PC Headach

[Kevin Taylor]

Is there any easy way to acces a hard drive that seem's to have died I have a P4 PC that I wright program , do cad cam and inport files to my MC. and it seem's to have died . When it acted up a while back I kept messing with it and it went on and started up ok I backed up most of the files to disk but mised a few '" wrong folder" when it power's up I get the manufactures logo displayed then it goes to an error mesage befor windows opens Any help would be great sincerly Etarded Kevin

[Al_The_Man]

One act of desperation that some times works just to extract files or info is to put the drive in the freezer for a short while to chill it, then try it.
It has worked for me in the past.
The other way is to set it up as a slave drive on another computer or after you have added a new HD to the present PC.
Al.

[kreutz]

Originally Posted by Kevin Taylor Is there any easy way to acces a hard drive that seem's to have died I have a P4 PC that I wright program , do cad cam and inport files to my MC. and it seem's to have died . When it acted up a while back I kept messing with it and it went on and started up ok I backed up most of the files to disk but mised a few '" wrong folder" when it power's up I get the manufactures logo displayed then it goes to an error mesage befor windows opens Any help would be great sincerly Etarded Kevin

Hello;

Which version of Windows? What does the message says?

Regards,

Kreutz.

[HuFlungDung]

Depending how 'dead' dead is, you might try running SpinRite, a hard disk utility on the drive. If it still spins and the heads move (visible to BIOS setup), it might be worth a shot.

[Kevin Taylor]

I was mistaken it's a P3 with W2000 on it the mesage is hard disk 1 not found F1 to continue F2 to setup utility . Al please clarify freez then reinstal while frozen? If I three finger it I get a restart showes the dell screen then goes to the mesage same thing if I power down unplug then restart ? Thank's Kevin

[ger21]

I'd try the drive in another PC.

[Al_The_Man]

I re-install it when chilled. I use it on the HARD DRIVE NOT FOUND message.
I have heard from others that have had success also. But No Guarantees!
If you have a boot floppy or CD, you could try that first to boot and then try a read.
If it still refuses to cooperate, then its the deep freeze.
Al.

[kreutz]

Originally Posted by Kevin Taylor I was mistaken it's a P3 with W2000 on it the mesage is hard disk 1 not found F1 to continue F2 to setup utility . Al please clarify freez then reinstal while frozen? If I three finger it I get a restart showes the dell screen then goes to the mesage same thing if I power down unplug then restart ? Thank's Kevin

It won't let you do anything if the drive is not recognized by the bios, that is what the message is telling you.

Please, turn off and disconnect the power cable, open the PC enclosure and do the following:

1 Check hard-drive power cable connection.
2 check flat ribbon cable connection to the drive and motherboard (both ends).

Close the enclosure, Connect the power cable and turn the PC on.

3 if after doing this it does the same, then enter the bios setup and see if it is recognized with a different geometry, it could be bios setting corruption, really possible since P3 computers are a few years old and you probably did not change the backup 3.6 v battery.

[Al_The_Man]

Another sure fire method I just remembered, when the PC boots up, go in to CMOS set up and go to Detect Hard Drive, if it does not manage to read the HD info, then it is in a defective state.
Al.

[Mike Nash]

I don't know why this worked, but my younger brother (#2) had a windows laptop drive fail. The IT guys at the MAJOR tech company he worked for could not recover his files. My youngest brother (#3) is an IT guy for a well known bank. He plugged the failed windows drive into a USB adapter plugged into his APPLE LAPTOP and pulls off every file bro #2 needed off of it. Failing having a Mac, I would try the USB adapter on another windows machine anyway. They're pretty cool.