164G Hitachi Deskstar Inside Enclosure

[Searcher7]

I have a 164G Hitachi Deskstar (HDT722516DLA380) that is a SATA drive.
I used to have it plugged into the IDE motherboard of an HP 7955 via a
special adaptor.

The drive was working, but stopped operating, and I'm still not sure
if this was the result of a hardware or software problem.

I picked up a SATA/IDE enclosure (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?
ViewItem&item=170261710104) that can be plugged into the USB port and
decided to try the drive in it. The vibrations tell me it spins up,
and the "New Hardware" message appeared briefly, but the drive is not
present in "My Computer".

The System is running WindowsME. Could the present "C" drive (Maxtor
6.4G, #90650U2) be the issue? Do the drive jumpers on either drive
mean anything since the enclosure (with the SATA drive) plugs into the
USB port? Could the problem be the motherboard(Dublin (Rev. D))? Or
perhaps the SATA drive is just trashed.

Any suggestions on what to try would be appreciated.

Thanks a lot.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

 

[Paul]

I have a 164G Hitachi Deskstar (HDT722516DLA380) that is a SATA drive.
I used to have it plugged into the IDE motherboard of an HP 7955 via a
special adaptor.

The drive was working, but stopped operating, and I'm still not sure
if this was the result of a hardware or software problem.

I picked up a SATA/IDE enclosure (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?
ViewItem&item=170261710104) that can be plugged into the USB port and
decided to try the drive in it. The vibrations tell me it spins up,
and the "New Hardware" message appeared briefly, but the drive is not
present in "My Computer".

The System is running WindowsME. Could the present "C" drive (Maxtor
6.4G, #90650U2) be the issue? Do the drive jumpers on either drive
mean anything since the enclosure (with the SATA drive) plugs into the
USB port? Could the problem be the motherboard(Dublin (Rev. D))? Or
perhaps the SATA drive is just trashed.

Any suggestions on what to try would be appreciated.

Thanks a lot.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

When using that USB enclosure, in addition to looking in "My Computer",
you should also be looking in "Disk Management". If the drive mechanism
shows "unallocated", it could mean that the partition information has
gone missing. If no entry at all appears for the drive, that would
suggest the drive is not being detected at all. That could be a
more serious hardware issue inside the hard drive.

http://www.microsoft.com/library/me...tips/advanced/67462-click-disk-management.gif

This is a tool that can help with some kinds of partition problems.
I don't know if it works with just any method of connecting
the disk. If you cannot get it to work with the drive while
in the USB enclosure, then put the drive back on the special
adapter in the HP 7955 and try this tool there.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download

For my own personal data recovery needs, my first priority is
always to make a sector by sector copy of the disk, if that is
possible. Then, if a data recovery tool screws up, and makes
a mess, there is still a copy of the data that can be
restored. Testdisk does "in-place" repair, so there is
always an element of risk with such an approach. But at
this point, we don't even know yet whether the mechanism
is still working. Hopefully, Disk Management or some
other utility, can tell you that. Here is another one, Everest,
for general hardware enumeration.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

The disk may also be detected while it is installed
inside the computer, with a program like HDTune.
The free version could be used to get information
via the "Info" tab. You can use this on your other
drive, to see what kind of information it provides.
The speed test on this version, is read-only (safe).

http://www.hdtune.com/

HTH,
Paul