2nd HDD not recognized by XP

[voraszmogus]

Sorry this is kind of long...

I was replacing a HDD with windows xp because i was having so many problems with it and couldn't solve them. So I put in a new HDD with windows xp freshly loaded onto it for running the computer. I previously had two HDDs in the computer, the second was strictly a storage HDD (cannot boot this HDD, all programs and startup was on the first-which i swapped out). Both are formatted to NTFS.

Now when I started up windows the computer would not recognize the old 2nd HDD that was for storage. I have important docs and files that I need from that HDD.

The first time I went to boot up the computer wouldn't even get past the "Press DEL to enter setup" screen. If I press DEL and enter the setup screen, in the CMOS the 1st HDD is detected and there is a bunch of nonsense/jibberish where the 2nd HDD would be listed- and auto-detect detect nothing. Switching around the jumpers I can get the computer to boot up normally, but the 2nd HDD still does not exist at all.

I have tried every possible cable/jumper variation, I have reset CMOS/BIOS. I have removed all power sources and unplugged the motherboard side of the IDE cable (80-wire) and discharged all internal current by pressing pwr button for 30 secs. I have tried running a System Suite rescue disk to read the HDD. I have loaded Linux to try and read the HDD, but in the end nothing!!

It is a Samsung HD300LD
300 GB/7200rpm/8M/PATA

currently running:
Windows XP Home Edition
2002 Version
Service Pack 2
AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2000+
1.66 GHz, 2.0 GB RAM

If anyone can help me get the information off of this Hard Drive I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks

 

[mailpup]

Did you install Windows XP on the new hard drive in another PC or in this one? Did you install the motherboard drivers?

 

[voraszmogus]

I did install it in this computer. However the 2nd HDD (storage) was not hooked up to the computer at the time.

As far as I know I have installed all the drivers. I have a "Motherboard Drivers" cd-rom that came with the computer, and I ran it, and it installed several drivers and devices.

Don't know what else to do?

 

[mailpup]

Okay. So far I don't see that you did anything wrong.

 

[voraszmogus]

FYI
Out of curiousity I tried to put the old original HDD (the one with messed up OS on it--size 40 GB) into the PC as the 2nd HDD and that was giving me the same responses as with my 300GB storage HDD. Wasn't recognized.

So, with nothing to lose with the original 40GB HDD, I was going to format and re-install windows XP to see if there was something that I missed when I did the replacement HDD. But I only got as far as formating it, and I needed the internet for some other things, so I put the working (new OS) HDD back in, but instead of putting the 300GB storage HDD in as the 2nd HDD, I put the original 40GB HDD in. When I started the PC (new HDD + orig 40GB HDD), it found new hardware and recognized the 40GB as the 2nd HDD in the system.

??

I can NOT format the storage 300GB, because I need the data from it.

any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[mailpup]

I don't know if this will work for sure but perhaps you could put the 300GB storage HDD into an external USB enclosure and see if Windows recognizes it then.