Hey all I am having problems with my second hard drive it won't spin up. I have a lot of music files and pictures etc on there. When I have it connected to the pc on boot up the computer would freeze and not go any father I could not even get into bios or anything . then when i unplug the second hard drive the computer boots fine. I hear/feel no noises from it. the ide is connected correctly and the jumpers were set correctly also the settings in bios are correct. I purchased an external hardrive enclosure and it still does the same freezes the pc no mater when i plug it is . it is a seagate 40gb harddrive. I am running windows xp pro I have been reading on the net some and I have tried tapping it slightly on boot-up and i tried the freezer trick to no avail my computer worked fine then on day it just crashed all of a sudden any help suggestions would be great. is there any way to retrieve my info? thanks
Welcome to hardwareforums diamondz! :beer: Just how badly do you want your 40GB of data? the only trick i can think of that's left would be to find another hard drive (it MUST be the same as the dead one) and to swap the circuit board on the old one with the new one... if that doesn't work then you will have to swap around the actual Platters (the discs inside). If ether method works... get your data off the drive FAST! i would not consider them to be permanent solutions!
Maybe its the jumper configuration? in an external enclosure the jumper setting on the HDD had to be set to master, when its started do you hear anything unusual coming from the HDD? I dont think you can open the hdd to free the stuck parts, i doubt you can remove the platters inside and switch them into another HDD, just touching them might damage them, the slightest particle of dust can aswell!
You can, and it has been done. but the drives have to be exactly the same model! yes you can damages the platters, but as long as you do it in a clean enviroment with suitable tools then you should be ok (besides, what have you got to lose? if the drive really has gone.... then nothing). Its by no means a quick job but if you really need that data then its worth it. [ot] I would dig out the article, (im sure it wouldnt take too long) but im focusing on adding about 16 extensions to my firefox guide (and i have to install them all yet, atm im just finding fun/usefull extensions to try [/ot]
Have you made sure that the power connector is plugged into the drive or is not loose. This might seem a little mad but take the drive out an shove it in the freezer for a while. Take it out plug the IDE and power connector into it and you might get 10 mins out of it before it stops again. If the motor is broken there is not much you can do but cry. You could get it professionally restored, but that is gona cost quite a bit and you will still have lost the drive. If you open the hard drive you can easily kill the drive. Do not touch the platters or the heads. The head is set at a very small distance above the platter if you move it then its probably never gona work even if the motor spins. If you want your data back dont try to open the drive it will only make things worse. If any debris, no matter how small, lands on the platter it will reck that secor or if it gets on the head will effectivly kill the whole platter.
what do you mean what have you got to loose, well another perfectly good 40gb HDD thats your trying to fix the damaged one with, thats what . I cant see someone been able to change the platters in a normal room, i mean when its dark and you turn a tourch on, in nearly everyone room you can see the particles of dust. i did not say its impossible, but i wouldent try it it in a normal room and risk having not 1, but 2 damaged hard drives.
The article i was reading the pictures looked like a garage! The discs are not as fragile as you seem to think, there in that box beacuse there spinning @ 7200 RPM (and its not an airtight box.... or it wouldnt have a blowhole!)
i have tried it as cable select and as slave-nothing worked it acts as if it is not getting any power at all ...no sounds, but with the external usb connection my pc beeps when i plug it in and in the usb mass storage there is a device with a yellow exclamation but it says that the item is not worlking.
Here are some ways of [link=http://www.emergencydatarecovery.org/]Emergency Data Recovery[/link], use them if you find any interesting...
the power connector (molex) may not be connecting (common problem) just try waggling it Edit: just re-read above quote, try removing this device (device manager)
