Missing HDD's

[ninhalo5]

Hi,
Got a big odd problem with my comp.
Other than the obvious which is my comp is a gateway piece of junk.

This thing has been nothing but problems since the day I bought it.

I took it out of the box for the first time plugged it all up and loaded up vista low and behold norton pops up virus detected ugh.
then my media control panel on the outside stopped working, then my flash card reader stopped working. then eventually the worthless Seagate hard drive started failing like crazy.

Now I have a new issue. I replaced my seagate HDD with a western digital, and decided to use the seagate as a secondary HDD.
this computer has a bay to quickly slide in and out SATA HDD's in the front panel.
The comp found that HDD and had no problems until this morning.
Now the comp is no longer recognizing that drive, as well as the western digital external HDD I have plugged in via USB.

I have tried checking the cables everything's fine there. so I decided to check the bios and my drive startup options.

I reset the comp and opened the bios.
now on the main screen right before the bios opens, all 3 of my drives are listed; once I get into the bios only my master drive is showing.
Any ideas on what happened here?
I have a very importiant file I need off one of the drives and can not access it now
Please help me.
Thank you,
Jeff


Manufacturer:Gateway
Part Number:FX6800-01e

Processor Type: Intel Core i7 920 / 2.6 GHz
Multi-Core processor technology: Quad-Core RAM Installed Size 3 GB Technology DDR3 SDRAM
Memory speed 1066 MHz
Storage: Hard Drive 1 x 750 GB - 7200 rpm
Optical Storage: Type DVD/RW
Operating System / Software:
OS Provided Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Service Pack 1 64 Bit

 

[r_manic]

I do suggest you contact Gateway first. If you got sold a faulty system, they should replace it very soon.

Regarding your hard disk, you can try getting a hard disk enclosure, putting your hard disk in it, and trying to connect said enclosure to another computer.

 

[photonboy]

With so many problems, it sounds like either a common hardware issue such as your motherboard or a problem with Windows.

I wouldn't call this a piece of junk necessarily.

Most prebuilt systems now have a backup copy of Windows that you can restore. My dad's HP can start the process via hitting F11 during bootup. I also requested backup CD's and received them; I did this because if the hard drive fails the backup image of Windows is gone.

Restoring the backup wipes all data such as e-mail that may be on your C-partition so backup your data.

You could also try running a Live CD such as Linux to see if things run correctly though that won't help if trouble's are intermittent.

Missing HDD's:
The best way to try to recover your files is to place the drive into an external USB case and hookup to a working computer.

In the future you should look into using Acronis True Image which can take an exact image of Windows, then restore it. I've used it on several computers. The ideal method is to backup to DVD-sized chunks in a folder on a second hard drive. If your main drive fails physically, or has software issues then you can backup data and restore easily.

Main computer problems:
It sounds like basic troubleshooting. List your main components and devise a means to check them separately. Hard drive(s), RAM, motherboard..

Do the following:
1) run Memtest (google)
2) reinstall Windows
3) run full Seagate diagnostics on the Seagate before verifying it is bad

Summary:
It sounds like probably a single issue such as a bad hard drive. Even so, Windows could be completely corrupted so reinstall. Good luck.