Harddrive woes- Please help!

Did you try other SATA ports? Check the BIOS to see if the SATA ports are enabled. And what jumpers are you talking about?
 
Did you try other SATA ports? Check the BIOS to see if the SATA ports are enabled. And what jumpers are you talking about?

Sorry. To clarify( it was late last night) The harddrive is IDE, and is an external enclosure. The jumpers i meant are the ones on the hdd itself. It is set to slave as it always has been...But it is still not being picked up...

Tried on a different pc, same result...
 
Have tried it in other external enclosures that work, and that has not helped either.

Same thing happens. Computer beeps to show that USB is plugged in and then nothing, nothing in disk management either :(
 
if u have checked it on seperate pcs and in the enclosure , u can rule out:

-data cable problem
-molex cable problem

what u can check:

*verify that the drive spins
*check that the bios detects the drive in bios/post status screen.
*put the drive on cable select , and make sure its alone on the cable

if after those u can't get the drive to work - its caput/pe/moeg/cheers..return to sender :)

goodluck
 
[OUPA]MrNutz;968846 said:
if u have checked it on seperate pcs and in the enclosure , u can rule out:

-data cable problem
-molex cable problem

what u can check:

*verify that the drive spins
*check that the bios detects the drive in bios/post status screen.

if after those u can't get the drive to work - its caput/pe/moeg/cheers..return to sender :)

goodluck

Cool. I will check. It's a 250gb drive and it was full of goodies so i hope it is not dead :(
 
[OUPA]MrNutz;968846 said:
if u have checked it on seperate pcs and in the enclosure , u can rule out:

-data cable problem
-molex cable problem

what u can check:

*verify that the drive spins
*check that the bios detects the drive in bios/post status screen.
*put the drive on cable select , and make sure its alone on the cable

if after those u can't get the drive to work - its caput/pe/moeg/cheers..return to sender :)

goodluck

Few noob questions-

How can i tell if the drive is spinning?

How can I make sure that the drive is on one cable if it is an external enclosure? Does that mean it is automatically on one cable?
 
for spinning check - listen closely - or put finger on drive...u can feel it.

if is an external enclosure its 1 cable...then just set it to CS - cable select..

i don't like the comment about windows picking the usb up correctly..

it makes the detect sound in xp "ta ding" and maybe a second time on some enclosures...

if it was a "ta da" sound that means a failure somewhere.
 
[OUPA]MrNutz;968861 said:
for spinning check - listen closely - or put finger on drive...u can feel it.

if is an external enclosure its 1 cable...then just set it to CS - cable select..

i don't like the comment about windows picking the usb up correctly..

it makes the detect sound in xp "ta ding" and maybe a second time on some enclosures...

if it was a "ta da" sound that means a failure somewhere.

hmmm ta ding or ta da....well it is Vista and it makes the same sound that it makes when i plug ina drive that works...

Will check the other stuff now...

Thanks :)
 
download the vendor's diagnostic utility..check if a) it picks up b) can be checked for errors..

keep that receipt closeby...i've got a feeling that drive is -1
 
[OUPA]MrNutz;968883 said:
download the vendor's diagnostic utility..check if a) it picks up b) can be checked for errors..

keep that receipt closeby...i've got a feeling that drive is -1

That would be Western Digital then...
 
What is odd is that when i boot up with the drive plugged in and on, the computer doesn't get past the first boot screen, much like when an ipod is plugged in...
 
Could you possible try plugging the drive directly into the motherboard VIA IDE?

Then enter the bios and see if it is detected, if not then the hard-drive is probably physically damaged. If it does check if Windows detects it.

If it does the problem isn't the drive..

I've bought about 5 WD SE16 320GB SATAII drives the past 4 months and none of them were DOA or damaged in anyway, so either you are very unlucky or something else is wrong ;)
 
Could you possible try plugging the drive directly into the motherboard VIA IDE?

Then enter the bios and see if it is detected, if not then the hard-drive is probably physically damaged. If it does check if Windows detects it.

If it does the problem isn't the drive..

I've bought about 5 WD SE16 320GB SATAII drives the past 4 months and none of them were DOA or damaged in anyway, so either you are very unlucky or something else is wrong ;)

Ok. Does it matter which part of the IDE cable i use? Like the DVD-writer is plugged in to the one socket on the cable. Can i just plug the drive into the other?
 
Ok. Does it matter which part of the IDE cable i use? Like the DVD-writer is plugged in to the one socket on the cable. Can i just plug the drive into the other?

Yeah it's fine, just make sure the jumper is set different from the DVD-Writer, ie. if the DVD-Writer is set on MASTER then the HD MUST BE set on SLAVE if the DVD-Writer is set on SLAVE the HD MUST BE set on MASTER.
If you can't see the jumper then you can see in the BIOS. It will be reported there as either Master or Slave on Primary or Secondary channel.

If the DVD-Writer is set on Cable Select then set the Hard-Drive to Cable select also.
 
Yeah it's fine, just make sure the jumper is set different from the DVD-Writer, ie. if the DVD-Writer is set on MASTER then the HD MUST BE set on SLAVE if the DVD-Writer is set on SLAVE the HD MUST BE set on MASTER.
If you can't see the jumper then you can see in the BIOS. It will be reported there as either Master or Slave on Primary or Secondary channel.

If the DVD-Writer is set on Cable Select then set the Hard-Drive to Cable select also.

Ok. I will do that now. Think the writer is on slave so i will make the HD master then...

Will report back :)
 
Ok, I put it in. Writer was slave so i made the HDD master. BIOS cannot see it and it doesn't 'sound' on to me. It is giving off heat from the bottom though, like when a drive is working...
 
But no movement AT ALL? You should feel it vibrating very slightly and when you put your ear to it you should hear a buzzing sound :)

If it doesn't move at all that means the motor or PCB is dead and therefore the drive is dead. Best take it back.
 
But no movement AT ALL? You should feel it vibrating very slightly and when you put your ear to it you should hear a buzzing sound :)

If it doesn't move at all that means the motor or PCB is dead and therefore the drive is dead. Best take it back.

Nope, no movement. The other drives I have I can hear/feel that they are working. Methinks this one be dead :(

If it is just a motor or PCB issue, can that be fixed without me losing all the data on the drive?
 
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