A few days ago, I noticed that my power supply fan was not working and the case was very warm. I replaced the power supply and the machine booted fine. The next day the machine would only boot to the Windows logo page. Now it won't boot at all. The bios seems to recognize it but it askes for a boot disk from floppy. When I boot and get to the A prompt and I type in C:\ it says invalid drive specification. I have tried this hard drive on another system with the same result. This was a 10 gig western digital. Powering on the machine , I hear two beeps then a single beep. What should I do? Is there a way to get a few things such as pictures off of this disk or am I dead in the water? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks Linda

First thing I would do is contact western digital. They are good at answering questions about their hard drives....do a google search for their number. You can always retrieve your pics and stuff using a file recovery program, but it will cost you a few dollars. I've used fast file recovery and it works great, but it was around $85 US If you need a simple solution, try mine. I try to give advise on things that have happened to my PC. Changes in registry can be FATAL!

Wether or not your files can be recovered depends upon the condition of the drive. If it Doesn't spin or if the heads won't load, your only recourse could be a professional recovery service, which is outrageously expensive.

I would aggree with Ham30. Get the Diagnostic program from WesternDigital. Make the floppy boot disk, and run the floppy in your computer. It should tell you what position you are in as far as your HD. DLG Diagnostics The above link will download WD diag software. Excert from their page: "The Diagnostics utility allows you to test the drive, print results for last drive tested, repair errors found during the Test Drive option and write zeros to the drive. To use this utility, please download the file to your computer. If using the ZIP version of the file, then next unzip the utility. Finally, just run the program "DLGDiagv504c.exe" which will walk you through the steps to create a bootable diagnostic diskette." If the house catches fire, SAVE the computer!!

Perhaps when you replaced the PS you jostled loose the HD cables. Make sure they're connected tightly.

Linda, There is recovery software called "Lost & Found" that was sold by PowerQuest. It is supposed to be very good. They no longer sell it, but you can probably still pick up a copy from a web site that sells older software versions. I bought a copy about a year ago for around $20. You can also check this web site for help: http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/ Phil P.S. If I can find the web site where I purchased "Lost & Found" I'll post a follow up. "Beware the barrenness of a busy life." - Socrates

Linda, Per what DAVEINCAPS mentions. I had thought of mentioning that also originally. But you had mentioned that HD recogonized by the BIOS. Though now, I would also revert back to my original thoughts and recommend what DAVE suggest,(Dave gets the credit, cause he actually mentioned it! :) ), along with my previous post. For it would not be the first time I personally have done the same thing. "Get inside the case, wiggle a power cord or interface cord, 'just enough' to where it works when put back togther, then after a short time, the connection breaks and device no longer functions." Check the power connection at the drive unit, and check the interface cable, (the long flat one) at BOTH, the drive and where it connects into the Mother Board. The best way, in my own opinion, is to fully disconnect the connectors, then plug them back in. If the house catches fire, SAVE the computer!!