[rshaffer61]

OK let's see if the drive is even seen now in bios.
Reboot and enter BIOS by tapping the DEL key in most cases.
When you enter BIOS you should see a screen with several tabs at the top or a list of areas you can scroll through.
What you are looking for is either the General or Main area. In this area it lists all your drives currently connected and identified in your system.
Is the hard drive seen?
Do not change anything in this area or you could cause your system to become unusable.

[Advertisements]

It says
First Chaneel Device 0 [NONE]
First Channel Device 1 [none]
Second Channel Device 0 [Lite-on DVDRW]
Second Channel Device 1 [none]
Third Channel Device 0 [maxtor 6l200m0]
Fourth Channel Device 0 [none]

[SLG]

It says
First Chaneel Device 0 [NONE]
First Channel Device 1 [none]
Second Channel Device 0 [Lite-on DVDRW]
Second Channel Device 1 [none]
Third Channel Device 0 [maxtor 6l200m0]
Fourth Channel Device 0 [none]

[rshaffer61]

Looks like the hard drive has failed. There should be something on the Device 0 as that is normally the boot drive.

[SLG]

So does that mean it's had it?

[rshaffer61]

The hard drive yes.
Is this a desktop or laptop?
It looks to be a desktop with a second hd in it. Before saying for sure let's see if the drive is accessible at all by using a Linux Live cd.

Get Puppy Linux from my signature below...Get puppy-2.16-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso download it and burn it to cd
..
if you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files get Burncdcc from my signature...it is a small FAST no frills iso burning program...

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....in this case its puppy-2.16-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start

make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device....

put the cd in the cd drive..boot your computer....puppy will boot and run totally in ram...if your hardware is is good working order you will know...
after you get it running and your at the desktop...you take the puppy linux cd out and then you can use the burner to copy all your data to cd/dvds
you can also use it to backup your data to a external usb harddrive..just have it hooked to the computer when you boot up with puppy...

==========================
quick guide for saving data...music..files on a system that will not boot using puppy Linux..


after you get to puppy desktop..
click on the drives icon...looks like a flash drive...top row..it will list all the drives connected to

your computer...

click on the red icon for the drive you want to mount...in this case its a flash drive ...puppy will

mount the drive..the drive icon turns green when its mounted...
minimize the drives mounter window..you will need it again in a few minutes..
drag the right edge of it sideways to shrink it to its narrowest size...about half the width of the screen...then drag the window to the right edge of the screen...

now click on the icon that looks like a filing cabinet (kind of yellow) on the main drive...it should
already be green..
you will see a list of all the folders on the main drive Usually your C: drive..shrink that window to
the narrowest you can..about half the width of the screen...drag that window to the left side of the screen...
at this point you should have 2 windows open on your desktop..the flash drive on the right side..
go back to the folders on the C: drive...click on the documents and settings folder...then your user
name or all users..find the folders that has your data..
drag and drop the folder with the data you want to make copies of to the flash drive window...

your options are to move ..copy ect...JUST COPY..if its to big you will have to open the folder and
drag and drop individual files until the flash drive is full...(I have a 120 GB external USB drive for
big data recovery jobs and a 4 GB flash drive for the smaller jobs)..after you get the files copied to
the flash drive...
Click on the drives mounter you minimized earlier
UNMOUNT THE FLASH DRIVE by clicking on the green icon..you will once in awhile get error messages when
unmouting the drive..ignore them..when the flash drive icon turns red again its safe to remove the
flash drive..trot on over (stroll if you want to look cool) to another computer and plug in the flash

drive and copy all the data files ( I drag and drop) to the other computer..
make sure the other computer can read them...

now delete the data on the flash drive...take it back to the misbehaving computer and plug it in

again..click on the drives icon again and repeat until you have all your data transferred to the working
system..

Thanks to happyrock

Edited by rshaffer61, 28 February 2010 - 11:22 AM.

[SLG]

Will Nero 7 do the job of burning an ISO?

[rshaffer61]

Only if it will allow you to burn the disk as a ISO or Image disk. If it burns as data or a bootable disk it will not work.

[SLG]

Ok, well rather than mess about I'll download your suggested burner and try it later. So, am I right in assuming that this will (hopefully) give me access to all my files (music, photo's, documents)for transferring to a new system?
Does this Linux Puppy(potentially) enable the desk top to run so I can burn my files to disc using the damaged PC or will I have to use a flash/external hard drive to save my files to?

[rshaffer61]

Puppy has its own desktop and yes it will give you access to the files you are wanting as long as the hard drive is mechanically working. It does not use the windows at all so there is no permission problems.
The only thing we are trying to know at this point is if the drive mechanically is working. If it is and you can see it then yes backup your data and we will go from there. If the drive is dead then the problem gets even more costly honestly.

[SLG]

Ok, puppy is loaded. When I click on drives though it offers the DVD and a flash drive I have connected (no mention of the HD)

[rshaffer61]

OK it's been awhile since i used puppy but on the desktop is there a icon named Home?
If so click on it and let me know what drives are listed on the left side.

Edited by rshaffer61, 01 March 2010 - 11:07 AM.

[SLG]

It does not look like your pic

When I click on home I get a box with the files 'Choices', 'ghttpd', 'my-apllications','my-documents','my-roxappa','Puppy-reference' and 'spot'

[rshaffer61]

ok in the white box on the top of that window type in \media and let me know what it says.

[SLG]

There is no white box. Just icons

Edited by SLG, 01 March 2010 - 11:23 AM.

[rshaffer61]

OK at this point it looks like the hd is mechanically dead then.