How do I get my harddrive back??

AviatorOne · 07-09-2008, 03:10 PM

The situation:

I formatted the primary SATA HD, which has been working fine as long as I've had it. During re-installing XP Home from CD, something got corrupted and everything froze. Unable to restart as it wont even let me get past the BIOS detection of harddrives.

No worries, I thought, I've been wanting an extra HD anyways, so I bought a new one (also SATA), installed XP on it without major problems and wanted to simply wipe the old HD clean, format it and use it for storage, films etc.

BUT... I cannot get the old drive working. In fact it still freezes the entire start-up process even when it is just connected to the motherboard. I still cannot even get past the BIOS setup screen. The only option I am able to excersize is a setup (by pressing F2), which gives me possibilities to:
Boot from the network - F12
BBS POPUP - F8
and Boot from restore partition - F11
...neither option works, it still just freezes nomatter what I do.

If I shut down, unplug the old HD, everything works fine and dandy. How do I get my HD back?? It seems it messes up everything when the BIOS is detecting it. There is nothing important on the drive, so I don't care how. I just want my 300 gigs. Any help greatly appreciated!

Other specs are
Packard Bell AMD64 3700+
1024 DDR
old HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 300GB SATA
new HD: Samsung HD501LJ 500GB SATA
OS: XP Home with all SP's

I know my way around computers somewhat but I'm no hard core tekkie, so please no HEX-programming solutions or splitting open harddrives to attach extra chipsets...

**eneles** · 07-10-2008, 08:33 AM

Welcome to TSF.

Use another SATA cable (and maybe another SATA port) for the old drive.
Run Seatools for DOS to check the Seagate for errors.

07-09-2008, 03:10 PM	#1 (permalink)
AviatorOne Registered User Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 1 OS: XP+Vista	How do I get my harddrive back?? The situation: I formatted the primary SATA HD, which has been working fine as long as I've had it. During re-installing XP Home from CD, something got corrupted and everything froze. Unable to restart as it wont even let me get past the BIOS detection of harddrives. No worries, I thought, I've been wanting an extra HD anyways, so I bought a new one (also SATA), installed XP on it without major problems and wanted to simply wipe the old HD clean, format it and use it for storage, films etc. BUT... I cannot get the old drive working. In fact it still freezes the entire start-up process even when it is just connected to the motherboard. I still cannot even get past the BIOS setup screen. The only option I am able to excersize is a setup (by pressing F2), which gives me possibilities to: Boot from the network - F12 BBS POPUP - F8 and Boot from restore partition - F11 ...neither option works, it still just freezes nomatter what I do. If I shut down, unplug the old HD, everything works fine and dandy. How do I get my HD back?? It seems it messes up everything when the BIOS is detecting it. There is nothing important on the drive, so I don't care how. I just want my 300 gigs. Any help greatly appreciated! Other specs are Packard Bell AMD64 3700+ 1024 DDR old HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 300GB SATA new HD: Samsung HD501LJ 500GB SATA OS: XP Home with all SP's I know my way around computers somewhat but I'm no hard core tekkie, so please no HEX-programming solutions or splitting open harddrives to attach extra chipsets...

07-10-2008, 08:33 AM	#2 (permalink)
eneles Serf Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 22,292 OS: Xp	Re: How do I get my harddrive back?? Welcome to TSF. Use another SATA cable (and maybe another SATA port) for the old drive. Run Seatools for DOS to check the Seagate for errors.