i have a linux box with an old 20G toshiba ata laptop drive. i updated the system by putting in an ordinary 1T samsung sata drive. i was a bit rough fitting the new drive into the box, and it wouldn't restart. i fiddled with cords and double checked every connection. during this, i put the ide cable for the old drive back on upside down. nothing seemed to happen, but when i took the old laptop drive out and hooked it up to a different machine, the drive is not recognized at all during boot. it does spin, however. the laptop drive has no jumper switches. the new drive does, but came without any actual jumpers to put on them (as did all the three new drives i bought recently).
i forgot to mention that the laptop drive, in addition to spinning, is making an ominous clacking noise every three or four seconds.
could you elaborate on that please? if the reading arms are out of whack, could i put the plates/disks into an identical drive and read them?
Whenever my drives start to click the motor usually goes out on it. Taking the platter out of the case will ruin the HDD. You might as well just get a new HDD and if you don't have a backup of the data and you need something off of it take it to a computer shop and they can get it off for you.
i tried the ultimate boot cd, and it managed to find my disk, but not diagnose or read it. i'm thinking that since the motherboard and the hdd started acting up at the same time, perhaps i fried the hard disk's controller board with static electricity. so now i'm wondering if it's possible to get hold of some very low level software that can override the controller board and control the disk. or do i have to get hold of an identical drive, and switch controller boards?
