My second (slave) hard drive doesn't show up in Windows XP explorer nor Device Manager but it it is being detected fine in bios on bootup and shows the name of it - Maxtor (My boot drive is a Western Digital). It doesn't make sense because if something was really wrong with the Maxtor drive doesn't bios usually not show the drive or say something like Drive Failed? If Bios detects the drive fine shouldn't that mean it is working? Could there be something else wrong with the drive? Like maybe some circuit or maybe the partitions got erased.

I remember that chkdsk ran and erased a few sectors on one of the 7 partitions I had created for that 60gig Maxtor drive (before I stopped it) including a file named bootex, and after that the drive was no longer visible in Windows Explorer.

Maybe it erased a sector with the partition format on it. Could that be repaired with maybe Partition Magic or some partition repair program so that I can access my files.

I am also sure my jumpers are set right because I put in another 2 gig Maxtor drive with the same jumper settings and it worked fine. If the jumpers were wrong, I don't think the drive would be detected in bios.

It just doesn't make sense since the drive is being detected in bios.

Note: I also froze the drive overnight and then tried it again and had no change in results. I also ran a program called "GetDataBack," but it didn't detect the drive.

So is there any way to determine what is wrong with the drive and then be able to fix it or access it?

One other thing is that several times for a few weeks it seemed like the drive motor just slowed down and stopped and then the computer kind of crashed but then it was working fine again for the last few weeks.

If the drive is recognized in bios the first thing you need to do is image it using something like dd_rescue. Once you have done that come back and ask for help on the image. Everything you do the original disk just makes the problem worse. Especially putting it in the freezer for this.

The drive is recognized in bios but not in Windows explorer. I did run "GetDataBack" by Runtime but it didn't recognize the drive so I couldn't image it. Is dd rescue any better?

The key here is you need to clone your drive and work on the copy.

Yeah but how can I if Windows Explorer won't show it and Device Manager doesn't show the disk drive either.

You should either research dd_rescue or take the drive to a recovery shop. Dd_rescue runs on Linux. You can download g4l as a bootable iso. The the "click and clone" first and if that fails you can try the dd_rescue. Just make SURE you have selected the correct source and target, if you get it wrong your data is lost forever. I don't know of any other way to warn you, figure out what you are doing before you do it. If you don't know, pay somebody.

Thank you very much. One problem is that I don't know anything about Linux and their accompanying binaries and tar balls. I'll have to study it a awhile before I'll try it.

G4lis a bootable iso with a menu system. Read up and come back if you have questions on how to use it.

I still think you should seek local help if you have too much trouble... Good luck!

A Maxtor hard drive has the potential to be recognised despite serious issues being present. Could you tell us the ID it gives in the BIOS please?

If it IDs looking ~ like MAXTOR 6Y0L02L blah blah blah is good. But if it Ids byt he family name (maxtor Calypso or Maxtor Falcon etc ) - its bad. Meens the drive didnt get the SA,