I think my HD is dead, but there seems to be a chance to recover the files. (Long Pos

Hello, I have not posted here in a long time but whenever I had to in the past I have always received great help from everyone so I am once again looking for some help

First let me give you the back story info.

I am trying to fix a friends computer for them that was running windows me. When you boot the computer up, right away there is an error message saying:
"Invalid Boot Diskette. Insert Boot Diskette into Drive A:"

I tried using a Windows Boot Disk, Windows ME CD and a Western Digital Boot Disk and nothing worked. I checked the Bios for the boot order and the Hard Drive was not even showing up there. I then tried putting the hard drive in my computer and it did not work (I also put my hard drive in their computer and it worked fine). So at that point I am sure the drive is dead!

Today I went and bought a new hard drive for them (Maxtor) and proceeded to install it along with Windows ME. Everything went great and I went to start putting the software back on the computer for them. I decided to try one more time with the old drive because I know they have some important information that they would LOVE to save if possible.

I put the drive back in as a slave (correct jumper settings for both drive, I double checked that already) and booted up hoping that I may for some strage reason see the drive suddenly appear which it did not. I tried software that I had used once to recover files on my old HD (Restorer Pro) but that also did not pick up the drive. I then checked the device manager to see if anything was showing up there and to my suprise there was. Now I am not sure if this has anything to do with it but thought it was worth a shot.

Under the Disk Drives section there is the following:
Generic IDE Disk Type47 (This is the drive icon next to it with a RED X over it)
Generic NEC Floppy Disk (This just has the normal icon next to it).

Then under Hard Disk Controllers there is the following:
intel(r) 82801BA Ultra ATA Storage Controller (this shows up fine)
Primary IDE Controller (dual info) - (This has a yellow circle with an exclimation point inside it)
Secondary IDE Controller (dual info) - (this shows up fine)

When I click on the properties of the Generic IDE Disk Type47 the message that appears is:
Device is not working properly because it depends on Primary IDE Controller (dual info) has been dynamically disabled


The message under properties when I click on Primary IDE Controller is:
This device is iether not present, not working, or does not have all the drivers installed. CODE 10


So, THAT was a long post But I wanted to get all of the information there. Is there ANYTHING I can do to save the files??? Please help with any knowledge you have...I would really appreciate it.
THANKS!
Adam

 

Re: I think my HD is dead, but there seems to be a chance to recover the files. (Long

Have you checked to see if the drive is even spinning/powering up?? If the drive won't spin...the only way of retireving lost info is to send it in to one of those rahter costly hd recovery company...but most normal at home consumers will part with the lost info, before they'll pay the price to do that!!

Roger

 

Re: I think my HD is dead, but there seems to be a chance to recover the files. (Long

Yes, the drive is spinning. I am not sure they will want to go the direction of sending it out to be repaired because of what it would cost.

 

Re: I think my HD is dead, but there seems to be a chance to recover the files. (Long

Does the bios recognise the drive??

Roger

 

Re: I think my HD is dead, but there seems to be a chance to recover the files. (Long

No, the bios does not recoginize the drive. I also tried using software called SpinRite that is suppose to be able to recover dead drives like this, but that also did not recoginze the drive. But the drive is spinning. I am still holding out some hope but I fear that there is no chance of recovering this information (aside from spending tons on a recovery service)

 

Re: I think my HD is dead, but there seems to be a chance to recover the files. (Long

If the bios is not recognizing the drive, and you are sure the jumpers are set correctly, even with the drive spinning...then I would say you've pretty much lost all hope without using the expensive recovery option!!

Roger