Hard drive being stupid

lifeisbetterwithketchup · Sat Oct 18, 2008 11:24 pm

Awhile back, the IDE controller in my Dell 4550 started acting screwy (wouldn't accept a slave device), so I removed the Seagate 160GB drive that was in there, and let it sit on my desk lonely for awhile.

Well, today I needed to get some data off of it (the key for an Xbox 360 motherboard) and it wouldn't work. At all. I couldn't get it to work with my IDE>USB adapter, nor in my new computer via IDE directly. The disk appears to spin up (makes noise, vibration), but I don't see it in the BIOS or in Windows.

Any suggestions to get this thing operational?

Bibin · Post by **Bibin** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:00 am

It seems like the drive controller and IDE interface is dead. Sorry.

lifeisbetterwithketchup · Sun Oct 19, 2008 10:09 am

Bibin wrote:It seems like the drive controller and IDE interface is dead. Sorry.

Is there any hope for this thing? Would there be a way for me to put a new controller in there or something? I would really like to get some stuff off this drive.

EDIT: It's still in warranty... Seagate would probably replace it for me, but I doubt they'd retrieve my data.

Post by **bicostp** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 10:11 am

You've tried fiddling with the jumper settings? (Some USB adapters don't seem to like dealing with Cab;e Select; you have to set it to Master.)

If that doesn't work, you could try swapping the logic board with one from an identical hard drive. Just be warned that you may need a Torx screwdriver, and that trick may not work properly.

Tibia · Post by **Tibia** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 11:15 am

Just curious, but when you say "identical" do you mean everything the same down to the size? Or is there an incredibly slim chance it'd work with two drives of different sizes?

Size, as in capacity of the drives, not physical size.