Hard drive only detected at bootup and in BIOS

[Padraic]

Hello,
I have tried this sata hard drive in two different pcs (as 1st and also 2nd drive in both)and it is only detected at bootup and in BIOS. Windows takes quite a while to boot with this hard drive in the pc. When installed as 1st drive for setup linux and xp setup don't see it. Have tried seagate seatools, UBCD4Win and Testdisk but none of them see it. It does not show in Disk Management at all. The only time it is visible is when pc boots up and in BIOS. Have tried all sata configurations in BIOS, no luck. Have done physical shaking test, Heads seem to be free, single ckick sound when moved in one direction. Drive heats up normally so i think it is spinning up, (have bad hearing so cant detect spinning noise in pc with fan going too- i presume heating up means it is spinning up). At this stage i am thinking of opening it up but don't know yet what to look for. All other drives on the 2 pcs are IDE. Have read all the posts in the thread: "2nd SATA drive detected in BIOS but NOT in Windows Disk Management". Any help appreciated. I have spent hours and hours on this drive.

 

[gtvr]

Opening it up will not help, most likely. There's probably nothing wrong to "see".

Is it a new or used HD? Did it work then stop, or never work?

 

[Padraic]

To be honest i am nearly sure it did work, it is not mine, i am trying to fix it for a friend, i owe him money, i don't care if i have to delete everything on it, if i find files on it great! if not, not to worry too much. It is a Seagate Barracuda 250GB Sata so i don't think it could be too old.

 

[gtvr]

If it's still under warranty, send it back to the vendor. If you don't see it in disk management or windows setup, my guess is it's toast.