western digital

[aznx]

hi, i have a 30 gig wd hd that died on me, if i had 3 partitions on it, is there any way that i could retrieve the information stored on the other two partitions? i cant seem to be able to read the hd though, i can see it in the device manager but in the system drive selection, no good. running winxp

[FA-MAS]

You can't access anything on the drive? Does the bios even recognize that it's there? If you answered no to both of those, I don't think you'll be able to get the data back. Unless maybe one of those data retrieval services.

edit: I just realized you said you can see it in device manager, but nothing shows in my computer.

[Wiggo]

What do you mean by die? Was it the drive itself or the os? If just the os then either stick it in another PC and backup or just format the os partition and reinstall the os and the info on other partitions should be there still. If the drive physically died then there are places around that offer services for salvaging data though I've heard that it's not cheap. :smokin:
<center>:cheers:</center>

[FA-MAS]

Wow Wiggo, that was quick. I had just finished posting. You know, I never think to try hard drives in other machines. Good idea.

[Wiggo]

I thought the same when I seen your's there.

[zeradul]

Yea, once it is in another computer you should be able to get everything in the partitions that still work. You very likely will still be able to format them and reinstall an os on them, but you might not want to do that if you think the drive is almost dead.

[aznx]

ummm, i can see it on a different computer in the device manager but not in my computer. running xp on old computer but i still cant "read" the drive... =\

[Wiggo]

Well then it just may have physically died then and if you really need the info off it then you'll just have to spend a few $'s at one of those places that will strip your old drive down to remove the platters so they can be read in a working setup. :smokin:
<center>:cheers:</center>

[aznx]

awwwww..hmm, is there any way that i can bypass the first couple hundred sectors or a program that could do that? thanks

[Wiggo]

Does the drive spin up? If the drive could be read then putting it in another PC should've worked. :smokin:
<center>:cheers:</center>