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?

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Short summary and what to check first: the symptoms you describe suggest two different failure modes — either the BIOS never sees the drive (hardware/connection issue), or the drive is seen but has no valid partition/boot record (software-level). Before trying to rewrite anything, verify the drive is actually detected in the BIOS/POST and listen for a normal spin-up. If the BIOS reports nothing, software fixes (format, MBR tools, Ghost) will not help.

Quick, practical steps (do these in order):

  • Power and cable: try a different known-good IDE cable and a different Molex power connector. Use the drive as the only device on the IDE channel (set jumpers to single/master) so cable-select/master conflicts are ruled out.
  • BIOS check: enter BIOS setup and note whether the drive shows model/size. If it does, proceed. If it does not, try a different PC or an external PATA-to-USB adapter to confirm.
  • If BIOS sees the disk: boot a utility (Windows Disk Management, a Linux live CD, or a partition tool) to inspect the drive. You can re-create a partition table and format there. Rewriting the MBR or partition table fixes the “no OS / no boot record” cases that was thinking of; Ghost can do it but free tools such as TestDisk or Windows Recovery Console (fixmbr/fixboot) are alternatives.
  • If BIOS does not see the disk: you’re likely facing a hardware failure (faulty PCB, heads, or controller). Visual inspection for damage, checking for burnt parts, and listening for repetitive clicks are diagnostic clues. PCB swaps sometimes work on very old drives but often fail because of unique calibration/firmware data.

Notes and cautions: ’s idea of formatting is fine once the drive is visible to the OS. Do not attempt PCB swaps unless experienced; drives can contain board-resident calibration that prevents simple swaps. Given the age and capacity (40 GB), weigh recovery cost vs. replacement — if data is critical, professional recovery is the right next step.

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Member Avatar for crunchie

Are you able to slave it to a pc and try to right click on the drive and select 'format?'

Member Avatar for Rick150

I think I remember on some older drives you will need to put on a new MBR on the first seek track of the drive. The heads will look for it and if it is not there then the drive will seem to be absent. A program called Ghost can do it for you if you slave the drive. It will write a new track. It's been so long since I have to do it I don't know if m advice is of any help??

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