Forum Home
Press F1
 
Thread ID: 88526 2008-03-30 22:15:00 How to retrieve data from an old hard drive? Greg (193) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
654431 2008-04-08 00:35:00 Check that the BIOS is picking it up and check that the IDE connection youve put it on is on AUTO in the BIOS.

So, the BIOS knows its there
Speedy Gonzales (78)
654432 2008-04-08 07:44:00 Thx Speedy. The IDE is set to auto, and no, it's not picked up in the BIOS.

A strange symptom is when it's connected the machine takes ages (around 5 minutes) to boot - when not connected boot time is normal, aless than a minute.
Greg (193)
654433 2008-04-10 01:04:00 Bit of a long shot but how about trying it on the primary cable as a slave? FoxyMX (5)
654434 2008-04-10 02:04:00 Greg,
I've used one of these (similar) cables for a while now to check/recover data on a few hard drives.Very handy and worth buying "just in case"!
www.usbgear.com
Neil McC (178)
654435 2008-04-10 02:37:00 Thx Speedy. The IDE is set to auto, and no, it's not picked up in the BIOS.

A strange symptom is when it's connected the machine takes ages (around 5 minutes) to boot - when not connected boot time is normal, aless than a minute.

Bigfoots had a bit of a 'reputation' for failures back in the day.
If the bios wont detect it then things get rather hard to resolve.
Make sure the drive is actually spinning (stick your ear on it).If not there are
'ways' to make it start spinning.
Is it making any click noises??

A few hours in the freezer is sometime a last resort fix (ie clutching at straws)
sroby (11519)
654436 2008-04-10 02:46:00 if it's causing the PC to hang for 5min at post there's something wrong. Could be the drive itself is faulty.

Put it by itself on an IDE channel, preferably master. make sure your cable is the right way around. try a different (old?) cable, it might not like new 80 conductor cables.

What exact model? there might be some weird jumper settings you need to change..
Agent_24 (57)
654437 2008-04-10 08:22:00 I suppose you've tried Refresh and Rescan disks in computer management, assuming you are running XP?

How about booting up with a linux live CD like Ubuntu 7.04 etc and seeing if Gnome Partition manager recognises the drive. Maybe you could drag the files
onto a USB pen drive if Ubuntu sees the drive??
amiga501 (13562)
654438 2008-04-10 08:36:00 Bigfoots had a bit of a 'reputation' for failures back in the day .
If the bios wont detect it then things get rather hard to resolve .
Make sure the drive is actually spinning (stick your ear on it) . If not there are
'ways' to make it start spinning .
Is it making any click noises??

A few hours in the freezer is sometime a last resort fix (ie clutching at straws)The drive was working perfectly before removed from previous computer several years ago .

But I think your suggestion is the next thing to try .

It powers on, but I can't confirm that it actually spins, and I was going to ask about the freezer thing which I'd heard of before to unstick a stuck platter . Will try tomorrow .
Greg (193)
654439 2008-04-10 08:37:00 Agent, I'm confident about the jumper settings, and I'm using it on a 40 wire cable. Thx anyway and to the others for the suggestions. Greg (193)
654440 2008-04-10 09:22:00 Do you have an older computer to try it with? maybe your one is too new somehow? Agent_24 (57)
1 2 3 4