A friend of mine has passed a HD to me because it won't boot up and as usual needs a lot of the data contained on it. I've tried it on my rig and sure enough it won't boot. I have tried it as a slave and even tried to get it to think it was a CD - just so I can gain access to the data and retrieve it. I have also tried Fdisk /mbr but it states it has NOT changed the mbr. The BIOS picks it up OK as a master or slave but that is it!. I've tried booting from a floppy but that does not work it even calls the virtual drive the 'C:' drive. I can't even get to the drive to format it to then unformat it. The drive seems to spin OK no matter what rig I put it in. I suspect the HD is completely wasted - just wanted to know if anyone out there has a mirical cure!!!!

Put the drive in a plastic bag and place it in your refrigerator for half hour. Immediately install it and try to boot. If it boots, back up your data quickly because when it warms back up it will quit again. This has worked sometimes for me.

Thanks for that - a bit radical - but it was worth a try! It didn't work the first time but I'll give it another try. Anyone got a magic spell or know a witch doctor???!!!! I'm not giving in yet!!!!!

Alan, I've heard several who have tried this and retrieved data. I'd sure go for it. Beats hell out of a witch doctor; I hear they're Union now.

Thanks guys, tried it several times going through all the things I tried before but no joy:(. The annoying thing is the fact that the BIOS picks it up correctly and even windows recognises it in the hardware profile (but not in other areas like my computer etc). I think he may of lost this one for good - pity really cos he's a mechanic and I need my car fixing!!!! (bugger). Don't suppose you have a number for the witch doctor union?