HD Crash? Or something else?

[Srikanth]

Hi

I have (or had) a 40 gb hard disk. It was actually from another comp,
and i just had it temporarily plugged in to mine. The drive was placed
vertically (bad idea, i guess), and I was working. I wasn't even
accessing the hard drive (D, I was only accessing the drive of the
host comp (C when suddenly it (D drive) started making some noises.
The drive was working fine in earlier in the day, though. I powered
down, and when i boot up next, BIOS gave some error saying it cudn't
find the slave. The jumper is plugged in rite though. And at bootup,
the disk makes some noise (not the regular hum, more like something
hitting it periodically).

Is it a disk crash? Or what else could it be? Is there any way to
recover the data?

Thanks
Srikanth

 

[Jan Alter]

More than likely it's just unlucky coincidence. Drives used to be placed on
their sides years ago. As far as I'm aware there's no problem continuing
that practice. If you're inclined you could download the hdd's diagnostic
utility from the maker's website and run it to see just what kind of failure
it is indicating.

 

[Srikanth]

Hi

It is a segate hard drive. Problem is, it isn't even showing in BIOS.
If i go to the BIOS CMOS settings utility (pressing delete at startup),
and try to set the primary slave, it just refuses to detect the
hard-drive. I tried telling it to detect again ad again, but to no
avail.
If it can't be seen by bios, (infact, my OS isn't called by bios if the
disk is plugged in - it keeps giving an error), how can i run a disk
check utility?

Thanks
Srikanth.

 

[Jan Alter]

Try hooking the disk up alone and as a master. Take your other drive off.
Also, for the hell of it, use another cable on this drive. If it shows up
try the disk utility from seagate.

 

[Srikanth]

Hi
I tried those suggestions. The drive doesn't work as master, and the
cable is fine, since i used it for my (original) master hard drive. Any
other suggestions?
Thanks.
Srikanth

 

[Jan Alter]

I've read of taking the drive and putting it in a freezer bag and then
placing it in a freezer for an hour can free up overheated bearings.
Immediately attaching it to the IDE cable and running it can have positive
results.

Additionally, I have taken a reluctant hard drive and smacked it against a
stack of magazines to get it running again. It did work.

But other than those two thoughts...

No.

 

[Lawrence Lucier]

Hi

It is a segate hard drive. Problem is, it isn't even showing in BIOS.
If i go to the BIOS CMOS settings utility (pressing delete at startup),
and try to set the primary slave, it just refuses to detect the
hard-drive. I tried telling it to detect again ad again, but to no
avail.
If it can't be seen by bios, (infact, my OS isn't called by bios if the
disk is plugged in - it keeps giving an error), how can i run a disk
check utility?

Check out the info at:
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/index.html