Hard Drive Toast?

[Rockhound1]

My friend has a hard drive that appears to be toast. It is a Western Digital 160 GB SATA 3.0 drive. Here is the problem/symptoms:

1. The motherboard BIOS does not recognize the drive - it leaves a blank in the boot screen for the device. It is like the BIOS sees there is a device, but it does not know weather it is a hard drive, CD drive, DVD drive, etc. so it leaves the space blank. This is the same case for two different motherboards using different BIOS.

2. I have hooked the drive up as an external USB drive to various computers running Windows XP and Vista. In each case, the operating systems "see" the USB device, but they do not display the device in Windows Explorer or in My Computer.

3. When I go to "Disk Management," Windows XP does not report the presence of the hard drive. Vista sees the hard drive and says it needs to be initialized. Attempts to initialize the drive under Vista have failed.

4. I have an old disk from Western Digital with their Data Lifeguard Tools. I tried to boot the computer using this disk and initialize the hard drive. Computer boots, but the software does not recagnize the hard drive. I load the Data Lifeguard Tools on my XP box and then plug the hard drive in as a usb drive. The software "sees" the drive, but is not able to initialize and format the drive.

5. I boot the computer using the Windows XP installation disk. I then try to install XP, but the computer BSODs once it starts the installation.

6. I boot the computer using the Vista installation disk. I get a little further in the process, but the program fails to "see" the hard drive at the point where it asks where to install the system.

I have run out of ideas for trying to save the data off the drive, let alone trying to save the hard drive itself. Does anyone have any ideas for saving/repairing the disk? Or, do I need to write this one off and go buy a new hard drive?

Thanks!

 

[Old Hippie]

The motherboard BIOS does not recognize the drive

Next time, go no further.

The drive is toast.

 

[Syntax Error]

Hard drives don't come back from failure to be used reliably for long periods of time. Treat them as commodity items, and as such, require replacement the moment they exhibit faulty behavior of any sort, or risk losing your data.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: Rockhound1
My friend has a hard drive that appears to be toast. It is a Western Digital 160 GB SATA 3.0 drive. Here is the problem/symptoms:

1. The motherboard BIOS does not recognize the drive - it leaves a blank in the boot screen for the device. It is like the BIOS sees there is a device, but it does not know weather it is a hard drive, CD drive, DVD drive, etc. so it leaves the space blank. This is the same case for two different motherboards using different BIOS.

2. I have hooked the drive up as an external USB drive to various computers running Windows XP and Vista. In each case, the operating systems "see" the USB device, but they do not display the device in Windows Explorer or in My Computer.

3. When I go to "Disk Management," Windows XP does not report the presence of the hard drive. Vista sees the hard drive and says it needs to be initialized. Attempts to initialize the drive under Vista have failed.

4. I have an old disk from Western Digital with their Data Lifeguard Tools. I tried to boot the computer using this disk and initialize the hard drive. Computer boots, but the software does not recagnize the hard drive. I load the Data Lifeguard Tools on my XP box and then plug the hard drive in as a usb drive. The software "sees" the drive, but is not able to initialize and format the drive.

5. I boot the computer using the Windows XP installation disk. I then try to install XP, but the computer BSODs once it starts the installation.

6. I boot the computer using the Vista installation disk. I get a little further in the process, but the program fails to "see" the hard drive at the point where it asks where to install the system.

I have run out of ideas for trying to save the data off the drive, let alone trying to save the hard drive itself. Does anyone have any ideas for saving/repairing the disk? Or, do I need to write this one off and go buy a new hard drive?

Thanks!

Have you tried booting from a Knoppix CD to recover your data?

 

[RebateMonger]

If the BIOS won't properly recognize the drive, it's very unlikely you'll be able to get any data from it. If your data is valuable, you can try a professional data recovery house that can replace damaged drive components.

 

[Rockhound1]

According to my friend, there is nothing "that" critical on the drive. Nothing that can't be recreated with a little time and effort.

Thanks for the responses!