Recieve a "Disk Read Error, ctl+alt+del to restart" at boot up

[Chins]

I have a Maxtor HDD which has recently given me "disk read error" whenever i boot up. It then tells me to press ctrl+alt+del but repeats the cycle. Recently i plugged in an old quantum HDD (running on win98) which had some problems as a slave with my Maxtor as the master. I got into WinXP and used the Admin tools to reformat the old quantum HDD. Now the quantum HDD is running but my Maxtor isnt! Before formating the Quantum i had some issues figuring out which jumpers settings were master, slave and cs so i turned the power off quite a few times w/out shutting down properly. i only did this when the Quantum was in master setting tho.
I tried setting up the Maxtor as a slave on another computer but i still get "disk read error".
Whats happened to my Maxtor HD? Is it a windows version problem cos of the 2 HDs having diffrent OS's? Is there a way to get all my data back from the Maxtor like a recovery program. I heard of one called GetDataBack but im not too confident it will help.
Does anybody have any suggestions for recovery programs or has anybody had this problem before?
Thanks

[MobilePCPhysician]

What size is the Maxtor? Does the bios pick up the drive? Try a different ribbon cable. Can you hear the drive spin up when you turn the power on? Does it "clunk"?

If you can hear it spin up, but the bios does not recognize it, then most likely the controller board failed. Data recovery is possible. If it clunks, then some data recovery is possible, but physical damage to the areas holding the data is happening.
Set the drive to slave to test. Remove the other drives. Power on and check if the bios sees the drive. If you need help in determining settings, go to Maxtor's web page. www.maxtor.com.
Post back and let us know.

[Chins]

The Bios is registering the drive, it dus make some noises at startup. I tired it as a slave in a Win98 system, but when i enter my computer it dusnt register? Its a 40 gig HD - Maxtor D740X-6L.

[Chins]

I just swapped the Maxtor on slave for another older HD on slave and Win98 picks this one up, however the Maxtor still dusnt show up in Win98, only in the BIOS

[Gabriel]

Hello,
If BIOS "recognize" the HDD and OS does not - than you most probably doesn't have any VALID partitions on the Drive.
Boot computer into command prompt -> FDISK -> Chose Correct Drive -> Make at least one partition (FAT32) -> Exit + restart -> the partition should be visible to Win98 (You will have to format it though.

If you are new to FDISK - go to http://www.computerhope.com/sfdisk1.htm there is a pretty good page explaining how to use this Goold old black thing

And http://www.computerhope.com/formathl.htm

Tip ->if you want to be absoulutly sure that you are not Partitioning/formatting your currect drive. Disconnect "Primary" drive and do the all thing in Command prompt (Insert win98 CD and press F8 -> There should be command prompt (if my memory doesn't betray me)

Note -> Some of the guys/gals here will swear on System commander or Partition Magic. I do use it but for a simple thing like Partitioning a new drive you don't need it at all.


Cheers,
Gabriel

[confus-ed]

Hello,
If BIOS "recognize" the HDD and OS does not - than you most probably doesn't have any VALID partitions on the Drive.
Boot computer into command prompt -> FDISK -> Chose Correct Drive -> Make at least one partition (FAT32) -> Exit + restart -> the partition should be visible to Win98 (You will have to format it though...

(for Chins: Part of what gabriel is saying, is that win98 can't understand partitions made by xp.)

Whoa ! stop then .. (you are right mind, but he said this )

..Is there a way to get all my data back from the Maxtor like a recovery program...

While ever you can get bios to see it, programs like pc inspector have a chance of working & have saved folks before here, cloning the disk as it is is also an idea if you really must recover your data as you then avoid this

..physical damage to the areas holding the data . ..

happening while you try.

If you can, try all this from an xp box .

[Chins]

We managed to hook the busted HD to a working XP HD and all the files were still there A friend of mine used a program thru Command Prompt to check the HD and it corrected some indexes or something but it still wouldnt boot.
Now we just copied all the data off it and reformatted it - its now working fine!
Thanks for all your suggestions, much appreciated
Ian