[Robbie]

family comp went kaput (dead), something to do with motherboard, anyway there is some info on the IDE hard drive that i need for coursework (before next week arrrh!)

i got the HD out of that computer and wacked it into mine, it either said "A disk read error occurred. Press CTRL-ALT-DEL to restart" or after fiddling with wires inside i managed to get into my normal (sata) hard drive but had the other IDE as an 'extra' hard drive. but when ever i double clicked it it asked me if i wanted to format the disk.

so i can't access the files on the HD atm and don't know what to do now.

Been looking on internet for ideas to fix and others to just get the files off i need to 'backup' the hard drive to the sata (i'd just delete the ones i didn't want after). nothing helped yet.

please help rob

[serverguy]

Hello

Can you tell me:

What OS was the family computer using?

What OS is your computer using?

How did you plug the drive in? (IE as a master or slave)

Did the computer boot up with the disk?

Did you change anything in the BIOS?

If you get back with this then I can give you a course of action hopefully!

[Robbie]

both computers used XP home

when i originaly plugged the IDE into my comput i changed it to a slave, but read somewhere that as it was the only IDE it had to be master. (i also have master sata drive)

ye i tried to boot up with disk, but got the "a disk error hace occurrered ..."

lookede at boot options in BIOS, but changed nothing (wasn't sure what would help me).
thanks serverguy

[serverguy]

I am not sure where you have read that the IDE must be the master but this is not true.

You need to have the SATA set up as your master drive and the IDE as secondary. This is likely the way that it was set up before.

To do this your SATA disk needs to be plugged into a SATA port on the motherboard. Any one will do.

Your optical drive will probably be plugged into IDE Channel 1. This is also fine

On the motherboard there should be another IDE socket called IDE Channel 2 or something similar. It will be next to where a big fat ribbon cable that comes from your optical drive plugs in. This is where you want to plug in the dead computers hard drive. It needs to have it's jumpers set to be a master hard drive.

Once you have done this you should be able to start your computer normally. Then open up my computer and see your other drive. Then you can copy your stuff across.

If you do not have another IDE cable you can cheat by just unplugging the Optical Drive. You can use it's power molex as well.

Hopefully this will mean you can get to your data. If this doesn't work or you still have problems we can look at doing some other things.

I hope you can get your work back soon and please post back whether good or bad!

Note: If your computer has a SATA Optical Drive then you can do the same thing but the dead computers hard drive will plug in to IDE Channel 1. You may need to get the cable out of the other PC.

[Robbie]

i have done some of the above previously up to

Then open up my computer and see your other drive

because it just case up with "the disk in drive E is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?" (pic attachment)

i think i read that thing in the maual for my motherboard, but i may have misunderstood. (probs have)
"If you use only one IDE device on this motherboard, plese set the IDE device as "Master". Please refer to the instructions of you IDE device vendor for the details. Besides, to optimize compatibility and performance, please connect your hard drsk drive to primary IDE connector (IDE1, blue) and CD-ROM to the secondry IDE connector (IDE2, black)."
i understood it as setting the only sata hard drive as master (of sata devices) and then setting the IDE hard drive as master (of the IDE devices). is it that you set you hard drives to master and slave according only to the hard drives and not whether they are from sata or IDE? arrh confusion!

i'll give the hard drive another go friday
i nicked the other IDE cable from the dead computer for the hard drive.

[serverguy]

Let me think about this one today... I am not really sure what else to suggest if that didn't work. It may be worth trying it again.

[Robbie]

i think by saturday afternoon i'm gonna gave to do the essays again, because it can't afford not to do them just in case i cannot retrieve the files.

oh and btw i have a forgotten problem with my SD card's memory if u know anything about that (I'll post it in another thread tho), although that hasn't got to b fixed in a rush.

thanks for all the help serverguy :)

[serverguy]

OK

I think there is one last thing that we can try before you have to start again with that drive.

I am going to ask you to download a Linux distribution called Knoppix. It is able to be run completely from a CD so it requires no installation.

I hope that if you can download this then you will be able to get to your data again. Knoppix will normally get back on to your hard drive.

First of all we need to get hold of Knoppix.

There are a number of ways of doing this and it is up to you how you do it.

If you know about Bit Torrent then you can use that to legally download Knoppix. This is one of the rare occasions when P2P software is used legally.

Here is the download page from Knoppix

If you don't want to use BitTorrent which will be the fastest way of downloading it then you can use a mirror and FTP.

This one will do nicely. You can just get the CD version.

Once you have downloaded the file then you need to burn it to a CD. It is an ISO file.

If you have Nero burning software you can use it to burn the ISO.

Otherwise look here for instructions
http://www.petri.co.il/how_to_write_iso_files_to_cd.htm

You need to burn the file to a CD-R. Set it to burn at the slowest speed for reliability.

When you think you have it burnt put the CD back in the computer and open it from My Computer. If you see lots of files come up then you have done it right, if you just see the image file come up then you have just copied that to the CD and it will not work.

So once you have a Knoppix disk ready you can set about getting your data back.

You need to have the hard disks set up in the way that I described in my last post.

When you have done this turn the PC on briefly and put the Knoppix CD in. If you have a USB pen drive you can put this in so as you can copy your most important stuff to it. You can also copy stuff to your good hard drive once Knoppix is loaded.

When your PC turns back on with the CD in the drive Knoppix should either automatically start or give you the option to boot from the CD. Choose this if it asks you.

If it doesn't notice the CD you have either burned the CD wrong or your computer is not set to boot from CD. If this is the case you need to change the setting in the BIOS to make it boot from CD first. A Google search will tell you how to do this if necessary.

Hopefully though you will get a screen saying welcome to Knoppix. Press Enter when this screen comes up. The instructions may be in a different language at this point. Don't worry!

Once you do this Knoppix should start itself up. This is good.

From then on I am going to ask you to follow instructions not written by me as I don't see any point in rewriting them.

Please go here and follow the instructions for recovering data. It may be worth reading it through first to find out what you are going to do.


I am hoping that Knoppix will allow you to copy your documents off the bad hard drive. If it doesn't then there is nothing else I can really suggest except for rewrite the essay. But I think that Knoppix will get your stuff back. It is a very useful tool and I use it a lot.

I know this looks like a complex job but there really isn't that much too it. I have laid it out badly, sorry for that but I am very tired!

If you need any more help please ask. Hopefully you will be able to reply saying that you have your stuff back!!

[Robbie]

thanks serverguy for your help i tried to download the torrent, but my intrnet was screwing up on sat (another problem to fix grrr).
so i had to retype them all, ouch it took me an age, i was up till about 05:35am lol finishing them all, which i did.
thanks anyway much appreciated.

[serverguy]

Sorry that you had to redo everything. I should have thought about using a different OS from the start but oh well...

Whats the problem with your internet?

serverguy