PC wont see my hardrive! please help

Status
Not open for further replies.
Hi guys, i have a PC that wont boot up, so i took out the hardrive from the bay and put it into an external enclosure to see if i can retieve important files.

I have set the Pin to slave pluged the enclosure in to my other work pc, started it up, but i cant seem to click explore on it or open it.

I have also tryed setting the Pin to MASTER but still same issues.

I right clicked on my computer and clicked manage, disk management it sees theres another dive there but when i right click on i cant click on explore, open, it only gives me the option of delete partition.

Volume: (blank)
Layout: Partition
Type: basic
File system : NTFS
status: Healthy (active)
Capacity: 90GB
Free space: 23GB
fault tolerence: no
overhead: 0%

Also this drive was booted up from XP which had a account password on it. Dont know if thats why?

Can anybody help me out please.

:( :grinthumb
 
Please be patient. This is a volunteer site, and 3 hours time is not very long to get a response.

BTW
:wave:Welcome to TechSpot:wave:
 
Maybe the drive is faulty?

What exactly happens, when you try and boot your system with the drive connected?

Put the drive back into your system.

Can you see the bios screen?

If so, download and run your hard drive manufacturers diagnostic utility. That should tell you whether the drive is faulty.

If you can`t find the diagnostic utility, then take a look at this thread HERE.

Regards Howard :)
 
Wellcome mate ....

The same thing happened to me yesterday ...

change your cables..
that what i did and it worked
beatyfully.
 
howard_hopkinso said:
Maybe the drive is faulty?

What exactly happens, when you try and boot your system with the drive connected?

Put the drive back into your system.

Can you see the bios screen?

If so, download and run your hard drive manufacturers diagnostic utility. That should tell you whether the drive is faulty.

If you can`t find the diagnostic utility, then take a look at this thread HERE.

Regards Howard :)

No im not trying to boot up from the drive i just want to set the drive as an external by changing it to slave and then putting it inside a usb enclosure and plugging it in so that the pc im running it on will see it as a another external hardrive so i can retrieve my files. Problem is i cant connect it inside the system via IDE becuase its my work PC. It sees the drive in disk management but i can change the drive letter or open the drive so i can see inside the drive.

I right clicked on my computer and clicked manage, disk management it sees theres another dive there but when i right click on i cant click on explore, open, it only gives me the option of delete partition.

Volume: (blank)
Layout: Partition
Type: basic
File system : NTFS
status: Healthy (active)
Capacity: 90GB
Free space: 23GB
fault tolerence: no
overhead: 0%

Could it be because its a bootup drive?
 
Most external enclosures only work with the drive set to cable select, at least in my experience.
 
howard_hopkinso said:
Ok, maybe I`ve misunderstood.

Why can`t you boot your computer?

Regards Howard :)

Hey Howard, im not trying to boot my computer i can boot my work pc fine, im just trying to add another internal hardrive in a USB enclosure to see if i could retieve any files from it, but my hardrive wont show up in my computer explorer.

Rik: iv also tryed setting the hardrive to cable select but getin same problems.
 
In that case, the hard drive must be faulty. I suspect the only way you will get data off that drive is via a data recovery specialist and that will be expensive.
 
Oh ok i see, thanks for your help guys, most appreciated. ill try connecting it inside a computer via IDE and try booting up if i find a spare computer. I actually took my work pc apart which im not allowed to do lol but found out there are no IDE cable connectors inside only SATA connectors oh well.:)
 
Howard is trying to figure out why your pc wouldnt boot in order to better understand what the problem could be with your hard drive i believe!
 
rik said:
Howard is trying to figure out why your pc wouldnt boot in order to better understand what the problem could be with your hard drive i believe!


Oh i see well i think my motherboard is gone heres what i posted in the other thread here: https://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread.php?p=526862#post526862

After inserting 512mb DDR RAM into the DIMM sockets .My PC starts but i dont dont hear any bleeps, the fan is working it recognises the mouse, keyboard becuase it lights up but the monitor screen just turns black, if i remove the monitor cable it says no signal on the monitor. But as soon as i insert the monitor cable the monitor just switches off. If im right when i start up the machine i should get a single bleep sound but i dont. i have removed the DDR ram and inserted another one, i have also purchased a monitor cable to try with a new monitor cable. But still no luck. Also tryed removing the graphics card and re-inserting and also tryed removing the graphics card and starting the machine, when i do this the machiene should bleep several times to say there is no grpahics card present but it doesnt.


Here are my Pc specs.

AMD Athlon XP (Palomino, Socket A) 1900+

1.6GHz Athlon XP 1900+ with 256Kb of on-die Level 2 cache, 512MB of PC2100 DDR memory, made up of two 256MB modules + 512MB DDR Components center DDR RAM VIA KT266A motherboard chipset(A7V266-E), 100Gb Maxtor, 250GB Maxtor hardrive.

Graphics card: Sappire ATI Radeon 1800XT 256MB with DVI and TV-out

Asus A7V266-E KT266A
Socket A(462) A7V266-E
BIOS: Award Medallion 6.0
CPU : Duron - Athlon - AthlonXP- AthlonMP
Chipset : VIA KT266A / VT 8233
FSB: 200/266Mhz
AGP: AGP 4X Pro
Memory : Three 184-pin DIMM / 3GB max



Any ideas what could be wrong??

thank you in advance.
 
if the drive is faulty and nothing will make it work put it in a baggie and freeze it over night. i dont know why it works but sometimes the drive will start working just long enough to get some data off it .
 
Your Drive's Hidden boot partition is faulty - so you will need to replace the drive. Go into XP CD and see if the drive shows up for installation.
 
Thanks for the replys guys

Thanks for the replys guys, most appreciated.

Iv sorted it i just built myself a new barebone computer and pluged it into the enclosure setting the pin to cable select and it worked i dont know why it didnt work on the other machine at work.

Thanks anyway,


Have a nice week all!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back