Member Avatar for loyd

Wiped HDD are doa

I received several Maxtor 40 gb hard drives that were “wiped” by the donor. So far, I have not been able to get past “operating system not found” or “hard disk not found” on any of them. Using three different computers and trying all the variations that I know produced nothing. I don’t want to discard working parts if they can be recycled. XP gets through several screens and stops at “Setup is loading Windows” on the scroll bar. The screen reads “cannot continue press F3 to exit” which will reboot the machine and repeat the process. That indicates XP can’t find the HDD either, I think. What am I neglecting here? What do you suggest I try to successfully recycle these drives?

  • 3 Contributors
  • 3 Replies
  • 102 Views
  • 1 Day Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by bobbyraw

Dani AI

Generated

A compact, practical diagnostic and salvage workflow that complements and without repeating installer tricks already tried. Focus first on hardware/visibility, then on nondestructive tests, then on salvage options if the drives are mechanically failed.

Listen and power

  • Momentary spin or steady rotation on power-up is the single best indicator the motor and electronics are alive. No spin or repeated clicking usually means mechanical failure and little chance of normal reuse.
  • If testing externally, use an adapter/enclosure that provides both 5V and 12V (3.5" drives require 12V). Many cheap USB dongles only supply 5V and will not spin a desktop drive.

Check detection without the installer

  • Boot a small Linux live USB to remove Windows-setup variables and see whether the kernel sees the disk. Useful commands to run on the live environment are:
    sudo dmesg | tail -n 80
lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,MODEL,VENDOR
sudo smartctl -a /dev/sdX

    (Replace /dev/sdX with the device shown; older kernels may use /dev/hdX.)

Use SMART and vendor tools

  • If the drive appears, run a short SMART self-test and inspect Reallocated_Sector_Ct / Current_Pending_Sector. Any nonzero pending/reallocated counts indicate reliability problems.
  • If SMART passes but the installer still fails, use the drive maker’s bootable diagnostic/erase utility or a secure-erase tool from a live environment to reinitialize firmware-level tables.

If the drive is truly dead

  • Clicking/no-spin → candidate for parts only. Harvest magnets, actuator, spindle motor, or PCB components.
  • PCB swaps sometimes work for older models but often fail because adaptive calibration data is stored per-drive; a swap without transferring the EEPROM/ROM is risky and can make things worse.

Prioritize: confirm spin and BIOS/kernel detection first, run SMART next, then decide between software-level reinitialization or parts-harvest.

Recommended Answers

All 3 Replies

Member Avatar for jbennet

are you using the xp partitioning/format tools or 3rd party ones?

they might need a driver floppy (f6 or f8)

Member Avatar for loyd

I have been using XP Pro slipstreamed with SP2. This has worked beautifully for over a year. I also downloaded the CD from Microshaft (that produces 6 floppy disks) resulting in a partitioned and formatted hard drive, which is ready to receive OS XP.

Member Avatar for bobbyraw

try using the maxtor cd that come wioth the drive, ( can also be down load and burn to cd) use it to check the drive, if the drive heads are damaged, (Which can happen in the DOA wipe) then you would not abe able to use the drives.

Also what jumper setting are you using for the drives, Single, Master, master with slave, Cap limit, Cable select

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.