Please help, is my old hard drive dead?

[littlegoku]

I was using my 120 western digital hard drive. Today I brought a new 160gb western digital.

I installed the 160 gb , 2 ntfs partitions, windows installation was ok.

Then I tried to add the 120 gb as a slave, but bios cant detect it and windows wont boot.

I had to change the jumper settings of both drives to cable select to boot into windows. In windows , I couldnt see my old drive.
Is my old hard drive dead? I have lots of valuable data on the old hard drive

(the power cable wires for the old drive is slightly thinner, could that be a problem?)

 

[Harvey]

Some motherboards do not always work with the jumpers set for Cable Select. Try setting them for thier dedicated positions as Master and Slave, or try using the second drive on the other IDE channel.

Don't forget to set the jumper on any other drive (burner, etc.) on IDE Ch. 2, too. If you do that, always make a burner the Master on that channel.

 

[littlegoku]

Originally posted by: Harvey
Some motherboards do not always work with the jumpers set for Cable Select. Try setting them for thier dedicated positions as Master and Slave, or try using the second drive on the other IDE channel.

Don't forget to set the jumper on any other drive (burner, etc.) on IDE Ch. 2, too. If you do that, always make a burner the Master on that channel.

I have already tried setting one to master and one to slave and the bios wont recognize the old drive and I couldnt boot into windows.

"Don't forget to set the jumper on any other drive (burner, etc.) on IDE Ch. 2, too." What do you mean?
On my other ide channel, the burner is at master and the dvd rom is at slave. didnt make any changes to it.

 

[Harvey]

You may just need a different IDE cable. If that doesn't work, temporarily disconnect the CDRW and DVD, and plug the other drive into IDE ch. 2, just to see if your system recognizes it.

Originally posted by: littlegoku
What do you mean?
On my other ide channel, the burner is at master and the dvd rom is at slave. didnt make any changes to it.

I mean, a burner should always be connected as a Master on the IDE channel. Personally, I would make the DVD player a Slave on IDE ch. 1 and the second hard drive a Slave on IDE ch. 2, but that's just my preference.

 

[littlegoku]

the cable I am using is the one that came with the hard drive.. The one I had before was destroyed by me when i yanked the cable form the old hd (the head of it came off)


I am getting partiation magic and see if it works. Also if that doesnt then I will try to boot the old drive as master and see if it works

 

[Harvey]

I hope you didn't damage the IDE connector's contacts to the traces on your motherboard.

 

[littlegohan]

you must have wrecked it somehow

 

[Bleep]

The one I had before was destroyed by me when i yanked the cable form the old hd

The cause of the problem! A little more tender loving care with your stuff will save you lots of grief.

Bleep

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: littlegohan
do u think they will let rma it?

You broke it. Do you think they should?

Got ethics? If it's working, live with it, and treat it very gently.