Make XP boot with a failed HD connected?

[podshead]

Hello

My WD1600JD HD has failed and won't boot, it does show up in the SATA screen at POST and in BIOS however.

I have a fresh copy of XP on a spare IDE HD but can't get it to boot with the failed HD connected; It starts booting from good HD then hangs after XP splash screen and never reaches welcome screen; The good HD will boot XP when failed HD not connected.

I'm not worried about saving the HD, what I really want is to save (some of) the data. Ideally by booting XP on the good HD and running diagnostics/backups etc from windows on failed HD but alas XP won't boot to even try that.

Have tried Western Digital's Diagnostics tool and it just says error code 104 "drive not ready".

Anyone know why XP won't complete its boot with duff HD connected and if there's a way round it? Or of any decent DOS utilitties that may help.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Michael

 

[blue68f100]

Make sure you change the boot order in the bios.

There are several linux/unix utilities (live CD) that can be used to recover data.

Depending upon failure, some times you can change the controller card out with a know good one.

I have used Sipnrite by GRC to recover data in the past.