On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 00:29:37 -0600, Ronn!Blankenship <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: : > the night this happened. So, you experts out there, any ideas on how to > completely repair the problem(s), or at least recover the data?
My sympathies. I've just had my computer crap out on me, (including a broken HD), as well, so I know the pain and inconvience... Steve's suggestions are good: check the jumpers and just try one drive at a time to eliminate the power supply as a potential issue. Also check to make sure your IDE cable is well seated at both ends. And check the power connector connection on the drives as well - those %^&*$% molex 4-pin power connectors are the worst. Other thoughts: - What is saying the drive is an unknown device? The BIOS, or Windows when you boot with the working disk? - Most PC BIOS's allow you to go in and fiddle a bit with the IDE device detection, I know one of my old PC's BIOS had an option to autodetect the hard disk. It's worth trying to fiddle around in the BIOS if you haven't already tried. - Given that you've got 3 previously working drives all not responding at the same time, it makes me think it's a configuration/cabling/jumper problem rather than actual drive failures. Is there any way for you to try the drives on a different computer? - On my brand new PC (replacing the crapped out one), it wouldn't properly detect either of my (new/working) hard disks until I disabled the RAID option in the BIOS - does your PC support RAID, could the option for it have been accidentally activated somehow? - It's not likely to be a fix for you, but I'll mention it any, because I wish I had heard it earlier than I did. Sometimes disks die because of "stiction" as it's called, where the just disk won't spin up one day. That's happened to me a few times in the past, and it's catastrophic because there's no warning. Over at the Anandtech forums, I've seen a number of people swear that they've revived a dead disk by popping it in the freezer for a few hours, then immediately plugging it in, and it would spin up and work long enough to retrieve the data off it. I haven't tried it, but if the disk is dead anyway and you've lost valuable data, it might be worth a shot. - There is software that can pull lost data files and directories off even a reformatted disk (est $100), but if your computer won't recognize the drive at all, that won't help you. - If you're really desperate to get your data and all else fails, there are data recovery services that can very likely help. I've seen some as cheap as $200-500, but prices can go much, much higher. - Advice from someone who's been burned by lost data many different ways: Paranoia is good. Invest in a DVD recorder and some backup software, and try to back up at least semi-regularly. Good luck! _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
