Well, seeing as overclockers.co.uk are suddenly very quiet since I asked
to return the drive, I'm happy to keep investigating.
But can the rest of the machine get damaged by trying to talk to a
damaged drive (assuming it is damaged)? Voltages aren't going to be
wild, and risk screwing the I/O chip, or similar woe?
No...no problem of screwing up the rest of the machine.
If not, I'll plug it in again and see whether anything can see the drive
anymore.
Forget about talking about Windows for now. Windows is simply an
operating system. You don't need to worry about Windows at this
point.
You said its a SATA drive. Make sure you have the cables connected
the way they should be...and that you have your BIOS set up to
recognize that drive. Then boot the computer.
What's the make and model of that drive?...or your mainboard?
You should be able to see that drive...at pretty close to its stated
size...in the CMOS screen as it boots. I'm assuming that its plugged
into the mainboard...and not into a controller card.
When you boot it, you can actually boot into a Windows 98 rescue disk
if you want...or some other boot disk...as long as its not an NTFS
drive at this point.
Do you have S.M.A.R.T. for that drive turned on in the BIOS? Some of
the modern drives will clunk quite a bit if they're trying to repair
themselves. But if it never stops...or even if it does...you may
indeed have a bad drive...as everyone has said.
If you've installed a SATA drive before, you should know what yer
doin'. So I'd tend to agree with the others at this point...that its
a bad drive. Just send it back and get another.
Good luck...let us know.
Have a nice week...
Trent
Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!
