H/drive Problems

[SICILIAN]

MY BROTHERS H/D DOESN'T SEEM TO WORK HE HAS WINDOWS XP-PRO AS THE OPERATING SYS.THE COMPUTER WONT EVEN TURN ON WHEN THE H/D IS INSTALLED IT WILL TURN ON WHEN I REPLACE IT WITH ANOTHER H/D.SEEKING DESPERATELY TO RETRIEVE THE DOWNLOADED MUSIC AND PHOTO'S ALONG WITH SOME IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS.I WAS THINKING IF I COULD SWAP
THE PLATTERS FROM THE NON WORKING H/D TO THE WORKING H/D JUST SO THAT I CAN RETRIEVE WHAT HE NEEDS.



ANY HELP OR ADVICE WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

[geoscomp]

When you say the computer won't turn on, does that mean it gets no power or lights at all, or that it won't boot into windows?

You really really do not want to try putting the platters in another hard drive..unless you are very experienced and have access to a clean room.

If you can find another drive that is identical, you can replace the controller card on the bottom of the drive, however.

If it is just that the computer does not boot into windows, there are easier solutions

[SICILIAN]

I MEAN THE COMPUTER DOESN'T TURN ON AT ALL NO LIGHTS ,NO FAN NOTHING AT ALL .DOES THE H/D HAVE TO BE THE SAME MAKE AND MODEL TO REPLACE THE PLATTERS

[NooNoo]

If you get no power, no lights, no nothing, it is unlikely the hard drive is at fault. More likely the power supply or the cpu or motherboard died. You should be able to put that hard drive in another machine running xp and copy the files across.

Removing the platters from a hard drive and putting them in another hard drive should only be done in a clean room by experienced data recovery experts. And yes, the hard drive platters have to be put in the same make and model hard drive.

[Rifleman @ Layman's PC]

Although, if the machine boots fine with the new hard drive (the way I understand this it does) then get another drive of the exact same make and model and change the PCB (circut board) on the bottom of the drive.
Removing the platters from the casing is not what you want to do if you want the data back. Humidity of greater than 30% will cause almost immediate damage to the surface of the platters. Not to mention all the microscopic dust that floats in the air.
Depending on the importance of these documents, you may wanna look into something like this >> http://www.datarecoverygroup.com/

[hermankamp]

Sicilian

try powering the harddrive seperately from the rest of the computer say with an AT power supply if the drive has partially seized bearings it will cause the current limiting circuit of an ATX power to remain off.

If it still does not turn hold onto the drive and with power applied give acouple of quick twists of your wrist Counterclockwise this may be the only way to get the drive to spin.

I was able to recover 10 years of legal wordperfect docs for my lawyer. his drive would not spin after a 2 week holiday.

Do not power down drive until all is recovered it may be your one and only shot.

Good Luck Hermankamp

[CeeBee]

Originally posted by SICILIAN
MY BROTHERS H/D DOESN'T SEEM TO WORK HE HAS WINDOWS XP-PRO AS THE OPERATING SYS.THE COMPUTER WONT EVEN TURN ON WHEN THE H/D IS INSTALLED IT WILL TURN ON WHEN I REPLACE IT WITH ANOTHER H/D.

1. Hmmm... looks like a reversed IDE cable... Any "tweaking" lately? The marked wire of the IDE cable should be towards the power connector. Also make sure that the marked wire goes towards pin 1 on the IDE connector.
However it is possible to have damaged circuitry on the HDD. Instead of removing the platters and putting them in an IDENTICAL drive it's 99% less risky to just swap the circuit board with one from an IDENTICAL drive (make, model and PCB revision must be the same!!!) Chances of making it work by swapping the platters are slimmer than winning the jackpot!
2. I don't want to be rude, but anyone who loses data deserves it! With the price of blank CD-R/CD-RW media so low there is no excuse for not backing up all the important files! Even a DDS-2 tape drive can be bought from a second-hand computer store for $25, one tape is $4 and holds 4GB uncompressed.

[cabal]

If you can get the pc to power up with different drive installed, can you get it to fire up with the old drive as a slave?