hard drive dead?

i'm not really experienced with computers and i'm having problems with my computer...

one day i was on the computer and i started to hear beeping noises, i didn't think much of it, but when i went to shut the computer down, it froze entirely, the mouse wouldn't work, i had no choice but to pull the plug. then the next day, when i went to turn it on, i heard the same beeping noises from the day before, and suddenly a blue screen appeared saying something about a disk error and asked me to restart it. i did and it got to the screen where you see the windows' logo, then it froze...i had to pull the plug again and restart it. i access the BIOS screen (i think that is what you call it) and found that the computer didn't find both of my hard drive, but it did find my cd drive. i exited the the BIOs screen and let it load some more and i get 2 errors:

202: drive not ready
203: insert boot diskette
press any key to continue...(or somehthing like that)

and i tried to press a key and nothing happened. i turned it on and off and the same error showed up...

i also checked the cables and even switching the cable with a new one

i looked around the net and it said that if the hard drive made noise and that error it might be dead...am i over reacting? should i try the freezing it?

 

Can't help you with most of those questions, but most PC's beep a code when they are booting. One beep for my PC means all is normal. here is a list of beep codes for different types of PC's. That may help you pin down the prob a little better.

http://networking.ringofsaturn.com/PC/beep.php

 

i'll go check...
is it possible that there is a virus that is preventing my drives from being read? i switched the IDE cables and adaptors in many combinations and the only drive that can be detected is my cd-rom drive...

 

The error your report is certainly what you would see with a failed drive or drive connection.

However you also say that after you played around with the cables the second hard drive was no longer listed either.

Please replace the cables, pushing them firmly home then boot again to the bios. The coloured stripe on the ribbon cable goes towards the power connector and the yellow cable of the power connector goes towards the outside. Push them home firmly.

In the bios choose the funtion to autodetect hard drives and see what happens.

Did you change any jumpers on the drives?
Is either drive humming, clicking or generating any vibration to touch (quite safe)?

 

Quick answer: No. If BIOS doesn't see your hard drives, then they're either not connected properly (either the data cable or the power cable), the drives have died, or the IDE channel has died, or the drives are jumpered totally wrong (not likely in your case 'cuz they were working). If you've tried the CD on both IDE channels and it comes up, then we know it's something else. If it's a Dell, some of the Dell BIOSes are kind of 'screwy' in that they sometimes don't autodetect hard drives unless they're told to specifically look for a hard drive; so if you've recently cleared the BIOS or reset the configuration, it may not read the drives correctly. Try one drive at a time, by itself, on each channel. Be sure it's jumpered for single/master, and be sure to unplug the power cord from the PC EVERY time you get in the case and move components around. Some motherboards will stay 'hot' when plugged in, even if they're turned off, so be careful. If you do get the HD's to pick up in BIOS, you may want to run a complete diagnostic available free at the drive maker's web site....

hd2k

 

its not only Dell.

The autdetect is in line 8 of the choices.

 

Very true I was just using Dell as an example.... I was basically saying that some BIOSes won't look for a HD unless they're told to (freekin lazy BIOS )

 

i double checked the drives and only one of the drives showed up. i changed the jumper, and it stayed as the secondary slave...

 

You can only have one master on an IDE channel. If you still have the partly dead drive connected as master the other drive will not show as as master.
Concentrate on getting the known good drive recognised as master with nothing else connected to the primary IDE channel.
Make sure the jumpers are correct and not set to CS.
When this happens the bios will proceed to a no operating system notice, insert system disk.
You can then reload windows onto that drive.

 

i finally got it to recognize the other hard drive...
is there any way i can get the data out of the dead drive?

 

You need to get your pc running first to be able to control the disk, possible one last time.

When you are ready try either putting it into the freezer ( in a plastic bag) for a few hours or give it a wire it in and give it a sharp rap with an object such as a glasses case.

If you can start the drive one last time you can copy the data to a working system. This may take a long time.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=130529&highlight=freezer

 

i tried to reinstall windows, but i don't remember how to install it through dos...

 

is it the same for windows 2000? because i have the winME and win2000 cd and startup disk

also, in dos, is c: supposed to be a virtual drive in the Ram? i can't get dos to pick up my hard drive

 

There are two types of windows 2000 startup floppy disks.

The first type is a single disk which is designed to start (boot) an existing windows 2000 installation.

The second type is for when you have a blank disk and want to install win2k fresh. There are four disks in this set.

You need the four disk set, plus your win 2k cd.

If you don't have these, but can boot from the Millenium floppy use that to run Fdisk.

in Fdisk first delete any existing partitions
then create a new one .

Then remove the cds, insert the Win 2k CD and boot from it.
Setup should now find a partition.
Choose format and install.

 

wait...is dos supposed to be able to read or enter the directory of the hard drive or is it supposed to create a virtual drive? because i can't seem to access the hard drive at all, but the computer is detecting it