Hi, This has been my worst dayyet, since having been into computers
from my first one, the TRS 80, back in the early 80's! Then a
commodore and then an Apple IIe, then the famous PC!!

BOTH of my internal 40g HDD's went south today, in one sitting. What
preceeded it was my External USB HDD which could not be accessed as it
didn't show in My Computer. It did , however, show in Device Manager!
Grrrr!, As an aside I connected it to a second Dell 2400 desktop, and
it worked fine. SO..it was obviously a software issue.

Today, another software issue.. or therare occasions of BOTH HDD's
going bad????

One of my internal HDD's went south. I kept seeing the error message,
PRESS F1 to Reboot or F2 to enter SETUP. It showed that NONE of my
HDD's was present. ANYWHERE!! I checked all the connections, the
jumper settings, the proper location of the Master and Slave positions
of the data cable, including the possibility of a kink in the IDE data
cable. Nothing. It has been a year since I last reformatted, and
reloaded WIN XP Home! So ? Why not? I did, but it didn't change
anything. After those 39 plus famous minutes, Same old, Same
Old....Press F1 to Reboot......

I pulled that HDD and tried the second one, changing the jumper
settings, etc. Same identical problem. I spent the whole day trying to
find the problem! Finally, on BOTH HDD's, the dreaded white print on
blue background. I pulled both drives AND the PC off my desk and
started using my other PC which works fine, andso does the USB
Exterior HDD!! BUT, the TWO errant HDD's from the first PC would not
work in the second PC..same BIOS, Same OP SYS, same everything. Same
problem.

But , my question, before I remand both drives to their final resting
place as door stops, (no warranty left), what can I do to possibly
salvage them? They both can' t have died on the same day! There MUST
be something I can try! I don't have any Diagnosis Software..are there
any that would help??

Help someone, Please? The thought of buying two, or even one new
drive sends shivvers up my Christmas Credit Card laden spine

HELP Please? Mikie

"Mikie" <francisco9@att.net> wrote in message
news:1136251239.531763.165260@g14g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
> Hi, This has been my worst dayyet, since having been into computers
> from my first one, the TRS 80, back in the early 80's! Then a
> commodore and then an Apple IIe, then the famous PC!!
>
> BOTH of my internal 40g HDD's went south today, in one sitting. What
> preceeded it was my External USB HDD which could not be accessed as it
> didn't show in My Computer. It did , however, show in Device Manager!
> Grrrr!, As an aside I connected it to a second Dell 2400 desktop, and
> it worked fine. SO..it was obviously a software issue.
>
> Today, another software issue.. or therare occasions of BOTH HDD's
> going bad????
>
> One of my internal HDD's went south. I kept seeing the error message,
> PRESS F1 to Reboot or F2 to enter SETUP. It showed that NONE of my
> HDD's was present. ANYWHERE!! I checked all the connections, the
> jumper settings, the proper location of the Master and Slave positions
> of the data cable, including the possibility of a kink in the IDE data
> cable. Nothing. It has been a year since I last reformatted, and
> reloaded WIN XP Home! So ? Why not? I did, but it didn't change
> anything. After those 39 plus famous minutes, Same old, Same
> Old....Press F1 to Reboot......
>
> I pulled that HDD and tried the second one, changing the jumper
> settings, etc. Same identical problem. I spent the whole day trying to
> find the problem! Finally, on BOTH HDD's, the dreaded white print on
> blue background. I pulled both drives AND the PC off my desk and
> started using my other PC which works fine, andso does the USB
> Exterior HDD!! BUT, the TWO errant HDD's from the first PC would not
> work in the second PC..same BIOS, Same OP SYS, same everything. Same
> problem.
>
> But , my question, before I remand both drives to their final resting
> place as door stops, (no warranty left), what can I do to possibly
> salvage them? They both can' t have died on the same day! There MUST
> be something I can try! I don't have any Diagnosis Software..are there
> any that would help??
>
> Help someone, Please? The thought of buying two, or even one new
> drive sends shivvers up my Christmas Credit Card laden spine
>
> HELP Please? Mikie
>

Hi
Go to your hard drive's manufacture's site and download their drive chk
utility.

Chas

It sound more like a problem with you Motherboard.

"Mikie" wrote:

> Hi, This has been my worst dayyet, since having been into computers
> from my first one, the TRS 80, back in the early 80's! Then a
> commodore and then an Apple IIe, then the famous PC!!
>
> BOTH of my internal 40g HDD's went south today, in one sitting. What
> preceeded it was my External USB HDD which could not be accessed as it
> didn't show in My Computer. It did , however, show in Device Manager!
> Grrrr!, As an aside I connected it to a second Dell 2400 desktop, and
> it worked fine. SO..it was obviously a software issue.
>
> Today, another software issue.. or therare occasions of BOTH HDD's
> going bad????
>
> One of my internal HDD's went south. I kept seeing the error message,
> PRESS F1 to Reboot or F2 to enter SETUP. It showed that NONE of my
> HDD's was present. ANYWHERE!! I checked all the connections, the
> jumper settings, the proper location of the Master and Slave positions
> of the data cable, including the possibility of a kink in the IDE data
> cable. Nothing. It has been a year since I last reformatted, and
> reloaded WIN XP Home! So ? Why not? I did, but it didn't change
> anything. After those 39 plus famous minutes, Same old, Same
> Old....Press F1 to Reboot......
>
> I pulled that HDD and tried the second one, changing the jumper
> settings, etc. Same identical problem. I spent the whole day trying to
> find the problem! Finally, on BOTH HDD's, the dreaded white print on
> blue background. I pulled both drives AND the PC off my desk and
> started using my other PC which works fine, andso does the USB
> Exterior HDD!! BUT, the TWO errant HDD's from the first PC would not
> work in the second PC..same BIOS, Same OP SYS, same everything. Same
> problem.
>
> But , my question, before I remand both drives to their final resting
> place as door stops, (no warranty left), what can I do to possibly
> salvage them? They both can' t have died on the same day! There MUST
> be something I can try! I don't have any Diagnosis Software..are there
> any that would help??
>
> Help someone, Please? The thought of buying two, or even one new
> drive sends shivvers up my Christmas Credit Card laden spine
>
> HELP Please? Mikie
>
>

On 2 Jan 2006 17:20:39 -0800, "Mikie" <francisco9@att.net> wrote:

>Hi, This has been my worst dayyet, since having been into computers
>from my first one, the TRS 80, back in the early 80's! Then a
>commodore and then an Apple IIe, then the famous PC!!
>
>BOTH of my internal 40g HDD's went south today, in one sitting. What
>preceeded it was my External USB HDD which could not be accessed as it
>didn't show in My Computer. It did , however, show in Device Manager!
>Grrrr!, As an aside I connected it to a second Dell 2400 desktop, and
>it worked fine. SO..it was obviously a software issue.
>
>Today, another software issue.. or therare occasions of BOTH HDD's
>going bad????
>
>One of my internal HDD's went south. I kept seeing the error message,
>PRESS F1 to Reboot or F2 to enter SETUP. It showed that NONE of my
>HDD's was present. ANYWHERE!! I checked all the connections, the
>jumper settings, the proper location of the Master and Slave positions
>of the data cable, including the possibility of a kink in the IDE data
>cable. Nothing. It has been a year since I last reformatted, and
>reloaded WIN XP Home! So ? Why not? I did, but it didn't change
>anything. After those 39 plus famous minutes, Same old, Same
>Old....Press F1 to Reboot......
>
>I pulled that HDD and tried the second one, changing the jumper
>settings, etc. Same identical problem. I spent the whole day trying to
>find the problem! Finally, on BOTH HDD's, the dreaded white print on
>blue background. I pulled both drives AND the PC off my desk and
>started using my other PC which works fine, andso does the USB
>Exterior HDD!! BUT, the TWO errant HDD's from the first PC would not
>work in the second PC..same BIOS, Same OP SYS, same everything. Same
>problem.
>
>But , my question, before I remand both drives to their final resting
>place as door stops, (no warranty left), what can I do to possibly
>salvage them? They both can' t have died on the same day! There MUST
>be something I can try! I don't have any Diagnosis Software..are there
>any that would help??
>
>Help someone, Please? The thought of buying two, or even one new
>drive sends shivvers up my Christmas Credit Card laden spine
>
>HELP Please? Mikie

From what I have interpreted the problem started when you added an
exterior HDD now none will work?

Apart from a disk checker from the manufactorer it may be better too
do a low level format and re-initialise both disks then install XP.
Get the utilitiy fro the manufactorer assuming you use Deskstar or
Maxtor go to the Maxtor site and get Powermax Disk Utilities -
Deskstar don't provide one any more but Maxtors' works fine on
deskstar disks so it may work on others as well. Dunno - you got
nothing to lose now anyway.

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Ma...downloadID=113

Jonah

Can't believe with that much experience, and the expertise for checking hard
drives on another PC, you can't find diagnostic software specific to the HDs
you're having problems with.

Only time I've seen two HDs in same PC die is a power surge on a poorly
protected PC.

Find it odd that XP install works at all if the PC's bios can't ever, ever
find and ascertain the firmware response on the hard drives.
--
Jonny
"Mikie" <francisco9@att.net> wrote in message
news:1136251239.531763.165260@g14g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
> Hi, This has been my worst dayyet, since having been into computers
> from my first one, the TRS 80, back in the early 80's! Then a
> commodore and then an Apple IIe, then the famous PC!!
>
> BOTH of my internal 40g HDD's went south today, in one sitting. What
> preceeded it was my External USB HDD which could not be accessed as it
> didn't show in My Computer. It did , however, show in Device Manager!
> Grrrr!, As an aside I connected it to a second Dell 2400 desktop, and
> it worked fine. SO..it was obviously a software issue.
>
> Today, another software issue.. or therare occasions of BOTH HDD's
> going bad????
>
> One of my internal HDD's went south. I kept seeing the error message,
> PRESS F1 to Reboot or F2 to enter SETUP. It showed that NONE of my
> HDD's was present. ANYWHERE!! I checked all the connections, the
> jumper settings, the proper location of the Master and Slave positions
> of the data cable, including the possibility of a kink in the IDE data
> cable. Nothing. It has been a year since I last reformatted, and
> reloaded WIN XP Home! So ? Why not? I did, but it didn't change
> anything. After those 39 plus famous minutes, Same old, Same
> Old....Press F1 to Reboot......
>
> I pulled that HDD and tried the second one, changing the jumper
> settings, etc. Same identical problem. I spent the whole day trying to
> find the problem! Finally, on BOTH HDD's, the dreaded white print on
> blue background. I pulled both drives AND the PC off my desk and
> started using my other PC which works fine, andso does the USB
> Exterior HDD!! BUT, the TWO errant HDD's from the first PC would not
> work in the second PC..same BIOS, Same OP SYS, same everything. Same
> problem.
>
> But , my question, before I remand both drives to their final resting
> place as door stops, (no warranty left), what can I do to possibly
> salvage them? They both can' t have died on the same day! There MUST
> be something I can try! I don't have any Diagnosis Software..are there
> any that would help??
>
> Help someone, Please? The thought of buying two, or even one new
> drive sends shivvers up my Christmas Credit Card laden spine
>
> HELP Please? Mikie
>