Member Avatar for MuneezaRai

My hard disk stopped showing any drives, I tried to install new window but that was not possible because not even a single drive is showing. Can any one help me in getting data in lost drives?

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If the disk is not visible to the motherboard (BIOS/UEFI) the problem is at the device level rather than the filesystem. Intermittent detection before the failure points toward either a failing electronics board, an intermittently failing actuator/heads, or a flaky cable/port—not a simple partition problem. That history matters: intermittent recognition raises the chance of partial recovery if the drive can be imaged while it is responding.

Recommended triage (in order, minimizing further damage):

  1. Power down and preserve the current state. Avoid repeated OS installs or long boot attempts that write to the device.
  2. Try simple hardware checks on a desktop: swap the SATA (or power) cable, try a different SATA port, and try a different known-good power connector. For IDE/PATA drives only, check jumper position—this is not relevant for SATA drives. Prefer connecting internally to a desktop rather than using cheap USB enclosures, which can mask device-level faults.
  3. If the drive spins up and is detected by BIOS, create a full, sector-level image immediately (use tools that retry intelligently) and work from the image for recovery. If the drive is intermittently visible, imaging during a brief healthy window is the priority.
  4. If the drive is silent, emits repeated clicks, or never appears in BIOS despite cable/power swaps, further DIY attempts risk worsening the damage; consult a professional recovery lab.

Notes and cautions: the “cooling/freezer” trick and PCB swaps are last-ditch, risky measures and can cause condensation or permanent harm; PCB swaps usually fail on modern drives without specific ROM transfers. and were right to suggest trying alternate systems; ’s jumper question matters only for older IDE drives. Given the intermittent behavior reported by , the safest path is to stop normal use, attempt non-destructive hardware checks, and image any briefly-detectable device before attempting file recovery or paying for a lab.

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Member Avatar for caperjack

well for starters stop trying to use it ,as this will overwrite the lost data ,its possible your hard drive just up and died and it may not be possible to get the data back with out paing thousands of dollars to a recovery lap to retrieve the data .

you need to hook drive via a usb device to a working computer to see if you can access the harddrive
then if you can ,you need to try recovering files ,i have use Recua for this with some success ,but if windows cant see the drive in diskmanager then no software you try will see the drive either.

recuva tool

Edited by caperjack
Member Avatar for MuneezaRai

HD is undetectable on any system. When i was previously installing windows on this drive, this error occured which said drive not found, i kept on trying by rebooting again and again atlast found drive and installed window. but now it has been a month and m getting same error. I just want my data back, please suggest me any way out. I have now kept my HD in freezer, a friend said it may help

Member Avatar for MuneezaRai

What if i use linux, will it detect the drive

Member Avatar for caperjack

doesn't matter what operating sysem you try ,its the computer thats not detection the harddirve not the operating system [but wouldn't hurt to try it if you want, but don't install anthing on it as you could overwrite the files on it ] if its not working it will not show .the freeszer trick dosn't work ,all its suppost to accomplish is if the drive is overheating it might give you a chance to run it long enough to get some file off ! ,if the drive is broke it broke,sorry

or take it to a pro data shop ,if you data has value ,it could cost lots of dollars to retrieve

Edited by caperjack
Member Avatar for Andy456

If you have a single harddrive then make sure that your hard drive must be on Master jumper setting and make a bios setting that your computer boot from hard drive.If your problem remains same then it may be your hard problem.

Regards.
Andy.

Member Avatar for MuneezaRai

Andy456 Please alloborate, what is master jumper setting? and what to do for bios settings?

Member Avatar for caperjack

jumper settings are on the power end of thehardrive and have to be physically be change ,so if the drive worked and jsut stoped working it not likely the master /slave setting ,or a bios setting for that matter! its a dead harddrive

Member Avatar for hithirdwavedust

Yeah, yeah, I know. Dead old thread.

A few alternate hypothesis: (though dead hard disk is very likely)
Your hard disk cable may have shorted out. The cable connector could also be damaged or not making a proper connection. It is also possible (though VERY unlikely is that the power cable/ connector is broken)

None of this is likely, but all of this is stuff I would try before giving up. And yes, IF I could get the disk recognized by the BIOS, I would also have a live boot linux distro ready to swoop in and rescue my semi-precious data.

Member Avatar for RobertHDD

Look your hdds are dead thats why its not showing any drives

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