western digital drive failure

[Johnh]

so heres the deal.

i get home last night and my computer (hard drive) is making a wierd buzzing/beeping noise. (buuuzzzzzz beep.) hard to explain in words i know.

so i reboot to see if it fixes the problem but it still does it and now my computer wont start with that drive plugged in. it says there is an error with the third primary drive (F1 to continue)

when F1 is pressed it starts to boot up win XP but then flashes the blue screen and restarts. the drive is a storage drive so when i unplug it the computer boots fine.

normaly i wouldnt have a problem with just getting a different one with the warranty and stuff but i have all of my pictures and music saved on that drive. the music on the drive doesnt mean that much to me because it's replaceable but the pictures are another story.

if anybody has any advice please help!!!!

drive model number: WD4000aaks


THANK YOU!!

 

[Anubis1980]

K it sounds like its shafted, but i guess it cant hurt checking the cable make sure its ok, one thing ive found, i had a hdd that the pc wudnt start with, so i put it in my usb caddy and i was able to access the data and copy it across. To be honest it does sound like its just given up.

 

[Raffaz]

Goto western digitals website and download their HDD diagnostic tools and run some tests on the drive.

 

[Johnh]

ok thank you!

really all i want to do is get my pictures back kuz i have a ton of music and stuff on there too but that is all replaceable i just want my pictures!!

ive also called two data recovery companies and the cheapest estimate i found was 700 bucks
the other end was 1600 to 2400

unfortunately i dont feel like spening a fifth of my college tuition for the year

any other suggestions would be wonderful!!!

thanks!!

 

[Raffaz]

You could try attaching the drive to another computer as a slave and copying everything from your HDD to the other HDD.

 

[Johnh]

i would really like to try this but the thing is the only other computer i have access to doesnt have any sata connectors on the mobo. (its a really old dell)

and im not sure i understand how it would work to set it as the slave because right now it wont start up with it as the third primary... im not very knowledgable on this whole subject so if you could explain it or how it would work more that would be really appreciated!


also

if you think setting it as the slave would work... would it be possible to set it as the slave on the computer that it was already in?

just wondering

thank you!!!

 

[Raffaz]

There shouldnt be any problem setting it up as a slave drive in your current machine, You need to adjust the jumpers on the Back of the HDD, there is normally a diagram there.