Replacing a Faulty Hard Drive

[Smitty]

I've got a Dell PC at home that's about 3 years old; the hard drive's been replaced 1x by Dell because it failed, and now it's failed again and it's out of warranty. "Boot System Failure" just can't be good, along with ticking like I've trapped a large Maine Lobster in there trying to start it...

I went to BestBuy and bought a new HD and am now re-installing windows on that. I tried to ask them some questions, but try to compete with "Alien Attack Mutant Kill Cop, Rape & Steal Cars". You don't really get anywhere. Yes, even with "GEEKSQUAD", they're pert useless.

"Duuude...If I have my Dad's credit credid card will you deliver this?"

Anyone have any suggestions on how to slave the non-bootable original HD to the new one in the IDE chain (other than the obvious :wink: ) to restore the data on the non-functioning HD?

I Excel (and barely at that); this is past me other than going "Oh Sheeeeit, that's dusty!", when I opened the case.

It seems to be up and running with the new HD; I just don't want to FUBAR anything trying to access any data on the "dead drive" .

Thanks,

Smitty

P.S. We don't have video games in our house and we don't watch "reality TV"; we live it. Ice Climbing anyone? :wink:

 

[rhmerrill]

This whole post may fall under the "obvious" part but here goes...
Clearly -- if your drive won't boot there is a good chance, the drive is completely dead, and you will have no hope of recovering the data. That being said --look for a series of jumper pins on your old hard drive. You will have to check the manufacutre's specifications on setting them so that the drive is the salve drive. Then connect it to the computer, and boot into the BIOS. Hopefully your BIOS is set as it should be and it will automatically pick up the additional drive. Then boot into windows and if the drive still works, windows should (in theory) see it and assign it a drive letter. Then recovering the data is a snap. If this doesn't work becuase the drive is really dead and the data is really important there are more drastic measures for recovering it, but they are generally costly. Let me know if this helps (or if it falls under obvious), and if you have any more questions.

 

[Legacy 98055]

To add.
Your master should be the closest drive to your motherboard. Also, if you fail to get your data on first try, freeze the hard drive overnight. (yes. in your freezer) Out of the freezer, into the puter, and try it. Believe it or not this works a good deal of the time and will allow you enough time to get your data. If this doesn't work, simply email the hard drive too me and I will try and help you.

 

[CT Witter]

I've used this program in the past and has worked flawlessly...

Well worth the cost of recovering your data.


http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

Thanks,
CT

 

[countingapples]

Try these guys... they are quite knowledgable: http://www.techguy.org/ They should be able to help you with your specific issues and walk you through the process so nothing becomes FUBAR'd. Good luck.

countingapples