Hard drive problems

Dooom

Odd things are happening and it's really annoying so any help's much appreciated.

I have 2 hard drives. #1 has Windows XP Pro on it and #2 has nothing on it. Both are new hard drives. Now what happens is as follows:
When I boot up #1, it boots to the desktop etc. no problems. Except when I have #2 plugged in aswell, it still boots to the desktop, but it doesn't show up in my computer. But it does show up in the device manager. I can't seem to get it to recognise it in my computer...any ideas?

Oh and one last thing, I also have a 3rd hard drive with Windows 2000 Pro on it, but I'm pretty sure it's failed (it won't boot up). However I think it might be a Windows problem because a while ago, I could hook it up as a slave to #1 and it would boot to the desktop and I could access the files on #3. But now if I have it hooked up as a slave to #1, the computer won't boot at all. It just hangs at the POST screen. Any more ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Zakalwe

Go to control panel, Administrative tools and choose computer management

Choose Disk Management under Storage and you should see your new drive. Right click and format.

Congrats. you now have a new drive installed.

leeroybrown

Are the drives correctly detected by the BIOS when you boot up? Check jumper settings of your hard drives (set them to Master/Slave as appropriate).

If you continue having problems download your drive manufactueres test tool. Most of them are linked off the UltimateBootCD homepage. The tool will build a boot floppy/cd that will allow you to test your drive(s).

Dooom

Aha! Right thanks, took Zakalwe's advice and it works. However, I've also just figured that #3 hard drive is dead. Well, the motor is anyway. Anyone know of a place that can fix them?

Zakalwe

Originally posted by Spike
Aha! Right thanks, took Zakalwe's advice and it works. However, I've also just figured that #3 hard drive is dead. Well, the motor is anyway. Anyone know of a place that can fix them?

Good to hear that the first drive works now.

It may be that the board on the second drive is dead or that the interconnect between the board and the motor is loose. Check the flat orange cable. You can replace boards, but they must match the drive exactly.

If the drive is truly dead, then data recovery can cost a small fortune. You may be looking at €1000 for full recovery.

vibe666

stick it in the freezer (in a bag) and make sure it's in a dry environement inside the bag (do you have any of those little sachets they put in electronics packaging to keep moisture out?).

leave it in overnight and then plug it in and see if it's useable.

bear in mind though that the clock is ticking. as the drive warms up from spinning it'll start to die again (if it recovers from the deep freeze), so copy everything off as quick as you can. This method can help both with bad sectors and failing motors).

if it's making a kind of ticking noise when it spins up (if it spins up at all) then try giving it a firm but not violent knock on a hard surface. the heads may have slipped off the edge of the platter.

Also a software solution that can help sometimes is SpinRite.

Dooom

Umm..thanks for that tip vibe, but I think I'll drop it into a friend of mine first. I was talking to a company in England who specialise in data recovery (On-Track was the name I think), and I was quoted 795 for the diagnosis and 1500-4000 Stg for the recovery. I mean jesus...that seems a bit steep!