Please Help HDD Problem

[Tditty]

I was building a computer for a friend and we took out his old hard drive and stuck it in the new PC, because I was running WinXP it decided it wouldnt boot with the new equipment so we took it back to test it on the old mobo/processor and it was fine. It was getting late so I told him to throw it back in the main PC and we will wipe it out the next day. He brought the PC over the next with the hard drive in it but now it wouldnt recognize it. I threw together the old mobo and processor to retest it again and it wouldnt recognize it there either now. The only thing I can think of is some how between the time I left and the time it was brought back to me it must of fried or something. Well we bought a new HDD and finished his computer and it ran great. Now im here with a 20 gigger and would like to know if there is anything that can be done with it other then used as a paperweight. I would like to try and retreive some files from it also. It dosnt look damaged at all. Maybe someone knows of any other reason it wouldnt be recognized other then he must of fried it somehow? He said he only screwed it into the new case and didnt do anything out of the ordinary. Its puzzling to me how something can go like that ???

[alguzman]

I read somewhere that on a hard drive that died, they took it out and put the dirve in the freezer for a little while, I don't remember for how long. Took it out and reinstalled back in the worked long enough to back up all important files on CD RW. I don't know if that will work for you, but way not give it a shot.

[ukulele]

Quite often when a drive fails when you are removing or installing it it is from damaged pins. Take a real close look at the connector pins. I've seen them get pushed in or bent from trying to force them on while misaligned. If you try to put the cable on reversed it can push back one of the middle pins and you won't see it unless you look real close at an angle.

[Tditty]

I just checked the pins and they are great, the HDD looks great too. I just cant understand how it can work and then not work when there was nothing really done with it. It wasnt recognized by two mobos so i guess it has to be gone, just cant figure out how or why :(

[Midknyte]

check the controller board on the bottom of the drive. sometimes the chips will short out. I've seen char marks before. bad mojo.

[ukulele]

Ah well, don't get to discouraged, S**t happens. Now you got an excuse to buy a bigger one. Yeah! :x

[MK-Ultr@]

Why don't you try finding somebody who has the same hdd and swap the controller card? Who knows! maybe the hdd will work and you can back up the data.:t