Computer HD Question

Devildog73

Devildog73

SOH Staff
Staff member
I have another Western Digital 500 Gig/7200 that is not spinning up. It is only about 9-12 months old, has XP and Vista on it with all my files. If I go and get a jumper and jumper 3-4 pins to force it to spin up out of sleep mode, do you think it will work?
 
nomad13 said:
If I recall correctly, SSC is disabled by default(no jumpers). Are you sure there are no other reasons the drive won't start like a loose or defective power cable?

WD Jumper Configuration
Click to expand...


Yes, I have checked all of that. Even moved it from one SATA connection to the other and one power plug to the other. No joy. PC doesn't recognize it in any mode, from setup to in any version of Windows.
 
DD, best 20 bucks I ever spent was at Amazon for an external HD interface that lets you plug nearly any HD into you USB port for extra storage or diagnoses. I think it Servent or Seravent, very good little device and it's paid for itself many times over.

Bones
 
tonybones2112 said:
DD, best 20 bucks I ever spent was at Amazon for an external HD interface that lets you plug nearly any HD into you USB port for extra storage or diagnoses. I think it Servent or Seravent, very good little device and it's paid for itself many times over.

Bones
Click to expand...

I saw something similar in the PX the other day! It was like 50 or 60 bucks though. It would take either a laptop HD or a PC HD and then plug into another computer with USB. I seriously thought about it. Perhaps I will seriously look at getting one.
 
DD

On a older computer that I have had the same problem. It seems that the config was changed during a update. How I do not know but it was. I re-started and Hit the F8 key to go into Safe Mode and the config. There I found that it wasn't reading the drive correctly. Changed it and it started right up. Look there to make sure comp is recognizing the drive correctly.
 
I will second tonybones on the USB interface, there are lots of them out there, I have a Startech at the moment it cost me $50.00 Cdn, and has paid for itself many times over. The thing I like about this one is in addition to accepting 2.5" and 3.5" SATA drives, it came with a ribbon cable and power cable adaptor to allow connection of IDE as well. These look like what Apple calls an External Drive Dock, and can be used to hot swap drives on the fly, excellent piece of gear.

Something you should check is to make sure there are no firmware updates or service bulletins for the drive, I am not aware of anything with WD drives but I had a pair of Seagate 1TB drives that were known to turn into bricks when used a short time, Seagate released a Firware update to prevent this from happening and I never had any problems. I know folks who did have the issue and the only solution was to return the drive to Seagate to have them do the update.

There is one other thing you might try - LAST RESORT ONLY, if all else fails, freeze the drive in your deep freeze - I know shounds weird, I have used this trick as my last ditch effort for years, and it has worked numerous times. Simply put the drive in a sealed plastic bag - a good heavy one is best you don't want any moisture in the bag and no leaks if possible. Seal it up tight and set it inside the freezer for 2 hours or so, once it has had a real good chill remove it and allow it to come back to near room temp, then give it a try. The contraction and expansion of the temp change can sometimes get a drive to kick in. I have also done a slow & low heating, (set oven to 150-200 degrees and heat drive for 8-10 minutes, remove the drive and let it cool back close to room temp and try again) - that is tricky, and really the absolute last resort, I had some success with heating dead drives, (3 out of 10 times it has worked).

Good luck with it.
 
USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA Cable

Devildog73 said:
I saw something similar in the PX the other day! It was like 50 or 60 bucks though. It would take either a laptop HD or a PC HD and then plug into another computer with USB. I seriously thought about it. Perhaps I will seriously look at getting one.
Click to expand...

Yo Lee;

This is the IDE/SATA to USB adapter you're looking for. Find it at TigerDirect $20 CDN:

Sabrent USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA Cable for 2.5-Inch/ 3.5-Inch / 5.25-Inch Drive with Power Adapter

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2329300&CatId=3770
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I use this adapter for several purposes:

- hooks up to any H/D ... many times while the drive is still mounted in the PC.

This allows the H/D to be tested (to see if it works on a dead PC) and to enable the transfer data off it to a new PC. (much easier to copy data if the o/s is not operating)

It can also be used to connect any HD (via USB) to use an external; if you are too poor or too cheap to buy an enclosure.
 
freeze the drive in your deep freeze
Click to expand...
That is a trick for getting a failing hard drive to run for a few more minutes to get data off of it. It doesn't sound like the hard drive is failing, just not being recognized.

Sabrent USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA Cable for 2.5-Inch/ 3.5-Inch / 5.25-Inch Drive with Power Adapter
Click to expand...
I also have one of those, it does come in handy. Usually, when I'm working with hard drives(like cloning the boot drive to a backup drive), I just take the side panel off the computer and use a spare SATA and power cable. Sometimes, a hard drive not attached to the motherboard storage controller will not be recognized correctly.

Hook up the drive to your computer and see if it is recognized by the BIOS. If it is listed in the BIOS but not in "My Computer", the computer is recognizing the drive, Windows is not. Having two hard drives with operating systems on them would cause this problem because a system disc(a hard drive that holds the operating system) MUST be initialized in Windows Disc Management before the operating system is installed. A simple volume(data only), once initialized and formatted, can be recognized by any computer with the same operating system.
If you need data off your old hard drive, you'll need to put that drive in the computer it came out of, boot to windows and copy the data to another drive. An external connection may work, but be sure to plug the external drive in after the system has booted to Windows. Installing a hard drive with an operating system from another computer, in most cases, is going to cause problems.
 
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