A Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 40GB

Install with WinME. 6 months old. started to get a bit flaky closing down and booting....then nothing!

Setup doesn't even find the drive now. Have tried on another pc and also no find.

Is this just a dud hdd or has something happened to cause it.

I know without being there you'll only be giving educated guesses, but any input would be appreciated.

Any way of bringing a dead drive back - if it's possible?

Thanks :(

What do you mean it started to get a bit flakey? When you tried it in another computer, did you try a new cable? If not, I would try a new cable first. How do you have it jumpered? It shouldn't stop being recognised by the computer even if it died, so that could indicate a jumper issue. On the other hand, it shouldn't be a jumper if you have been running it for 6 months. Keep it mind that it is probably still under warranty and you can get it replaced, but your data may be lost if it isn't already backed up.

You can try the freezer trick it you wish, but I would do some more troubleshooting first. If it gets to that point, you put it in a plastic ziplock type bag and freeze it for about 30 minutes. You then hook it up and try to get the data off quick because it will fail again soon and may not come back even with a freeze. This is a LAST RESORT!!

Flakey? I had problems with blue screen errors; freezing up that sort of thing. It did seem like some kind of virus infestation, but nothing found.

Then drive not found. I have tried other drives on the machine, with the same cable and no prob.

Not worried about the data on the drive, but would like to suss out what has happened to the drive.

If you go to the manufacturers website, you will be able to download their diagnostic tools. These will test the drive, and give you a better case if you want to claim under warranty.

Seagate Support (http://www.seagate.com/support/)

David

When you say it isn't recognised in Setup, do you mean it isn't seen by the BIOS or by Windoze?? If it isn't seen by the BIOS, you probably need to try a different cable and mess with the jumpers to see if you can get access. If it isn't seen by Windoze, try the diagnostics that david eaton is suggesting....

Thanks Guys.

It's not seen in bios. I'll try different cable and jumper combo's tomorrow, but I don't think it's the cable and the jumpers wouldn't have changed overnight and it worked for six months :confused:

If it's not picked up by the bios them I'm pretty stuck, I suppose?

Sounds like it. S**t happens sometimes. try the cables first - they are cheaper!

David

S**t happens sometimes

Yeah :) too true!

Do you know of anywhere/anyone in the UK who can analyse what has happened with something like this? It seems so strange to me that it should just go like this.

Curiosity killed the cat...

Hard drives are extremely complex and it always surprises me more that they work at all rather than that they fail sometimes. Again, if it is only six months old, it is covered by warranty and most manufacturers are pretty good about replacing it....:rolleyes:

Try this
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/comp/hdd/fail_BootDetect.htm

Then select "The hard disk won't autodetect in the BIOS setup program".