Wierd stuff with my 2 HD!

[Melhisedek]

Hi mates...
I installed my new w/c system yesterday and it involved moving my 2 HD from one hatch to another.

After I installed everything I couldn't start at all. I got through post and to: "Verifying IDE..." ( I think ) and than I would get something in style with:
"No boot disk insert Boot disk..." something

I tried disconecting and connection on all possible ways to no awail. Just now I tried just to connect one HD and not the other. And I'm in Windows posting this. I tried again connecting the other but nothing :( Same error! I tried another IDE cable, same thing. My first HD have jumpers on MASTER the other one had them on CABLE SELECT. I tried changing them to SLAVE but same thing. Wierd thing is that everything functioned perfectly to yesterday and that my Radeon 9700 P is still connected to other HD ( non-functioning one ) and that the Raddy is functioning perfectly.

Do you have any ideas what could it be ??? I have plenty of important info on that HD and I woulndn't like to loose it!

Is it possible that if it died it can stop the good drive from functioning ( if I connect them both to same IDE ) ?

Please I'm desperate !

Thank you for your time!

[L337 M33P]

It's most likely not dead - just a conflict on the ATA bus.

Your #1 drive should be master and at the END of the HD cable, the furthest plug from the motherboard. The #2 drive should be Slave and on the plug nearer to the motherboard, if you haven't done that already.

Alternatively plug the second drive at the end of another ATA cable and put that in the second IDE channel - disconnect your CD drives for the time being.

[Melhisedek]

Well I tried what you said ( Your #1 drive should be master and at the END of the HD cable, the furthest plug from the motherboard. The #2 drive should be Slave and on the plug nearer to the motherboard, if you haven't done that already. ) and this I had already.

Also I plugged the second drive in another IDE cable as a master and I could start but nothing happened :( I can't see it in windows. I checked BIOS and only thing that is connected ( According to BIOS ) is my first HD. Even if I try to update IDE places it still can't find anything.

I have bad feeling about this :/

[L337 M33P]

Don't let Windows do ANYTHING to the drive - if it finds it, it may want to write a signature to it. Don't let it write anything to the drive

I think you might want to try some data recovery companies for quotes :-/ looks bad

If the drive spins up fine then it could just be the controller card, some people have sucessfully replaced it with the one from an identical drive to get the data off.

[Melhisedek]

Well it doesn't spin it doesn't react at all. And why can't I start with on a same IDE cable as my Master ?

Data recovery is pretty expensive IIRC. Let me just say that all my source codes are on that drive ! I don't think I'll make it through this :/

[L337 M33P]

It probably is a dead controller card then - ESD maybe?

If the drive has valuable data on it then it would be wise to get it recovered.

[Melhisedek]

Originally posted by L337 M33P
It probably is a dead controller card then - ESD maybe?

If the drive has valuable data on it then it would be wise to get it recovered.

What does the ESD means and what can I do about a controller ?

Data is valuable to me only. Many of my spare time and hobby projects are there, mp3s and such.

I really don't feel really well right now :(

[L337 M33P]

ESD is electrostatic discharge - kills chips if you have a static charge on you when you touch them. It is a possibility as it doesn't even spin up and has been handled.