Dead Hard Drive......

[Guest Bob I]

Hi,Well I know now what it feels like when you turn on the old puter, after giving it a night of rest, and a blank screen pops up with the following message... Can't find operating system... Opened the box, felt around, and the master hard drive was as cold as a dead fish. Expecting this to happen sooner or later, I invested in a used 6 gig hard drive for ten dollars US, a year or so ago, and loaded an OS and all the drivers, then I put it away for a day like today. Best thing that I have ever done for my computer. I was back in business in ten minutes. Now, the big question is, can I get someone to look at the failed unit? I suspect that it has suffered a boad failure of some sort. There are several things that I would like to recover, like my address book etc,. I contacted an outfit that recovers data from failed drives... Are you sitting down? $200.00 to open the unit and up to $5000.00 to recover the data. Now, if that's not enough evidence to get a guy to backup data, then nothing is. If you know of someone who fixes drives, please let me know. If it matters, the drive is an 4 year old IBM, 20 gig ATA 100. ThanksBob IrvineAlias=layabout

[Avcomware]

Hi.You can recover you data yourself, if only the OS is gone.1-Configure your old (20Gb) as decond drive (d:), use jumpers.2-Boot into your, now working drive with the OS, drive C:).3-See if you can read your old drive. If not let me know and I will send you a program that can tell you if you can recover your data another way (More difficult)Good luck. TV

[Guest]

Hi,I had exactly the same problem with a Maxtor Drive. I called them and they told me that if the drive just suddenly dies then probably the controller card has gone. If the drive does grinding noises etc. then the drive itself has had it. They sent me a replacement RMA drive and told me to swop the controller cards which was quite easy. Then voila! The drive fired up again - I salvaged my data and returned the new drive with the old controller card.Hope this helps!SimonPerth

[Guest Bob I]

Hi,Did the exchange thing, put the DEAD drive in as slave. No joy, the drive is cold. There is power to it, but no joy, no movement, no nothing. The bios indicates that there is no drive attached. I'm sure the failure is electrical and not mechanical. I have searched the entire USA, and there is no body that fixes dard drives, not even IBM who made the darn thing. I just know that somewhere in this world there is an old 20 gig IBM Deskstar that has suffered mechanical failure, that has a good electronics unit, that I could install in mine and fix it. HELP... Sorry for the loud noise. LOLBob I

[Avcomware]

Hi. You may want to post the exact make/model nr of your drive and see if someone else may have one like it. Most of the drives fail in some mechanical fashion. I've never see one that the electronics failed after 4 years. I have some Quantum, Maxtor, Conner etc., but they all problems with motors, bearings, never electronics. Try to put it on one side, not flat, and see if you get anothet indicator, put your hand an it and see if you feel anything when you first power it up. Good luck. TV

[Guest Bob I]

Hi,I have held it in my hand, and did a boot... Nada, nothing, no movement, ice cold. It it's an IBM Deskstar, Model DJNA-372200, P/N:25L2722 Made July-99. Thanks for your interest. I would sure like to try a new electronics card, as I would like to recover the data.Bob I