'old wrinkly'!!

So am I!! With some IDE cables it does matter but if it did there should be an indication on the lead to show which is Master and which Slave.

Get yourself a clean, formatted floppy disk and put it in the drive. Download this file, double click on it and wait whilst it creates a bootable floppy disk.

Next put your old hard disk back in as the master, go into the BIOS and change the boot order so it loads the floppy drive first, then with the floppy in the drive, reboot the PC.

If everything goes according to plan the PC will boot up to the A: drive. You will have a RAM disk which will probably be the C: drive, a CD which may be E: and the hard disk which may be F: Those aren't necessarily in the right order, you'll have to experiment to see which is which. To do so type C: and press the Enter key. Next type DIR and press Enter to see what it contains. Try the other letters until you find the hard disk.

(regular)

Mon Dec 17 2007 04:56 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

Done that!
But after starting up the PC I got a message saying...... Remove disks or other media. Press any key to restart.
After doing this nothing happened. I just had to shut down.

I checked the floppy and the download you gave me is on it so thats not the problem.

(regular)

Mon Dec 17 2007 06:30 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

Did you read my instructions properly

Quote:

Download this file, double click on it and wait whilst it creates a bootable floppy disk.

I didn't want you to copy the download to the floppy disk.

(regular)

Tue Dec 18 2007 10:50 AM

Re: Hard drive not running

Whoops....!! Sorry about that 'greysts'!!

I have now corrected my mistake and made a bootable disk.

I shall now go back to continue with your last advisory message.

Will get back later.

(regular)

Tue Dec 18 2007 11:43 AM

Re: Hard drive not running

All went OK but my keyboard was not working, probably because its wireless. I will borrow my grandsons psp keyboard this afternoon and try that.

(regular)

Tue Dec 18 2007 09:46 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

Hi Greysts, I'm back again!
Seems funny having a psp keyboard and mouse after so long on wireless.

Got the floppy up and running and found 15 files in C:\ Won't name them all for I feel sure you will know what they are.

E:\ Invalid
F:\ Invalid

(regular)

Wed Dec 19 2007 09:23 AM

Re: Hard drive not running

What about D:?

(regular)

Wed Dec 19 2007 11:26 AM

Re: Hard drive not running

D:\ RD101 Not ready reading drive D
Abort, Retry, Fail?

(regular)

Wed Dec 19 2007 11:41 AM

Re: Hard drive not running

Can you reboot the PC again but this time keep an eye on the screen to see what drive letters are being allocated to what drive? In theory you should see a RAMDRIVE, a hard disk and perhaps a CD drive. Also before getting that far can you look at the BIOS and see if it is recognising the hard disk.

(regular)

Wed Dec 19 2007 10:12 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

I found this difficult to do as I had trouble freezing the screen. Tried Pause/Break and Ctrl-S but neither worked but I found a way in the end.

There was no RAMDRIVE or hard disk only the DVD/CD Rom drive recognised as Secondary Master.

Looking in the BIOS I just found the following
Primary IDE Master....Not Detected
Primary IDE Slave.....Not Detected
SecondaryIDE Master...CD/DVD Rom
Secondary IDE Slave...Not Detected.

(regular)

Thu Dec 20 2007 07:53 AM

Re: Hard drive not running

That's bad. That means the hard disk isn't being recognised at BIOS level so anything we try at a higher level isn't going to work. Just to double check, did you have the jumper set to Master and was the H/D plugged into the Master IDE cable and powered up?

(regular)

Thu Dec 20 2007 12:07 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

What I did was.

I put the 'old hard disk' into a slot below the main hard disk set the jumper to Master. Then disconnected the main hard disk and connected both leads to the 'old hard disk' so in fact the old one was the only disk connected.

(regular)

Thu Dec 20 2007 04:07 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

In that case I'm afraid we've reached the end of the line. The only thing I can suggest now is to resort to a professional company who specialise in data recovery. Unfortunately they ain't cheap. How much is the data on the disk worth to you?

(regular)

Thu Dec 20 2007 07:53 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

Hi greysts.

Certainly not worth the money these people are asking....!!

Its only a hundred or so photos of guys from the RAF association I run from the 50's, also all the newsletters I have written in the past plus some other bits and pieces all relevant to the assn. But we will just have to let it all go.

I would like to thank you very much for your perseverance in trying to sort my problem out and it must be just as disappointing for you not to have solved it as well as me.

May you and yours have a very Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year.

(regular)

Thu Dec 20 2007 10:08 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

G'day Evacuee.

Been following this thread.

Your first post I take it the Desktop computer was still working ok and also the HDD in question.
If so why not put the HDD back into the original old computer.
If it works then network the two computers together and transfer the data.

(regular)

Fri Dec 21 2007 10:13 AM

Re: Hard drive not running

My thanks to you for your interest Sandhound.

I still have my old computer in my shed so I might unwrap it and try your suggestion out over the Christmas period.
The HD in question worked whilst it was in there so perhaps I will get it going again. Its worth a try anyway.

Thanks I will get back to you in a week or so when my hectic life has quietened down a little! Until then have a good one!

(regular)

Thu Dec 27 2007 03:30 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

Hi Sandhound......Once again thanks for your interest.

I did what you suggested and the HD still did not work in the other computer either so its a scrap job I'm afraid.

Thanks to both you and greysts for trying to help me.....Happy New Year...!!

(regular)

Fri Dec 28 2007 06:57 PM

Re: Hard drive not running

G'day Evacuee.

SR to read the HDD didn't work in the original computer.

1) Did the HDD spin up or try to.?

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