you can boot to a linux live disk and see if it can see the drive. If it does not then most likely the drive is gone and data is lost. you do not need a harddrive for it to boot since it will run off of cd or dvd.
http://puppylinux.org/main/Overview%20and%20Getting%20Started.htm
I have a system that boots from a 256gb solid state drive. It also has a 4tb conventional HD for storage.
Today I got the "American Megatrends" screen saying that the HD "S.M.A.R.T" status is "Bad". Reading up on this, it means that the HD is either dead or close to dead.
When that HD is plugged in to the SATA port, the computer will not boot past the American Megatrends screen. When it is not plugged in, the computer boots as normal and appears to work just fine.
I could certainly get a new HD if necessary. But is there any way to save the data on the current one? If so, how? I cannot access it through Windows since the computer will not boot to Windows as long as the HD is plugged into the motherboard.
Thanks

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