Member Avatar for abishka

hi all,
not real experienced with computers, mostly just learning through trial and error, have done this a few times before with the computer i made out of bits and peices for my daughter. haven't seen this before though and would greatly appreciate any help!

the problem is this : i installed a new hd as primary slave, my main hd being primary master and my cd/dvd burner as secondary master. it is picking up the new slave hd in bios, but is having troubles with picking it up properly in device manager. it installs it when i click on scan for changes, and is on the list under disk drives briefly before diassappearing. it also does not display under my computer. not sure what to do now. also not sure what info you will need concerning what types of hard drives etc, so let me know and i will post back :)

thanks in advance for any help.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by caperjack

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Useful, practical next steps for a suspect drive — focused on safe diagnosis and data rescue, and complementary to ’s comment about formatting.

Start safe: avoid writing to the drive until you know its state. Swap the data and power cable, try a different port or a powered USB/IDE adapter or enclosure so the drive can be tested externally (this prevents accidental damage to the system you boot from). Run a SMART health check from a rescue environment; on Linux a quick command is:

smartctl -a /dev/sdX

(install smartmontools or use a live distro that includes it). CrystalDiskInfo is a simple Windows alternative. See smartmontools for details: smartmontools.

If SMART or a vendor utility reports bad sectors or errors, image the disk before any repair attempts. GNU ddrescue is designed for rescuing failing drives; a common two-pass workflow:

ddrescue -n /dev/sdX /path/to/image.img /path/to/logfile
ddrescue -r3 /dev/sdX /path/to/image.img /path/to/logfile

Work from the image for recovery tools. Use TestDisk to recover partitions or PhotoRec to carve files from the image: TestDisk / PhotoRec. Imaging first preserves any remaining data and keeps later recovery attempts from making things worse.

Other tips: run the drive maker’s diagnostics (SeaTools, WD Data Lifeguard, etc.) for low-level tests; listen for clicking or slow spin-up (signs of mechanical failure); and accept that drives with growing bad-sector counts should be replaced. If the data is critical and you’re unsure, stop and consider a professional recovery service — repeated DIY attempts can reduce recovery odds.

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Member Avatar for caperjack

you need to make sure the drive is formatted ,does it show in computer management ,disk management ,
go to start /run and type this in .
compmgmt.msc
go to disk management .and see if it there .if so right click on its reference and choose format .all this is assuming the drive is new with no data stored on it yet .

Member Avatar for abishka

hey,
it wasn't new. i gave up on it, i tried to format it but it kept coming up as damaged or umm something else i forget, and said it could not format the drive. so i'll just go with it's damaged and throw it out. after i tried formatting my master drive wouldn't start up saying the hal.dll file was missing from system32 and could not start the computer so i installed a second windowsxp to be able to get onto the net and was able to fix the problem through directions on the internet by replacing the boot.ini files. it proved to be more hassle then it was worth so i think i will keep to my original idea and go buy a new one. pity though as i am making my daughter a computer and was kinda hoping i could get it to work as the hard drive was 40 gb and all she has in hers at the moment is a 6gb. you win some you lose some! thanks for the advise though!

Member Avatar for caperjack

yeah ,win and lose,sounds about right!!

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