Hide and Seek with the new Hard Drive

I recently procured a hard drive, and foolishly decided I was smart enough to install it. And was only half right. I installed the drive a couple weeks ago and all was well for a time, it worked, I put some files on it, and there was much rejoicing. (I only had 80GB in there to start with, so it was desperately needed) However, for no apparent reason, a few days ago, it just stopped appearing.

However, I can still locate it in both the BIOS, and the Device Manager. (The DM states that it's working properly. Naturally. But I have no access to anything ON the hard drive. And it doesn't appear in My Computer. I went to the companies website and downloaded the appropriate (I thought) software for it, but to no avail. Help please!

Here is the hard drives info.

Model: WDC WD1600JB-00FUA0
WD Caviar
Enhanced IDE Drive
Drive Parameters: LBA 312581808 160GB
S/N WMAES1298764

As a side note, when the drive was functioning, it was listed as WD1600JB-00FUA0, but ever since it quit working, it's only showing WD1600JB.

 

See if the data cable is snug, I've had that problem with Caviars.

EDIT: Oops, it's not a Sata drive, can't hurt to double check the connectios.

 

I checked the connections when I removed it to get all the info from the label. It didn't help

Also, how did you edit your post? I was looking for a button to fix one of my earlier posts and couldn't figure out how.

 

You have 1/2 hr. from posting time to edit your post and during that time you will see an edit button on the bottom right of your post just to the left of the quote button.

 

Alas and alack. Tried and failed. An interesting(?) development though. When I open up Lifegaurd tools, it now tells me that its only 8GB. there aren't any partitions or anything, whatsoever. Also, it lists it, AND my stock hard drive as C:/ and won't let me modify the new drive, as it tells me it's a BOOT drive. Now, I've gone into the BIOS and checked, and this drive is in no way or fashion listed in the BOOT drive set. I've got my stock drive (C:/) as BOOT, and one cd-player and thats it.

Any more ideas, or is this drive a write off?

 

Ahhh, I don't think I worded my last reply quite right. It shows up in the BIOS as the primary slave, as it should. But in Lifegaurd it tells me its in the boot list. And I haven't put it in the boot list. Still confused as to why it cuts off half the name of the drive when it isn't working. I mean, it still lists it, but only the first half.

 

Shocking new developments. something was clearly wrong with that hard drive =/ For some reason, it suddenly prevented my computer from booting up. I rarely shut it down, but I did today and I checked out the boot section of the BIOS and it was normal. But I couldn't get it to start until I physically disconnected my new hard drive I'm guessing that means the sucker is toast?