IDE Hard Drive freezes my computer...and isn't even detected!!!

Hi folks,

Ok so here's the ENTIRE story...A few years ago I had a hard drive in my system that I kept all my work on and one day my stuff magically started to dissapear. I mean, i'd go to open a music file on the drive, and the folder would be there but when i'd click in it there would be about 500 files instead of 20,000 and then none at all!

I took the drive out so no more damage could be done. It was like it was deleting stuff in front of my eyes BUT the Properties still said the drive had the same amount of space as ever.

Recently i've been having a go at getting it to work and whenever I connect it (via my USB HDD caddy) the drive isn't detected in My Computer, I can't even get as far as Computer Management because the whole system just slows up no matter what computer I try it on...weird. I've tried it in slave and master by the way.

Anyone got any clues? PLEEEEEASE, I need my work pretty bad for job interviews, etc!!!

Thanks very much in advance :confused

 

Also,

If the drive is connected and I try and open disk defrag (windows) or remove device (next to clock) they won't open until I turn the drive off. When I do they suddenly open and the drive is displayed for a split second :cry IT'S TEASING ME!!!

 

Had a similiar problem with a hard drive not showing on a usb caddy. Seems that some of the hard drives that are native to proprietary machines (hp, compaq etc.) work in cable select mode, and wont work correctly if hooked up as master or slave on a usb caddy. Never could get native drive to work on a usb external drive adapter.
Try the drive on a seperate ide cable (disconnect something if you have to) and check in bios to see if its reading (may need to play with jumper settings, and try cable select mode)

 

I tried it in cable select mode just now and no good! Same problem as before, i'll hook it up look in My Computer and not see it. Then look in Disk Defrag and that won't even open and then when I turn the drive off Defrag opens and displays the drive for about a second and then the drive disapears :confused

Some programs won't even open up while the drive is connected. Like Disk Defrag, there's Safely Remove Hardware, Windows Troubleshoot and Computer Management.

Oh well, maybe this just needs an expensive trip to the pros (I hate not being able to fix it myself lol!)