Is my Hard Disk dead?

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Hello! My name is Julio, I'm from Bogotá and I am very sorry that my first message in this community has to be with a problem... I really hope somebody here can help me with this issue.

Well, the problem is this: Saturday, I was working perfectly, no problems with a new hard disk which I bought one month ago (Maxtor 500GB) in order to get more storage because the old Hard Disk was only 160GB, so I turned off the computer and Sunday morning when I started it, I receive a message that NTLDR was not found...

Obviously the NTLDR shows that there is no operating system on the master HD... so I went to the BIOS Configuration and I found that the system was not detecting the new hard disk (500GB) but the old one which has not OS and of course that's the reason of the "NTLDR" message.

So, my question is if there is any possible reason to explain why the system did not detect the primary hard disk and if there is any possible way to recover all the files in it? Or is this new hard disk dead? (hope not)

That's all... thanks for your time and reading, hope somebody can help me.
Julio :mad:
 
hi Julio,
Im not sure why you suspect that the new HDD might be dead,or dying....is it making different noises than it was before?, download speedfan and under the S.M.A.R.T. tab run the in depth hdd diagnostic , it will tell you the health of the hdd and if there are any indicators that it might have some impending problems. start there, if it is on its way out there are programs to recover your data. let me know what you find

Greg
 
hello red1776

Thanks for your answer. Well, I'm pretty sure the new hard disk has a very BIG problem because despite it is connected the same way before this problem, the BIOS does not even show that there is a HD of 500GB, so currently I am unable to install anything... the only HD the system recognizes is the old HD (160GB) which of course has not OS installed on it, as this HD is not the primary.

As I said this problem started from one day to another. I did not installed any programs, nor remove any application. I just turned off the PC as always, and when I started it again the next morning, the system is not recognizing the primary HD. I'm quite desperate because there is a lot A LOT of information there....

Any other ideas?
 
Hi Julio,
okay grab a beer or six and set aside some time:D. this could be many different reasons for this from a loose ide cable to a corrupt boot sector. follow this link and walk through it, the easiest and simple are listed first. i suspect that there is nothing wrong physically wrong with your HDD, so dont give up hope just yet. and even if it is , i have been able to recover 100% of data from HDD's that were on the verge of disinegrating.
let me know if these work.

Greg
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findbyerrormessage/a/ntldrmissingxp.htm
 
Thanks again for your answer and for trying to help me with this issue.

Well... the problem is not the NTLDR message. As I said before this message is obviosly displayed because the system is only recognizing the Hard Disk which has no Operating System installed on it.

The problem is that the Hard Disk which has the OS, is not even shown as connected. This problem was generated from one day to another. Even I checked the cables, and test them into different SATA slots, but the main Hard Disk is not recognized. The other hard disk is recognized in any slot, so there is no problem with the motherboard or its SATA slots...

Thanks again!
 
Does the computer boot with the new hard drive completely disconnected?

Hello! Thanks for your answer.

Well, when I disconnect completely the new HD, the computer boot until give the "NTLDR" message. The only difference is that it boots faster... when I have connected the new Hard Disk it takes more time... When I disconnect the old hard disk (the only recognized by the system), the computer tries to find the OS in the Floppy Drive...

I'll try to take a couple of photos of what the BIOS is showing.

Thanks!
 
So.. Your old hard drive still shows up, but it doesn't have Windows on it anymore and your new hard drive doesn't show up, but it has Windows?

If these are IDE drives (as opposed to SATA) I would specifically set their jumpers to Master and Slave and run them on the same IDE channel.

If you've done that, or if they are SATA and you have the bios set to boot from the one with the OS and that isn't working, then yes I would say your drive is dead.

A last ditch effort would be to get Windows back on the drive that works and put your 'dead' one into an external enclosure and connect it after you've got Windows running. Or put your dead one in an external enclosure and take it to a friends house.
 
hello SNGX1275

Thanks for you answer... well, both Hard Disk are SATA. Hmmm I'm afraid that then my worst fears has come true... the HD with the OS is not even listed as connected in the BIOS... I would try your last suggestion and will take it to another computer in order to see if it can be read there...

The new Hard Disk physically seems to be OK. When I close my ear very near to it I can listen the whole process, so maybe is something with the data... I don't know.... well, I will look and will post later the results of this final attempt.

Thanks again for all your help!
:)
 
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