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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    Victoria, Australia
    Posts
    36,941

    Unhappy I've "lost" a hard drive

    When I bought this computer back in October, I had my old hard drive installed so I could still access all my files, but suddenly it aint there Any idea as to how to figure out what happened to it?

    I noticed the computer was labouring a bit, so I turned it off for a while to give it a rest and when I fired it up again, the secondary drive had gone

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Midwest Chicago
    Posts
    132
    Are you on windows xp?

    IF so do theses steps:

    press start
    contro lpanel
    Administrative Tools
    Computer Management
    on the left side find: disk managment and click it

    Check to see if the hard drive is listed there @ the bottom/top and make sure it has a LeTTER assisnged to it. If its there and you see it doesnt have a letter assisgned to it than right click and click "change letter and path". From there pick a letter.


    Also, you said its a OLD hard drive. How old is this drive? It mightve died, but you can bring it back to life by stickign it in the freezor for abit than taking it out and putting it in ur computer. It should work than and youll be able to get ur old files off before it dies. Ill get some more information on this method if it seems like your problem.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    Victoria, Australia
    Posts
    36,941
    Quote Originally Posted by BmXStuD
    Are you on windows xp?

    IF so do theses steps:

    press start
    contro lpanel
    Administrative Tools
    Computer Management
    on the left side find: disk managment and click it

    Check to see if the hard drive is listed there @ the bottom/top and make sure it has a LeTTER assisnged to it. If its there and you see it doesnt have a letter assisgned to it than right click and click "change letter and path". From there pick a letter.
    No it isn't listed
    Also, you said its a OLD hard drive. How old is this drive?.
    Just a baby six years old.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    North Yorkshire, UK
    Posts
    4,164
    Is the bios not picking it up?

    Take it out of the machine, put it in a bag, and put it in the freezer for a few hours, try reconnecting it and if you can get in get all your data off there right away.

    Dan
    █ Dan Kitchen | Technical Director | Razorblue
    █ ddi: (+44) (0)1748 900 680 | e: dkitchen@razorblue.com
    █ UK Intensive Managed Hosting, Clusters and Colocation.
    █ HP Servers, Cisco/Juniper Powered BGP Network (AS15692).

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Internet
    Posts
    457
    Quote Originally Posted by anon-e-mouse
    When I bought this computer back in October, I had my old hard drive installed so I could still access all my files, but suddenly it aint there Any idea as to how to figure out what happened to it?

    I noticed the computer was labouring a bit, so I turned it off for a while to give it a rest and when I fired it up again, the secondary drive had gone
    hi anon,
    is you cmos setting set to auto detect all hard drives?
    i suggest connect ONLY ur crashed drive, remove the working one from pc,
    boot from bootable cd or floppy,
    try fdisk/status
    and see what you get to see.

    Can you hear any cranky sounds when ur pc is booting ?
    Hope this helps.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Ahh' UnderPants
    Posts
    1,013
    [Just a baby six years old]

    This is why companies give all the way 5 years guarantee. They know it will die in 6th year

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    13,624
    Have you tried a system restore Jan?? (This might work)

    Good luck honey...God bless





    Tinyurl is the answer for posting long urls!!!

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Midwest Chicago
    Posts
    132
    Quote Originally Posted by The Dude
    Have you tried a system restore Jan?? (This might work)

    Good luck honey...God bless





    Thats the OS part. If its now showing in CMOS than its before the OS therefore a restore wouldnt have any effect. Hmm.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    BFL-LAX
    Posts
    575
    Quote Originally Posted by RazorBlue - Dan
    Is the bios not picking it up?

    Take it out of the machine, put it in a bag, and put it in the freezer for a few hours, try reconnecting it and if you can get in get all your data off there right away.

    Dan


    Hehe, I did that to my laptop a couple years ago, since I heard the drive clicking and it wouldn't boot up.
    Still works this day =)
    So, I suggest you try that out Jan.


    -Jarrett

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Midwest Chicago
    Posts
    132
    Quote Originally Posted by wifiguru
    Hehe, I did that to my laptop a couple years ago, since I heard the drive clicking and it wouldn't boot up.
    Still works this day =)
    So, I suggest you try that out Jan.


    -Jarrett

    Hope, you dont keep important data on that drive. Who knows it might crap out soon again lol.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    Victoria, Australia
    Posts
    36,941
    Great news! It came back after shutting down again, I missed the setup screen to look at that stuff and it fired up, so I checked to see if the drive was there before I shut down again to enter setup and voila!

    Now to get my files off there before it really does die on me

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Posts
    69
    you should try keeping all your data and files on an external hard drive so whenever u get a new computer, you can just easily plug in and play.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    13,624
    Congrats on it coming back





    Tinyurl is the answer for posting long urls!!!

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
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    Internet
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    457
    I knew it. Congrats

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    Victoria, Australia
    Posts
    36,941
    Whilst I am glad the drive is "back", does anyone have a clue as to why it decided to "hide" for a few hours? Can't say I have heard of anything like this in all my computing years.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Internet
    Posts
    457
    change your cmos battery cell.

    If you want to reproduce the problem you can try this at command prompt
    debug
    -o 70 14
    -o 71 20
    q



    PS: dont forget to jump the cpu, else you might damage it with this debug command.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    BFL-LAX
    Posts
    575
    Lol @ Cool Surfer,
    Anyways,
    Congrats Jan.


    -Jarrett

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    BFL-LAX
    Posts
    575
    Hehe,
    Thank God for network storage .


    -Jarrett

    Quote Originally Posted by BmXStuD
    Hope, you dont keep important data on that drive. Who knows it might crap out soon again lol.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Bay Area
    Posts
    1,211
    This is an excellent reason for you to implement some sort of local backup system .

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    Victoria, Australia
    Posts
    36,941
    I'm thinking the secondary drive is on it's last legs now. When I restart, it tries to check that disk for errors and can't get past 1%. No biggy now as I have copied all the files over to the main disk. Phew! A close shave!

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    /roof/ledge
    Posts
    28,089
    No kidding! Good job getting the files off you needed...

  22. #22
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Internet
    Posts
    457
    You can try isolating the bad sectors, fdisk, and exclude the bad sectors from
    writable area. Disk manager and norton disk editor are very useful.
    Then you wont get this error while booting

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    Victoria, Australia
    Posts
    36,941
    How does one fdisk with xp?

    Disk manager worked when the drive was *missing*, but it seems no system tools can reach it now. I've tried the defrag tool with no success also.

    Norton I gave up on years ago And I aint shelling out the money to buy it now when it was no brainer when it was version 3.whatever

    I'll just write this six year old drive off as a lost cause now. I have all my files copied, so no more need to panic. Thanks for all the helpul hints

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Internet
    Posts
    457
    I think you can still use your disk, maybe install mini linux
    You will have to boot using a dos boot disk.
    Then insert dos compatible norton > diskedit.exe > select bad sectors > move them to the end of the disk > then disk manager > select cylinders (NOT MB option) , note the starting cylinder and ending cylinder till the bad sectors > create two partitions, one with good sectors and other with bad sectors > format just the good partition > and you will have a good disk.

    Enjoy dos !!

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    /roof/ledge
    Posts
    28,089
    There comes a time when you need to say goodbye to an old friend...the disk is failing...shoot it.

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