Hard drive

[LA_MERC_Shadow]

Ok, so all of a sudden the hard drive I had all my music stored on has disappeared from My Computer. It was drive F and now it's nowhere. I've looked in device manager and bios and it's there in both. I go to disk management and it's not there in any of the panes. I'm going to throw it in my other computer to see if it recognizes it. But if it doesn't recognize it then the drive is pretty much dead right? I've realized that it's probably dead but after only 5 yrs, that sucks. Anyway can yall tell me if Im right?

[LA_MERC_goose]

Click Start, Run and type in F:\ and press enter. If it can't find it that way I'd say it may have "issuers"

[LA_MERC_Shadow]

I did that goose, and I put it in my other computer just to make sure it wasn't the old computer. And it's the same...no go. So I already ran out and bought a 500Gb external seagate since they were rated pretty decently in all the reviews I read. Plus I've had a couple seagates with no problems. I thought about getting the western digital my book but a couple websites reported problems with them. So now I just have to set myself to uploading all 400+ cd's to it(many of which I downloaded). Yay!!!!! Wat fun!!!!

[LA_MERC_DocSparky]

It sounds like the previous drive was an external drive. If so, then it could just be the USB-to-IDE or USB-to-SATA controller in the external chassis. If you open the chassis and remove the hard drive inside, you can then test it with a direct connection to the motherboard controller. It could be either SATA or an IDE hard drive, so you have to have a MB that supports the drive and the cables to connect it.

[LA_MERC_Shadow]

Nah, the bad drive was an internal drive and I've tried 3 different cables to no avail. It's the drive; I can feel it running/moving but that's it. I tried a couple more times to access it in my other computer but it does the same thing. I can see it in bios and device manager but not disk management or my computer. It used to show up automatically in both so it looks like it's bit the dust.

[LA_MERC_DocSparky]

Sorry to hear that, but I think you are right.

On a related topic, you mentioned having to rip your music collection again (which is a royal pain). I'm starting to wake up to the fact that it is a lot easier to just mirror (or RAID) those drives. Sure it's an extra $$ for the 2nd drive, but the pain of getting the data back makes it worth it.

Here's to a long life for the new Seagate! :stpat3

[LA_MERC_Onji]

have you been hearing any clicking coming from it recently?

have you checked jumpers?

last resort (if its ide) you can send it to me, i have an external ide to usb cable and power cord, and ive been sucessful in the past of pulling off data from bad drives, if there is any data you need anyway.

[LA_MERC_MadMAX]

this may sound crazy but you could also try sticking it in the freezer for a while.

[LA_MERC_Shadow]

It's sata, and I'll try the freezer thing to at least see if I can have it run long enough to pull the data off.

[waltersw15]

I'm surprised that the freezer thing has any amount of success to it. Once the drive heats up, it starts to condensate. I would think that that would not be good for either the drive or you computer.

[LA_MERC_T4rg3T]

Shadow, there is a program on the ftp that you can try. Install it and see if it will find the drive. If anything, it will allow you to pull the data off of it.

Its in the uploads folder and its called EasyRecovery Professional

[LA_MERC_Shadow]

Thanks Toby, I'll try that first before the freezer, just in case.

[LA_MERC_FragFood]

Ok, so all of a sudden the hard drive I had all my music stored on has disappeared from My Computer. It was drive F and now it's nowhere. I've looked in device manager and bios and it's there in both. I go to disk management and it's not there in any of the panes. I'm going to throw it in my other computer to see if it recognizes it. But if it doesn't recognize it then the drive is pretty much dead right? I've realized that it's probably dead but after only 5 yrs, that sucks. Anyway can yall tell me if Im right?

Do you happen to have any sort of USB card reader or anything like that in your machine? I've had a couple of cases at work where the USB reader has usurped the drive letter of an existing physical HDD, and unplugging the USB device has made the drive show up again. Then all you do is go into Drive manager and set it to a default of, say, Q or something 'way out of the way of everything else. Ditto for external drives. Unplug any external drive type peripherals and recheck after a reboot. HTH.

Jack

[LA_MERC_Shadow]

I've unplugged everything except my keyboard, mouse and monitor and I also placed the drive in another computer that has no peripherals.

[Rollout]

Damn you are persistant Shadow, you should get a free drive JUST for effort! Did you have any luck with Toby's suggestion? This is a great topic for ALL of us. Good luck :)

[LA_MERC_Shadow]

Haven't had time to fool with it again. Maybe tomorrow.

[LA_MERC_Shadow]

Just to update yall. LOL! I tried all of the suggestions above with nothing recoverable. Nothing will recognize the drive etc. So it's toast.

Now for the fun part....Is it possible for a power supply or something else to cause the other drive in that same computer to go bad? Cuz now the other HD is going to crap and I'm using easyrecovery to get everything off. I want to solve this problem before it ruins another HD.