Urgent Problem! Time A Major Factor! Please!

[NervousLarry]

Ok, here's the story in short-

Me and my friend are fairly knowlegable about computers, but not extremely. We aren't complete morons, but we certainly aren't pros, and that's why I've been frantically searching the internet for help, since Dell did nothing for us. My friend has a Dell Dimension desktop from 2002, with decent specs (over 2 GHZ I think, etc.) It's nothing fancy, but it isn't ancient. Anyway, we were editing a very important movie that's due soon, using Adobe Premiere Pro. He has Windows XP Home Edition and has an added Drive (F that he had installed recently. That's where we save all the files for the movies- the F: Drive.

We were editing today, he left Adobe open, we went out to go do something, came back, and some error message came up and Adobe closed down. We restarted the computer, and it couldn't find the F Drive. The icon was gone. All the shortcuts stopped working. So it was basically as if the drive completely vanished. So we flipped out, and tinkered around a bit. We restarted, then the C: Drive wasnt accesible. We tried going into system utilities, and the system didnt recognize with drive as anything, it just said "unkown". Eventaully we got windows and the C: Drive back, but still no F:. At one point, we got the computer to recognize that F was indeed a hard drive. Then a warning from Dell came up saying that that particalur hard drive was working out of it's parameters or something similar, and that I should back up my files and replace the hard drive. So we restarted again, and went to view My Computer, and for some reason the computer started to recognize the F: Drive as a DVD drive, and we couldnt do anything with it.


So, I know that's vague, and I'll probably get yelled at for being vague, but I'm tired, desperate, and need answers.

Why would a perfectly healthy hard drive just fail? Is all my data gone? Does it sound like a virus or a physical problem? I don't care if the computer or drive is screwed, I just need to know that I can save those files, because they are incredibly important to me. If anyone is willing to help, I'll answer as many questions as needed to try and solve this problem. Please, somebody give me some half decent news... please...

 

[Giancarlo]

Ok it may be something simple.. did you set the jumper right on the hard-drive itself? Check that out. There may have been some damage. Since I have experience in this (and have had something similiar happen to me when I had a Seagate drive) it could be some surface damage..

Unfortunately, there is a big chance you may not be able to retrieve the files, if checking out the jumpers and changing them does not work.

 

[NervousLarry]

Ok, well the drive has been working for a few months- and suddenly, out of nowhere, it just stops. I mean, this drive isnt THAT new- it's been working all this time. We left adobe on, everything is ok- it goes into sleep mode, we come back, log back in, and it's gone. Could dust inside the computer cause this problem? Because there is a lot in there... and also, with the jumpers, is there anyway you can show me a diagram, or something, since we're n00bs in that field and really have no clue what the hell goes to what?

Its hard for me to accept that in one hour eveything could disappear for no reason. This is crazy.

 

[Giancarlo]

Dust may have had something to do with it. I suggest buying compressed air and keep it clean. It can zap out components.

The jumpers are the one next to the power cord. I don't know what hard-drive you use exactly though. You should download an online manual and see what jumpers you have to put where.

 

[setishock]

Power surge maybe...

Try clearing the bios with the reset jumper or pulling the cmos battery. Sometimes a decent surge will scramble the settings. After you reset the bios have it reaquire the drives.

 

[NervousLarry]

So why would the computer suddenly call it a DVD drive? Is it confused or something?


And the model of the computer is dell dimention 4550 with Win XP home service pack 2.


That above is about all my tired friend can muster as far as the model of his computer. If somebody can either give us a safe, quick tutuorial on how to reset the jumpers, or pull the cmos battery (whatever that is) without destroying everything, it would be much appreciated.

Also, what precautions should we take with the compressed air? Are there places in the computer we shouldnt spray, etc?


Also, resetting the jumper wont erase all the files, right? I just want to know if there's a good chance of saving them. We opened the computer and dont see any clear surface damage at all, just a lot of dust. I really hope that's the problem, and it's that simple...

 

[Half Evil]

wait, this drive is in the computer, or is it a sever/networking drive?

 

[NervousLarry]

The drive isnt a partition or a networking device, it's just a seperate drive addded the computer, as in, inside the computer. Its just an extra, physical hard drive.

 

[Half Evil]

oh.....intresting.......well go to start, click run, and type in "f:/" only with out the " ", lol, and if that dosent work, you can always cross ur fingers and hope for the best.....srry i dont know of anyother way to help you

 

[NervousLarry]

Uh, please, Im begging any experts on this issue to help me... this is so important to me. It's my life. This isn't a joke or some stupid thing to save like my AIM buddy list- this is a very important thing in my life and if it's lost or messed up then my life is meaningless, and I seriously might as well just end it.