Can the bios miss a functioning Hard Drive?

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Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Hi,
I've been trying to access a "dead" drive to get some pictures off it before
it goes back to HP. I got a 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 converter at the suggestion of
one the NG readers, and have been unsuccessful in accessing it in an XP box
as a slave or as a master or as a cable select drive. I checked the voltage
and the 5 volts are there. The XP box isn't "new," its a a P2-350 with an
asus mobo circa 1998. The system runs fine with a 6 gig hard drive and 128
megs of pc100 ram. Is it possible the bios, being old, just can't identifiy
a 2.5 in laptop drive thats 2 years old now? I ran into this with a 20 gig
dead drive out of a dell one time, too, but that was a 3.5 in drive. Does
the drive have to spin up for the bios to identify it?

Thanks for any insights,

Allen

 

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Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

"!Allen Lasting" <bogus@nowhere.net> wrote in message
news:-c2dnRQE_tRbp9PcRVn-tw@comcast.com...
> Hi,
> I've been trying to access a "dead" drive to get some pictures off it
> before
> it goes back to HP. I got a 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 converter at the suggestion of
> one the NG readers, and have been unsuccessful in accessing it in an XP
> box
> as a slave or as a master or as a cable select drive. I checked the
> voltage
> and the 5 volts are there. The XP box isn't "new," its a a P2-350 with an
> asus mobo circa 1998. The system runs fine with a 6 gig hard drive and
> 128
> megs of pc100 ram. Is it possible the bios, being old, just can't
> identifiy
> a 2.5 in laptop drive thats 2 years old now? I ran into this with a 20
> gig
> dead drive out of a dell one time, too, but that was a 3.5 in drive. Does
> the drive have to spin up for the bios to identify it?
>
> Thanks for any insights,
>
> Allen

It's possible the BIOS can't recognize the drive automatically. It's also
possible the converter isn't working as well as you hoped. Try downloading
setup software from whoever made the drive. If the setup software
recognizes the drive, then you are looking at a system BIOS problem, but the
setup software should be able to work around that temporarily for you, and
that's all you need. -Dave

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

"!Allen Lasting" <bogus@nowhere.net> wrote in message
news:-c2dnRQE_tRbp9PcRVn-tw@comcast.com...
> Hi,
> I've been trying to access a "dead" drive to get some pictures off it
before
> it goes back to HP. I got a 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 converter at the suggestion of
> one the NG readers, and have been unsuccessful in accessing it in an XP
box
> as a slave or as a master or as a cable select drive. I checked the
voltage
> and the 5 volts are there. The XP box isn't "new," its a a P2-350 with an
> asus mobo circa 1998. The system runs fine with a 6 gig hard drive and
128
> megs of pc100 ram. Is it possible the bios, being old, just can't
identifiy
> a 2.5 in laptop drive thats 2 years old now? I ran into this with a 20
gig
> dead drive out of a dell one time, too, but that was a 3.5 in drive. Does
> the drive have to spin up for the bios to identify it?

Usually the drive has spun up by the time BIOS detection takes place. Is
the drive not spinning?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Hi Ron,
I don't think it's spinning. I don't hear too well but I can't feel any
vibration either.
My next move will be to get the setup utility that Dave suggested is his
post, its and IBM drive, and see what happens with that.

I also remember reading something about putting a hd in the freezer for a
while and then trying it.

Allen