Dead hard drive? Computer beeps

Hi there:

I have an old WD Caviar 33100 hd. Originally it was in FAT32 since I was running a win98 box. I then upgraded to Win2K Pro and so decided to change it to NTFS as suggested during the upgrade process. During the process from FAT32 to NTFS, the computer froze.

So I just rebooted and decided to start over. When I did this, the computer refused to boot. I then begin to keep hearing this annoying series of single beeps. This was after POST I think.

I got following information from Google search.

AMI

AMI Beep Codes - ...Listing of Codes @ AMI Link,

Except for beep code #8, these codes are always fatal.

1 beep Refresh failure
- try reseating the memory, if the error still occurs, replace the memory
2 beeps Parity error
- try reseating the memory, if the error still occurs, replace the memory
3 beeps Base 64K memory failure
- try reseating the memory, if the error still occurs, replace the memory
4 beeps Timer not operational, system board bad
5 beeps Processor error, system board bad
6 beeps 8042 - gate A20 failure, try reseating the keyboard controller chip
7 beeps Processor exception interrupt error, system board bad
8 beeps Display memory video card read/write failure error, replace video memory or video card
9 beeps ROM checksum error, faulty BIOS chip(s), must replace them
10 beeps CMOS shutdown register read/write error, system board bad
11 beeps Cache memory bad

I then removed the hd and installed it into my mobile rack to try to reformat it. But it does not work. That other computer also begins to beep when this wd hd is installed.

My question is, have I toasted this hd? Please note that I bought it back in 1997 I believe. It's size is around 3.1 GB.

Thanks for reading this post. I really appreaciate it.

If no computer will even get through POST with that drive connected, its probably toast. If you have a USB/Firewire external box you might try putting it in there, booting up a system, then plugging in the box. Then see if you can remove the partition and recreate it. (If it locked up during converting, your data is pretty much history anyway)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FatalException0E

If no computer will even get through POST with that drive connected, its probably toast. If you have a USB/Firewire external box you might try putting it in there, booting up a system, then plugging in the box. Then see if you can remove the partition and recreate it. (If it locked up during converting, your data is pretty much history anyway)

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Yeah, I tried everything I could think off. But the hd appears to be gone. Oh well, I will just give the charity one of my other working hds. Appreciate the response.

~qtran101

Sounds like you messed up the partition table so I suggest you go to the manufacturers website and download their drive test tool as it could well recover the drive to a usable state.

If you hook up the drive and no pc will post with it then there is DEFINATELY a problem with the drive....forget the partition table. It is likely causing feedback through the ide channel and thus causing the pc to not POST. I would not attempt to run the drive with any motherboard unless you just have a board you don't mind trashing. Data flows both ways on a harddrive....and although you may not damage a mainboard this way....I have in the past.

Joe