[Ztruker]

That means the original drive was still primary. How did you swap them, as it appears it didn't work.

Completely disconnect the original drive. Make sure the other drive is jumpered as Master then attach it to the last connector on the cable.

Now power up and you get a boot error about no bootable drive or boot sector missing, something.

If that happens that says the original drive is defective or is not bootable. If you have the exact same symptoms then the hard drive is not the problem and you have to look elsewhere for the cause. The you start removing parts as I mentioned previously.

This could turn out to be a defective mother board, no way to tell yet.

Re: Booting the recovery disc. You need to make sure BIOS is setup so that the CD drive is the first bootable device, it must be ahead of the hard drive.

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ahh your right, I didnt move the jumper before. Now Im geting the "Error loading OS" error.

[gmcube]

ahh your right, I didnt move the jumper before. Now Im geting the "Error loading OS" error.

[Ztruker]

Okay, thats good news/bad news. Good that it definitely says there is a problem with the original drive, bad that the original drive is defective

You can try installing XP on the current drive, then mount the old drive as a slave and see if you can save your data. Chances are pretty good you can.

Assuming the old drive gets D: as a drive letter when you put it back, you may need to do a chkdsk d: /r from the Start / Run menu if the file system is in an inconsistent state, before you can get to any data.

[gmcube]

Just an update on this whole thing. I went ahead and bought a new 320 gig hardrive. I took out both old drives and installed XP, service pack 2 and a handful of other apps. I haven't got around to buying the cable yet though. would any of you mind linking me to one (in the US)? Ive searched around but I'm never sure if its what I'm looking for.

a few people (not online) have suggested the faulty hardrive might work as a secondary (instead of a slave) to recover the data that way, but I just tested it and it just prompts me to format it. I chose no of course. I didn't expect that to work but I figure it was worth trying until I get the cable.

my problem for now is getting my Internet connection working again...

Edited by gmcube, 02 April 2008 - 07:51 PM.

[Mr Freeze]

heres a couple of links

http://tekgems.com/P...ada-en2535a.htm

http://shopping.aol....b-dsc5/23035558

i used computers molex to power the harddrive
i picked mine at a repair shop ide/sata usb 2.0 cable

Edited by Mr Freeze, 03 April 2008 - 07:33 AM.

[Ztruker]

I have a Newer Technology USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter that I purchased from here: http://eshop.macsale...ogy/U2NV2SPATA/

It's a Mac site but this device is truly universal. I got it for $20.77 but the price is higher now so a Google search for the above might find a better price.

You do not have to open your computer at all. It comes with a standard power connector and IDE/ATA/SATA connectors so you can hook up just about any drive.

[gmcube]

Thanks guys. that universal adapter seems pretty cool. I'll aim for that if I can find it cheap.
I'm finally back on my PC with Internet. took forever even with two comcast technicians. spent the day trying to make my PC feel like its old self again. it wont feel completely right until I know the data on my original drive is safe.

[gmcube]

okay, I got the adapter from newertechnology. I connected it, the pc recognised something being attached, but the drive does not show up in My Computer.
I have tried restarting the comp with the drive attatched. also, the drive is set to master. at least I think...

Edited by gmcube, 10 April 2008 - 02:20 PM.

[Ztruker]

Sounds like the drive is truly dead. It wasn't recognized when you installed it as a slave and it isn't recognized when you connect it as a USB device. Not sure what else you can do with it. If the data is very important then you will have to locate a data recovery firm to get it.

[gmcube]

eek, not good. does anyone here have experience with a recovery firm? I'm trying to see what they charge. it seems the average is about 350 bucks, but I'm not sure.

[Daz3210]

Does the computer recognise the drive as being there at all?

I once used a piece of recovery software that came free with a Sandisk extreme compactflash card. It found all the data even after the drive had been reformatted.

May be worth a try?

[gmcube]

well it didn't before, but Ive gotten it to recognize it by changing the jumper and moving it to the rear usb port. I wonder if this means anything can be done?

I'm reluctant to reformat though, even if if can be recovered that way, it still seems risky.

[Ztruker]

No, DO NOT format!

By recognized, do you mean it's now assigned a drive letter and is visible in My Computer? If so, what is the drive letter assigned to it.

Open a command prompt and enter chkdsk x: /f /r (x is the drive letter assigned)

Let it complete undisturbed.

[gmcube]

the drive letter is G. I just tried it and it says the drive is RAW. chkdsk is not available for RAW drives

Edited by gmcube, 11 April 2008 - 12:56 PM.

[Daz3210]

Can you see anything on the drive in windows explorer?