[domer]

I have a 120 GB Seagate SATA HDD in a 1 year old computer. Last night Windows failed to load on start up. I got into DOS and ran a dir command, but files on the main HDD were not shown. It appears something is wrong with the Seagate drive. I powered off, disconnected all the cords, reconnected them, replaced the SATA cord all to no avail.

So, it appears something failed in my hard drive. Will there be any way to or any services that recover the data on the drive? Are drives repairable at all?

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your sata drive may not be bad. i dont think sata drives work at all in dos, unless you have the correct windows drivers, and are using the command prompt under windows. you should try pugging the drive in another computer as a secondary, so you can grab your files of there, and put them on a friends computer temporarily, so you can try a reformat (dont forget to install sata drivers when prompted).

[Thebinaryman]

your sata drive may not be bad. i dont think sata drives work at all in dos, unless you have the correct windows drivers, and are using the command prompt under windows. you should try pugging the drive in another computer as a secondary, so you can grab your files of there, and put them on a friends computer temporarily, so you can try a reformat (dont forget to install sata drivers when prompted).

[domer]

binaryman,

Thanks for responding.

I am using Windows XP home and got into dos through booting with the Windows CD. I have a small secondary drive on the computer (not a SATA). I completely unplugged this drive, booted again with the Windows CD and Windows Setup posted a message saying it did not find any hard drives. The SATA was the only drive connected at the time

[Thebinaryman]

the windows cd will prompt you (text on the bottom while starting) to hit a key to install 3rd party sata drivers. hit that key. install drivers that came with your drive, or ones from the manufacturers website. this will allow windows to see your sata hard drive as well. maybe try doing a "repair" rather than reformating, so you can keep your files, but i would recommend a reformat after backing up your files.

[domer]

OK, I ran through booting from the Windows cd again and used the f6 key to load the SATA drivers. When the option to use the Recovery Console came up, I clicked that and a message on the lower edge of the screen came up that it was analyzing my hdd and showed the hdd size. But the system timed out there with no further movement and went back to re-boot. Next I booted from my Norton Ghost cd and tried recovery from that program but it did not recognize the hard drive as being there.

I appreciate any advice

[Thebinaryman]

try doing the windows reinstall, just DONT delete the partition first, and if it says theres an os on the partition already, install anyway, it will overwrite your windows system files, but it shouldnt touch your personal files. does your manufacturer of your drive give any hard drive management software? if anything would recognize the drive, that would.

[Sam_G]

Throw the 120gb hdd out and get a new one.

That will solve your problems.