Think I've killed my HD PLEASE HELP

[Jonjay3012]

I have 2 hard drives, a 40Gb with windows and programmes on and a 250Gb which I intended to use as a save drive and all was fine running like this.

However I changed my mind and deceided I wanted to do a clean install of windows onto the 250Gb drive and run everything from there (doing away with the smaller drive). I moved my files all onto the smaller drive then unplugged it to make sure I couldn't mess that one up, so it was there to fall back on.

I went to do a clean XP pro instal on the 250Gb drive, and deleted the partictions and formated the drive. The format took about 2 hours and at the end it said it was unable to format drive :S and after that the pc will not read the drive at all.

I have now plugged the small drive back in and it works fine. The only problem is I can't see the bigger drive (now back to being slave) in "My Computer". If I go into device manager it says that it's there but there are no volumes on it :S

So basically the drive is there, the pc sees it, but can't read it (I think)

Anyone know whats up with it and whether I can fix it. I really hope so as I cannot afford a new drive and I need more than 40Gb

Cheers
Jon

 

[Nitestick]

use a third party partition tool. google BootItNG and use it in maintenance mode

 

[jeremy]

is that 250gb sata? maybe it didnt work cuz you should have use the sata floppy in setup (containing the controller driver) it depends on the mobo , anyway try the builtin disk managment , goto start-->settings-->control panel-->administrative tools-->computer mangment-->disk managment , also i suggest youll use the hd manufacturer diagnostic software to test the drive

 

[Jonjay3012]

Thanks for the replies.

I have gone into Adnin Tools - Disk Management but the drive doesn't show up in there. If I go into Device manager the drive is listed under disc drives but in the Volumes tab it says unreadable when I click populate.

The Drive is a Maxtor 7Y250P0 and I'm pretty sure it isn't SATA.

If the computer can't read the drive is third party partition software going to be any use?

Also where would I get the Diagnostic tool from. I can't find it on the Maxtor Site

This is really doing my head in. All I did was try and format the drive

 

[Jonjay3012]

Just one other thing. I have just checked in BIOS and it recognises the drive in there and sees it's capacaty as 251Gb. But there are no sectors or anything on it.

 

[jeremy]

Just one other thing. I have just checked in BIOS and it recognises the drive in there and sees it's capacaty as 251Gb. But there are no sectors or anything on it.

do you have a digital camera ? if you do take a picture of it, whats your mobo? , you got that 250gb just recently or it worked fine before?

diagnostic software
for cd - http://downloads.maxtor.com/downloads/_files/maxtor/en_us/downloads/PwrMaxEn.iso
for floppy - http://downloads.maxtor.com/downloads/_files/maxtor/en_us/downloads/powermax.exe
user guide - http://www.maxtor.com/_files/maxtor/en_us/documentation/manuals/powermax_guide_en.pdf


howto
if you downloaded the cd version
burn it as disc image not as data
with nero - in menu goto recorder-->burn image
with nero express - click "disc image or saved project"
with imgburn - in menu goto file-->browse , click the play button to start burning (insert a blank cd first) , you can get it from here

if you downloaded the floppy version
insert a blank floppy disk , run it and follow instructions

eitherway , youll need to set the boot order right in bios..

 

[RicoDirenzo]

Are you sure that drive is jumpered as a slave in IDE? If not, the bios will see it but Windows will not! Edit: try junpering both as cable select and see what happens.

 

[snypercore]

yeah i agree with the above post check your jumpers and set the old drives to slave and the new to master.

 

[Jonjay3012]

I'm pretty sure the Jumpers are all set correctly and I have tried them on cable select.

The drive was working fine before when I was using it just as a slave drive. The thing that seems to have killed it is formatting it. When the format finished it said format failed and it hasn't worked since.

I ran the diagnostic software and it basically says the drive isn't working and will have to be replaced I'm well ****ed off. Only had the thing a couple of months and it worked fine before trying to format. The problem is it came thrown in with a second hand pc (although I think the drive was new) so I have no receipts or anything for it. GRRRRRRRRRR

 

[Sui]

YES!!!! I was right its a maxtor. I knew it from the first post.