[Elkay]

Ok, lets see who can solve this problem. So far all the searching ive done on google hasnt helped.

My WD hdd died a few days ago so I bought another one. I have set the new hdd as the primary master and the old (damaged) hdd as the primary slave. Now I want to retrieve as much data off the old hdd as possible. Problem is, I cant even see the old hdd (slave) in windows. Bios recognizes it and so does device manager, but when i go open my computer, only the new hdd is present. I then went into disk management to assign it a letter (google search showed that is what has to be done) but disk management doesnt see the slave hdd either.

So, my question is, what now? Any help would be appreciated.


By the way, the old hdd that crashed, I can hear it spinning. Im running xp pro also if it needs to be known.

[valis]

try setting both to cable select, and then setting the master drive on the last ide port, and the bad one on the middle port.

give that a crack and see what happens. If it still isn't working, and disk management isn't seeing it but you can hear it spinning, well, most likely it's going to be something in the servo motor on the actuator arm, and that's sort of terminal....but let's try a few things first.....

v

[Wolfeymole]

Good advice from Valis there Elkay but seeing as it was already formatted my money's on it being totally knackered.

[Elkay]

Ok, will try that right now

[Elkay]

Valis, I tried what you suggested, but disk managment still doesnt recognize the old hard drive.

[Wolfeymole]

Run a disk check on it Elkay by going to Start Run and type chkdsk (drive letter):
Like so for example;
chkdsk e:

[Elkay]

Ok, but dont I need something to run that chkdsk command? Would it be on the xp cd?

[Wolfeymole]

Chkdsk is a simple command line that will alow you to ascertain if there are any bad sectors on the hard drive.
It is already built in to XP and you won't need the disk.
Below is a shot where someone has run a check on a floppy disk denoted by the chkdsk a:

[valis]

good call, wolfey.....think you nailed it, disk managment ain't seeing it, it's probably gone to the great database in the sky.....we'll see if chkdsk sees anything, but my money is on the arm, as the disk is spinning.....we'll see...