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General discussion

hard disk is not recognizable

Jul 26, 2010 12:05AM PDT

my almost new computer just stuffed up and it kept on restarting.even i wasn't able to restart the PC in the safe mode.it has an IDE Maxtor hard disk with 250 GB capacity with windows XP SP3 installed.
i had an IDE western digital (WD) hard disk with 20 GB capacity with windows XP SP3 installed.so i connected
the WD hard drive to the pc as a master.i placed both jumper on cable select (CS)and connected the power and data cable (the data cable is one those which chooses the master and the slave by itself so there is no problem there).the computer recognizes the Maxtor hard disk as a slave and also i can see it in the device manager and disk management but not in my computer.in the device manager it shows it is working properly but in the disk managent it says you have to format it before using it but i don't want to lose all my files on it. i thought maybe there might some missing files that cause windows on the western digital hard drive doesn't recognize the Maxtor hard drive so i reinstalled windows XP SP3 on the WD hard drive but still every thing
is the same as before.i heard you can take ownership of a hard drive but how?
((i have done this once before about a year ago and it worked but my WD hard drive was in its case and i connected the Maxtor hard drive into that case but now i don't have that case because i throw it away and just took the hard disk and DVD player out of it)).

both hard drive have windows XP SP3 installed.
the motherboard is Gigabite.
thank s for all your help guys;
Sarah

Discussion is locked

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Presuming you have two IDE ports, why not
Jul 26, 2010 4:21AM PDT

try connecting each HD to a separate cable. If these are 80 conductor types as you described, put the drives on the black connectors with blue on the MB. Try to enter the BIOS when booting and see if both drives are detected. The alternative method is to use an external case with USB cable. I can't tell if the Maxtor has gone belly up but that's what you need to determine. If it has, professional services are what might be your last hope. Good luck.

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second hard drive still not accessible
Jul 27, 2010 10:30PM PDT

Hi Steven; thanks for your help. i did what you've asked me to do ((the data cable has writing on it which shows which end goes where)) and in the BIOS both hard drive were detected but still not working.
why when i had my old computer and i connected the Maxtor HDD to the western digital HDD in the old case it worked. do you think there might be a software or a file missing on the WD HDD which causes the Maxtor HDD to not be accessible.
again thanks for your help,
sarah