Member Avatar for Ruidosohl

:sad: I have a G4 450 single processor with a Maxtor 40 gig IDE drive. Computer locked up and now drive will not show up on screen. When I boot with Norton the cd and zip drives show up. The Maxtor drive does not show up. It is running because you can hear and feel it. I tried putting it in another computer but it doesn't show up there either. What can i do to restore the drive long enough to transfer the data to another drive?

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Dani AI

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A focused follow-up to and : first priority is to avoid further damage. Stop repeated power cycles and write operations to the suspect drive — every additional spin or write can reduce the chance of a successful recovery. If the data is critical, consider professional recovery now; if it is not, proceed with careful, read-only diagnostics.

Safe, low-risk checks to try at home:

  • Swap to a known-good data cable and a different power connector from the same power supply.
  • Connect the drive as the only device on its cable (single-device/master) so it does not share the bus.
  • Try a powered USB-to-IDE/SATA adapter or a different host to see if another controller enumerates the device.
    Do not run file-system repair utilities that write to the disk until a stable image exists.

Imaging workflow (Linux live environment recommended):

  • Use GNU ddrescue to create a read-only image onto a larger spare drive, keeping a log file so work can be resumed.
  • Typical two-pass approach: fast non-retry pass to capture all easy reads, then targeted retries on bad areas. Example commands (replace device and paths as needed):
ddrescue -f -n /dev/sdX /mnt/target/image.img /mnt/target/image.log
ddrescue -d -r3 /dev/sdX /mnt/target/image.img /mnt/target/image.log

Hardware/firmware faults and PCB swaps:

  • If the drive never enumerates at firmware/BIOS level, the fault is likely on the logic board or its firmware. Simple donor-PCB swaps often fail unless the PCB revision matches exactly and the drive-specific ROM/firmware chip is transferred. That transfer requires fine soldering and ESD care.
  • Professional labs do head/clean-room work and logical recovery; when contacting them, request an itemized quote, an evaluation-only price, and a no-data-no-fee policy when possible. Provide drive model and PCB revision to speed diagnosis and get accurate estimates.

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Member Avatar for kc0arf

Hello,

Does the computer try to mount the drive? Do you hear any clicking? Does Norton give you the chance to scan the IDE/SCSI bus and see if the drive is a member? Does Apple's Disk Utility show the drive?

It is possible that the hard drive's controller board is shot. If it was your computer's IDE board, the drive would have worked fine, assuming proper slave/master setup, in the other computer.

It is unfortunate that you have waited this long to move the data to a backup location. You will not make that mistake again.

Christian

Member Avatar for Ruidosohl

Cristian,

Thanks for the reply.

I do hear clicking. Norton comes up fine off the cd drive. When I insert a zip in another drive it also shows up. The hard drive does not show up with the norton utilities when I scan for SCSI devices. If it is the controller board, can I replace it if I find a similar hard drive?

I do have most of the data backed up but it is helter skelter on many cds and on other computers. I would love to restore this drive and transfer it intact to another computer. I had actually purchased a new computer and was in the process of doing it when it crashed. I have contacted some companies about recoverying the info but they want $500 to $900 to do it. I think they are too high but what do I know.

Dave

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