[IndyBlue]

[Note: I originally posted this under Windows 2003--I made an error about my operating system. Please forgive any inconvenience this may cause--I apologize!]

Dear Geeks to Go,

First off, I just wanted to thank you for all your help in the past--I have solved many a problem coming to this site.

Here's my new problem (and it's one that probably has no solution...): I have a Dell PC with Windows XP on it. The computer is 6 years old. The other night, I was surfing the Internet and I got the Blue Screen of Death. I tried restarting the computer--nothing happened. I tried hitting F12 (to boot it up), but all I got was the F12 screen--I couldn't move the arrows, and there was no response. (I tried this a few times, and sometimes the screen would say "Keyboard failure"--even though the keyboard was properly connected.)

I brought the CPU in to my office and had our IT guy look at it. He tried to recover the hard drive using a special program, but the C-drive had completely disappeared. Note: our IT guy is a lovely, capable person, but not a hardcore geek. He takes care of the office just fine, but he's not especially talented with programming or understanding exactly how computers work. (He has way more knowledge than I, though!)

My questions for you: Is my hard drive recoverable? If so, could you recommend a course of action? Should I take it to a data recovery expert? Would you be able to recommend any in the NYC area? Is there another special program or procedure we could try to get the data? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, although I suspect my hard drive is gone for good...

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Sincerely,

Indy

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If you enter your BIOS is your Hard Drive recognized in there.

All Hard Drives can be recovered for the right price, it always depends on you. Some expert company will recover data out of burnt Hard Drive if you are willing to pay.

Without knowing what your IT person actually did may I ask if the HD was taken out of your pc case and put into another computer as a slave drive to see if it is readable.

The fact it is not readable could be for different reason:
- the drive itself is damage
- the boot sector of your drive is corrupted
- the IDE channel (or sata) on your motherboard is damage
- your wire connector between your hd and your motherboard is defective

It will help knowing what actions were taken to access your hd before saying it is really dead.

[Alzeimer]

If you enter your BIOS is your Hard Drive recognized in there.

All Hard Drives can be recovered for the right price, it always depends on you. Some expert company will recover data out of burnt Hard Drive if you are willing to pay.

Without knowing what your IT person actually did may I ask if the HD was taken out of your pc case and put into another computer as a slave drive to see if it is readable.

The fact it is not readable could be for different reason:
- the drive itself is damage
- the boot sector of your drive is corrupted
- the IDE channel (or sata) on your motherboard is damage
- your wire connector between your hd and your motherboard is defective

It will help knowing what actions were taken to access your hd before saying it is really dead.

[IndyBlue]

Thank you, Alzeimer!

Here's what I can tell you (our IT person is out today, but I can contact him if necessary--please let me know whatever details you need):

The hard drive was not recognized in BIOS.

Our IT person did not take out the hard drive and try it as a slave drive. (Do you recommend this?)

This was all that was done; IT guy is pretty convinced that nothing can be done. He also told me that it would be very expensive to recover the data. In that case, I would just say goodbye to my hard drive...

If you can recommend other courses of action, I'd be very grateful!

Indy

[Alzeimer]

if it was not recognized in the BIOS the it is either you hd that is dead or the cable needs to be change or that your IDE port (or sata) on the motherboard that is damage.

When you say you got an error message for your keyboard not being detected, does this happen often or was it only once.

I would suggest you try your hd in another computer to be sure if it is really not readable or if the problem is on your current motherboard.

If you have and IDE hd be sure to use the right jumper setting to work with any other hard drive already connected to this pc, if it is a sata hd then just plug it in and see if the bios can recognize it. you can do it manually (taking your hd out of your case and temporay connect it to another known good working computer or use an external hd enclosure to connect it.

[IndyBlue]

Thanks again, Alzeimer!

Re the keyboard error message: it happened about 50% of the time (I tried many times to restart my computer). Whether or not I got the error message, the actual keyboard did not work on the F12 screen (that is, I could not use the arrow buttons to move the cursor). The keyboard did work on the F2 screen, though. Since I know nothing about computer hardware, I have no idea what any of this means.

I will ask our IT person to try the hard drive on another computer and will report back to you. I believe my hard drive is SATA, by the way.

If there's anything else you might suggest, I'm all ears.

Thanks again for all your kind help. Vous etes tres gentile.

[IndyBlue]

Dear Alzeimer,

THANK YOU!!! I was able to recover my hard drive! I passed on your recommendations to our IT guy, and he tested the hard drive on another computer--it was still intact. Now I will buy a nice big external hard drive to prevent this from ever happening again.

Many, many thanks, Alzeimer--Geeks to Go has never let me down! What a great website and collection of computer experts...I'm so grateful!

Sincerely,

IndyBlue