Hard Drive in BIOS, but not My Computer

[Guest]

Its ok in the bios, its listed differently in Disk Management evertime I look
at it... and it won't show up at all in My Computer.

It worked great the first time, but now I can't get in...

(the long story to follow)
Had a crashed computer from a friend. Kept getting "NTBTLDR.EXE is missing"
or something like that... I took out the HDD and I connected it to my PC
using my CD drive cables since I have a very small system with very limited
hardware resources... I can't run 3HDD and CD ROM at same time.

HDD worked fine... I pulled some files off it that she needed for school,
all in .wps format.

In order to check that they were the correct files I had to download a .wps
viewer for WordXP. Do I downloaded it, and tried to install it. At this
point, despite my Custom Install request of Run All From HDD, I am told to
insert the OfficeXP CD to install the feature I am trying to run... WTF is
that?????

My CD drive is out. I have to shutdown and reconnect the CD drive, get the
plugin installed, and we check little girl's files... Wrong ones... So great
I just plug the HDD back in and grab the rest of the files for her report on
Baroque Art...

I do a "Run all from HDD" type install and I am so frustrated and pissed off
that I am constantly being asked for the CD to install whatever feature it
might be that I need... So of couse this is what happened this time... I
tried to install the download and I was told I had to put in the CD... well
of course I had disconnected the CD drive... so I shut down, reconnected the
CD and ran the disk like asked. Checked the files, and they were the wrong
one.

So with new converter installed I went back to plugging in this little
girl's HDD to retrieve the remainder of her school files...

Wrong. Now Windows won't recognize the HDD... well it does, sort of... My
BIOS sees the HDD just fine. Strange part is, Windows Admin Tools Disk
Management can see the drive too, which used to be a "Basic, FAT32"

Now Disk Management tells me one of two things... Most often it tells me
that the disk is now Dynamic and Unreadable... Sometimes it tells me the Disk
is Active, Dynamic FAT32 and I get a colored line on the graphics (of the
disk management window) like the disk is active and ready, and I STILL can't
access the drive from My Computer...

What is going on here? I call Microsoft and they tell me "if you don't want
to have to use the CD for updates then you should make a flash of the CD to
your HDD"... that is crap... that is the WORST work-around I have ever seen.
And supposedly they have put a "Local Install" option into Office2k3 that
does this for you... still a BAD solution, IMHO... anyone who "Run all from
HDD" is screwed if they are on the road and have to update or install a new
feature.

And is there a way to force a look into this broke tower HDD? some software
out there that can force open the disk, let me look inside and grab something
since Windows can't seem to recognize its own file allocation structures
twice in a row ?

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

Brian

I strongly suggest that you leave data recovery on this drive to a
professional.. the more you mess with it, the less chance there is of
getting anything meaningful from it..

One presumes that the owner of the computer is beginning to realise the
importance of back ups..

 

[aleinss]

Sounds like the hard drive is dying. I would keep rebooting the PC to
see if you can "catch" the hard drive in a "good mood" and then copy
all the files from the hard drive to your drive (if you have room).
Most newer hard drives also use conductor 80 hard drive cables. You
can easily tell the difference if you have conductor 40 cables...the 80
conductor ones have many little lines on them. Using conductor 40
cables at UDMA/66 or greater speeds can cause data corruption.

I don't quite follow you on why having an image of the CD on the hard
drive is bad. This is perfectly valid solution from Microsoft and
would also be my suggestion.

Adam

 

[Guest]

try either changing jumper settings to regular or reversing hdd cable (you
might have it upside-down), or, during all thoes hdd changes, you might have
zapped it, in that case the only way to get files off of there is to do a
Hard drive resurrection
info on that can be found here:
http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000840067578/