Advices regarding my 320 gig seagate barracuda- I think it's gone bad...

Well, I bought a new computer and sold my old one (I kept my hard drives). When I went to put my 320 gig seagate in the new system, it just doesn't get recognized. The new computer happened to come with the exact same drive as my old one, so this makes me tend to not think that it's a configuration problem. I did try a couple different sata cables, with no luck. Sata drives don't really have a master/slave config, so that's not an issue also. I even hooked the drive up by itself and put my windows disc in, so that I could see if windows setup would detect the drive- it found nothing.

I'm thinking that sometime during the couple weeks that the hard drive was out of the computer, it must've gone bad. It's a shame, 320 gigs of data is alot to lose.

Anyway, if anyone has any thoughts, feel free, and thanks.

Chrome

 

Have you checked to see if it is recognized in the bios??

 

I just gave that a check- it's not detected. I hooked up the new hard drive again (which is the same exact model as my older drive) and it's detected fine. I am thinking the drive's just gone ;-(

Anyways, thanks for the help

 

Yep, sounds as if the old drive must of had a stroke and died >RIP<

 

It hasn't been humid in your area at all has it? I've had problems before with leaving hard drives unused during humid weather.

 

Have you instructed your BIOS to auto detect(or force recognition of) the drive?

Its generally a matter of juggling around till the drive is recognised-between BIOS and Windows Disk Management and naming(initialising) it.

You will have problems with old drives in a new computer as for a start Windows wont work,if thats what you are using.
Your data should be OK.,

Hard drives just dont quit working for trivial reasons.

edit;Confirm the Serial ATA channels are enabled in BIOS!
Just in case you get the drive recognised,but it proves faulty-Give Away of the Day have Data Recovery Wizard,excellent-but hurry.

 

Some good advice so far. Have you tried putting it into an external enclosure (sata of course) and see if you can get it recognized that way.

If the data is really important, you can always try Spinrite. It has saved more than a few drives for me. It does cost $89 though, but it works. One thing if you do go this route, is to be patient with it (sometimes it can take a while to fix a drive).

Good luck.

 

That wouldnt make any difference-eSATA is the same as SATA-same plug ins- BIOS settings etc!
Of course, he cant recover data until the disk is recognised.

 

Yes, I understand that but I'm trying to help him eliminate all possible causes. Plus putting it into an external enclosure will allow him to easily test it with different cables, on different systems, etc. and thereby determine that it is actually the drive that has gone bad and not something on his mobo, etc.

 

Well like i'd said, the new computer came with a hard drive that is exactly the same model as the older one i'm having trouble with - so if the system detects the new one, it should detect the old one - that's what leads me to believe it's not a configuration or hardware issue. I keep thinking the drive just went bad, I mean it does happen. But anyways I appreciate you guys chiming in with the tips.

 

What it should do and what it does are two different things-its got absolutely nothing to do with being the same model.
You are incorrect in this assumption.There is every chance the drive is OK-but its up to you.
Drives just dont go bad sitting on the shelf-unless of course if you dropped it-------.

 

Hello,
Try this:
Put the hard disk into the refrigerator at -18C for about an hour. Then, try to plug it and see if it works. I'm serious.
Mrk

 

i feel asleep last night and left the damned thing in the fridge overnight- yet when i hooked it up, it still didnt work. until i can try it in another system, im gonna assume it's a bad drive- what lousy luck, yet you gotta take it as it comes, involvement with computers implies an implicit patience and understanding, ah, 320 gigs

but yet thanks gents for the help

 

Send it to me-I'll use it.

If you try it in another system,it may or may not be recognised,this is not a test for a drive.

You havent tried enough.

Once again, get the BIOS and Disk Management right and initialise the drive.

On the other hand forget it-waste of time.

 

you wanna have it coo? i might just pass it to you then, but you'd likely be with a bad drive. the system recognized my other 160 hitachi just fine (with had my entire cd collection transcoded to mp3 format, so i'm thankful) yet didn't see the 320 seagate, which is incidentally the exact same model as the drive that came in the new computer- so i am tending to deduce, that the drive is bad

 

Don't Seagates come with a 5 year warranty? They won't save the stuff on it, but you may get a replacement drive out of the deal.
Just a thought.

Colin

 

Has the drive any jumpers. Mostly you don't have to worry about jumpers with SATA for master and slave or cable but some drives come with a down grade jumper which you may need to configure.

 

there's a jumper that limits its function to sata 1.5 if you need, but this new computer is compatible with the newer 3.0, so that's not an issue. eventually when I come across one, i'm gonna try it in an older system, just to be sure it's a goner

 

For you, or anyone in else in this situation, if the data is really important, leave the data rescue to the professionals. Using Steve Gibson's SpinRite is the LAST thing you want to do as drive activity of any sort can lessen chances of a complete recovery. Gibson never figured this out and continues to sell that scamware. Data recovery pros run into this all the time, "I tried SpinRite because somebody said it worked for them," and all they can do is shake their heads. And their fists at Steve Gibson.