HELP! Harddrive is not found

potwcot · 06-02-2007, 08:30 AM

Hi there all,
Ok for some reason my harddrive is not being recognised, the thing is being found on the BIOS startup, but when it tries to boot up it says disk error. Ok i know i should of backed up my harddrive and all that.
Ok i tried making a ms-dos start up disk so that if it was overloaded i could go on it and delete some stuff, but that didnt work cos when you type cd c:\ is just says c:\ then goes back to a:\ so that doesnt work.
Now i dont know what to do to be honest.
The hard drive is a 20Gb Maxtor 32049h2 well thats what it says in the BIOS.
Also for some reason the light for the hard drive, you know the one that flashes when you load stuff, that light is on all the time,
The day before this happened my g/f was ripping music to it and it crashed XP half way through the cd, the weird thing was even though everything was frozen, the mouse still moved :s
I read one thread on here about maxtor hdd's being put in the freezer, is that just for laptop hhd's or desktops?
My computer is a 1Mhz 512 SDRAM, desktop, top of the range when i first got it :P
So PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!

Also the computer is a 6 year old Dell btw, i bought it when i had no idea about PCs

ceri sheeran · 06-02-2007, 09:22 AM

Hi,

Replace the IDE ribbon cable and BIOS battery. Use an 80 wire cable,

Battery will probably be a CR2032 3v lithium cell, reaily available numerous places.

Check the hard drive jumpers settings.

If on cable select, set to master and set other drives as necessary, Master or Slave.

hth

Ceri

potwcot · 06-02-2007, 11:08 AM

Tried all three and none of them made it work :(
For some reason i think the hard disk is beyond hope, but if you got any more solutions i would be greatful.

potwcot · 06-02-2007, 11:13 AM

Looks like it doesnt matter now cos just ran dos start up disc and the hd seems to have reset it self some how. cos there isnt anything on it

dai · 06-02-2007, 11:58 AM

down load and run the maxtor/seagate diognostic utility on the hard drive

potwcot · 06-09-2007, 02:51 AM

Ok tried that but no luck either, i do a short test and it stops at 10% or if i do a long test it stops after a while,
i really dont want to loose all the stuff on it. I was going to format the thing but when i was about to the system said that there was only 2Mb free so the information must be still on it surely.

so i didnt have the guts to, theres 5 years of my life on that harddrive damn it.
Any other ideas??

dai · 06-09-2007, 11:27 AM

run
chkdsk /r /f

potwcot · 06-10-2007, 08:52 AM

I think its completly gone, i did that and it just said that the disk has alot of unrepairable errors, so i think it is completly screwed, ah well cheers for the help anyways, unless you know anything else??

dai · 06-10-2007, 11:09 AM

stop using the drive and put a new one in,try the freezer trick and see if you can get anything off when you have the new drive set up
http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/bla...n-the-freezer/

06-02-2007, 08:30 AM	#1 (permalink)
potwcot Registered User Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 5 OS: XP	HELP! Harddrive is not found Hi there all, Ok for some reason my harddrive is not being recognised, the thing is being found on the BIOS startup, but when it tries to boot up it says disk error. Ok i know i should of backed up my harddrive and all that. Ok i tried making a ms-dos start up disk so that if it was overloaded i could go on it and delete some stuff, but that didnt work cos when you type cd c:\ is just says c:\ then goes back to a:\ so that doesnt work. Now i dont know what to do to be honest. The hard drive is a 20Gb Maxtor 32049h2 well thats what it says in the BIOS. Also for some reason the light for the hard drive, you know the one that flashes when you load stuff, that light is on all the time, The day before this happened my g/f was ripping music to it and it crashed XP half way through the cd, the weird thing was even though everything was frozen, the mouse still moved :s I read one thread on here about maxtor hdd's being put in the freezer, is that just for laptop hhd's or desktops? My computer is a 1Mhz 512 SDRAM, desktop, top of the range when i first got it :P So PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!! Also the computer is a 6 year old Dell btw, i bought it when i had no idea about PCs Last edited by potwcot; 06-02-2007 at 08:42 AM.

06-02-2007, 09:22 AM	#2 (permalink)
ceri sheeran Registered User Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 285 OS: WINXP	Re: HELP! Harddrive is not found Hi, Replace the IDE ribbon cable and BIOS battery. Use an 80 wire cable, Battery will probably be a CR2032 3v lithium cell, reaily available numerous places. Check the hard drive jumpers settings. If on cable select, set to master and set other drives as necessary, Master or Slave. hth Ceri

06-02-2007, 11:08 AM	#3 (permalink)
potwcot Registered User Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 5 OS: XP	Re: HELP! Harddrive is not found Tried all three and none of them made it work :( For some reason i think the hard disk is beyond hope, but if you got any more solutions i would be greatful.

06-02-2007, 11:13 AM	#4 (permalink)
potwcot Registered User Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 5 OS: XP	Re: HELP! Harddrive is not found Looks like it doesnt matter now cos just ran dos start up disc and the hd seems to have reset it self some how. cos there isnt anything on it

06-02-2007, 11:58 AM	#5 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,200 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	Re: HELP! Harddrive is not found down load and run the maxtor/seagate diognostic utility on the hard drive __________________

06-09-2007, 02:51 AM	#6 (permalink)
potwcot Registered User Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 5 OS: XP	Re: HELP! Harddrive is not found Ok tried that but no luck either, i do a short test and it stops at 10% or if i do a long test it stops after a while, i really dont want to loose all the stuff on it. I was going to format the thing but when i was about to the system said that there was only 2Mb free so the information must be still on it surely. so i didnt have the guts to, theres 5 years of my life on that harddrive damn it. Any other ideas??

06-09-2007, 11:27 AM	#7 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,200 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	Re: HELP! Harddrive is not found run chkdsk /r /f __________________

06-10-2007, 08:52 AM	#8 (permalink)
potwcot Registered User Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 5 OS: XP	Re: HELP! Harddrive is not found I think its completly gone, i did that and it just said that the disk has alot of unrepairable errors, so i think it is completly screwed, ah well cheers for the help anyways, unless you know anything else??

06-10-2007, 11:09 AM	#9 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,200 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	Re: HELP! Harddrive is not found stop using the drive and put a new one in,try the freezer trick and see if you can get anything off when you have the new drive set up http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/bla...n-the-freezer/ __________________