Windows ME - "Insert Boot Diskette in A:\"

[strictor]

I am working on a PC, that can not find the hard drive. When I insert a boot disk I can not access the hard drive. i.e, c:\ = invalid drive spec. I want to get my files off of this hard drive if possible. Is there any way to find out if the hard drive is toast?

 

[majik1]

first thing i would do is chek if the hd is connected to the pc properly... u cant belive the amount of problems i had with a bad cable...

u could type in the name of your hd but without the slash ie. c:, and u could try using the recover command though im not sure if it will work

 

[AnonymousI]

try using the fdisk program... It will show you info about the HD and its partitions

 

[strictor]

When I run Fdisk it says "no fixed disk present". Is there anything else I can try.

 

[lhuser]

Are you sure that everything is connected proprely, meaning Power cable, IDE cable, Jumper settings?

 

[strictor]

Yes. I checked all the connections on the drive. It all looks good. Maybe I have a bad cable.

 

[majik1]

possibly...just curious, what happened just before the system stopped detecting the hd?

 

[strictor]

It is not my pc, but she told me that it had a lot of "errors and stuff" that would pop up all the time. I wouldn't doubt if it got infected or was just dying slowly. She is careless about maintenance, protection, and prevention.