Is my hdd dead?

[lennyg]

Hi All

I have several different queries that I need guidance with, however the most pressing is a potential hard disk failure!

I have just built a new machine for editing, using bits of the previous to keep the cost down.

I have an Asus P6X58D-E motherboard with an i7 930 and 6GB Corsair 1600 RAM.

I used my old power supply, an OCZ 600W, and graphics card 9600GTS.

The initial install all went well. I put in a 320GB Samsung drive for the OS, which installed fine. Then tried to add some of the hard drives, 2 x Samsung 1TB f1's and an Hitachi 1TB drive with the complete backup of all my important data on (you can guess which one has failed now can't you?)

I tried at the same time to create a raid drive, selecting the raid option in the BIOS. I wanted to set the 2 samsungs to RAID and leave the other drive to backup later. This failed abysmally as as soon as the machine started the boot process there was a flash of a BSOD and then a reboot. I reset the RAID to IDE and carried on.

I know at some stage over the last day or so I have been able to see the Hitachi drive because it had a particular file on that i needed. However, now the Hitachi drive is not working.

The symptoms are that it is not recognised in the BIOS but I can feel the disk spinning when connected.

On POST the initial report is that it autodetects an IDE drive on whichever SATA port it's attached to (I've tried various ports & cables), but then when it comes to post the details of each drive that's attached to each particular port then I get the message Hard drive SATA error.

I have put the drive onto the previous motherboard with the same result and into a USB caddy. Each time the drive spins up but then nothing.

From the research I've done this all points to the drive being dead, however while it is still spinning there must be hope ?!!?

I also have an Hitachi 500GB drive (not connected) - random question, but could I take the controller from this and try it on the 1TB drive?

I've tried DFT as well but as the BIOS isn't seeing it that's not much use.

Daft question... but having been attached when RAID was selected couldn't have "stuck" it in a mode where the BIOS doesn't recognise it could it?

Thanks if anyone can help

Len

 

[omniscence]

Windows generally doesn't like it that you change between IDE, AHCI and RAID after installation. This will almost always end in an BSOD if you didn't take proper care before. I would suggest that if you did not install any software yet, set the controller to RAID mode and reinstall the OS, that should be done in 10min.

As for the problem with the drive, it is unlikely that it works if you just exchange the boards. It's also unlikely that just connecting the drive did some changes. You said it detects an IDE drive? Try to set the controller to AHCI mode and check if it detects the drive. IDE mode is not really needed for any modern OS.