HELP! computer gurus...

[rhock99 at epix.net (Ryan H)]

Allyn's suggestions are great... but just for ease's sake, take that drive out and try it in another computer FIRST.  If it works on a different computer, it's your mainboard.  If not, it's the hard-drive.  Alternatively, if you have another hard drive, take out the *bad* one and put the spare in.  If that works, then it's the hard drive.
BTW - by not detected, do you mean it physically said on the screen "Checking IDE 1... No Devices Found" (or something along those lines).  Or did it just go to a black screen with "Disk Not Found".  Scenario A is a hardware issue, scenario B is a software issue (Master Boot Record bad).  I hope it's B, but don't worry - we can rescue you if it's A.  From here, follow Allyn's suggestions.

> 
> From: "Allyn" <amalventano@sc.rr.com>
> Date: 2004/01/08 Thu PM 04:44:01 EST
> To: "Michael Abatzis" <abatzis2@hotmail.com>, 
> 	<scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
> Subject: Re: HELP! computer gurus...
> 
> i got your back, mike:
> 
> sounds like the hard drive interface (on the drive itself) fried, causing xp
> to freeze. some p2p programs tax the drive quite a bit (with multiple
> simultaneous random accesses), and if it was on the threshold of failing,
> p2p just took it past that point.
> 
> 1. see if you can get the drive detected again. eliminate things like the
> controller, cables, etc. worst case, put the drive as a second drive on a
> completely different computer, to eliminate all of the other stuff.
> 
> 2. if the drive cannot be detected *no matter what*, search ebay for the
> drive model, buy the drive, when it shows up, swap the drive mainboards (on
> the bottom), and the drive should work.
> 
> 3. if the drive eventually gets recognized, all should re-appear with all
> partitions in-tact (since the drive went down 'hard', nothing really got a
> chance to become corrupted.
> 
> if other things have gotten messed up, just lemme know, there are plenty of
> alternate routes that you may end up having to take (including a disc swap),
> but realize that it IS possible to get the data back. its on the disc, just
> gotta find a way to read it.
> 
> hth
> Al
> 
> Allyn Malventano, ETC(SS), USN
> 87 Rieger Scirocco GTO 2.0 16v (daily driver, 190k, rocco #6)
> 86 Kamei Twin 16V Turbo Scirocco GTX (30% complete, rocco #7)
> 86.5 Occo 16v Trailer (rocco #8)
> 90 Passat GL 16V (the wifes new daily, 190k)
> 87 Jetta 8v Wolfsburg 2dr (wifes daily, 290k) **FOR SALE**
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Michael Abatzis" <abatzis2@hotmail.com>
> To: <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
> Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2004 4:31 PM
> Subject: OT: HELP! computer gurus...
> 
> 
> > while using a new p2p program (shareaza) my computer (ms xp) froze. when i
> > rebooted, my pri master hard drive was no longer detected.  i'm thinking
> i'm
> > sol at this point, and have no idea how to proceed. in addition to 10 gigs
> > of music, and tons of personal stuff that i can't even remember, i'm out
> > about 2 years worth of digital pics, which are needless to say
> > irreplaceable.  i'm guessing i'll need some sort of data recovery people,
> > but again, don't know where to go with this.  if anyone can help me *at
> > all*, please lmk. thanks,
> >
> >
> > -Michael Abatzis
> > New Orleans!
> > 1988 Scirocco 2L 16v RIP
> > 1987 Scirocco 2L 16v...
> >
> >
> >
> > -Michael Abatzis
> > New Orleans!
> > 1988 Scirocco 2L 16v RIP
> > 1987 Scirocco 2L 16v...
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
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