2kReturner wrote:
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I wouldn't expect a head problem to be that much. I would like to find software where I could diagnose the problem instead of getting scammed by someone for more than my budget for something I could do myself.
Some people keep telling me to dump the drive and move on. That's not an option at this point because of the priority of recovering this drive with important stuff. I don't know if this is true but I've been hearing about HD's with things already on it can't be transfered easily to another mobo without the right drivers. Unfortunately Western Digital's data life tools don't work on a multi-boot/dual boot system. What software could do that?
Software isn't going to diagnose a non-reporting drive.
DLG works fine on dual boot/multi boot. It doesn't care about your operating system or partition layout unless you're asking it to clone a drive. It can test, repartition, format, or erase any WD drive in your machine, not caring what's on it. They just may say dual boot not supported because if you use it to clone a drive with some types of dual boot configurations set up, it won't understand it, and will screw it up.
You can take a drive between motherboards easily as long as it's not part of a RAID and the board you're taking it to is compatible with its interface. You can't take an installed operating system between machines, but you can take information files. Put the drive back in the old machine and see if it works. If it does, set the SATA mode jumper to the more compatible SATA 150 mode, and try it back in the machine where it doesn't work. If it still doesn't work, it's your computer. Throw it in the garbage. If it doesn't work back in the old machine, it's your hard drive, and if you aren't willing to spend the money on a professional evaluation to at least tell you what's wrong with it, give up (and throw
it in the garbage).
<rant>A scam implies willful deception as to the value or benefit of goods or services to be provided. A reputable service would provide you a list of what they did upon your request. It's one reason I don't like a lot of the big recovery houses, some of them would just happily charge you $2000 for a logical recovery from a corrupted filing system. Honest services would charge you a few hundred dollars for it. Most people, myself included, resent the implication that any of their services is a "scam".
Non-Data-Related Example: Quick oil change shops are a scam. Hiring a monkey from the zoo and home he doesn't screw up someone's car by dropping a banana into the air cleaner is one thing. These places nail you for everything, they charge $25 to change a $6 PCV that takes two minutes, $25 for a cheap (lower than factory quality) $6 air filter that takes two minutes to install, an extra $4 per quart of oil if your car uses more than five, $99 transmission flush service (don't ever use a flush to change fluid on an automatic transmission, all the major manufacturers recommend against it, stating that it can do damage) that involves hooking the car up to a machine which uses the transmission's pump to remove the old fluid, while feeding it new stuff, using twice the amount of fluid needed due to the inefficiency of the procedure.
A mechanic shop at $75/Hr is not a scam. He likely knows what he's doing. In that $75 hour, he can do all of the above services, change your transmission oil the right way, bill you for materials and his hour of time only, and you actually end up paying a good amount less, for work being done to a far higher standard of quality.
- A magic sticker you stick behind the battery of a phone for $10 to supposedly boost your signal, is a scam. They are paper with metallic ink, they do nothing, and being that they are promoted as a meter long antenna or whatever, a meter is longer than the signal your phone uses, so would do no better than a 12cm antenna.
- A magnetic antenna you stick on the roof of your car with a wire that plugs into your phone is not a scam, it works quite well, even with that little 12-20cm antenna found on most of them.
Scams capitalize on people's lack of knowledge and exploit it in a dishonest fashion. High priced services are not a scam. $10000 in tools, subscriptions for updates and data services, and other things like that must be paid for somehow. What about time? If it takes someone 15 hours of work, using $5000+ in tools that have to be periodically upgraded or replaced, possibly requiring a couple hundred dollars in spare parts, why isn't the job worth $2000?
You are not entitled to free evaluations without obligation. That's a scam perpetrated by the customer. You send me something, I tell you what's wrong, you call up the neighbor's computer-punk kid and have him crack it up trying to fix it. The only good part for me is that if it truly is important, and you try the neighbor's kid method unsuccessfully, you will probably come back to me with the device worse damaged, costing you more to correct. I give estimates
effectively for free, I probably shouldn't but I do. I charge $60 to evaluate. The evaluation charge is credited toward the repair cost. If it's not fixable, I don't charge for evaluation. What a scam!
Anyway, sorry about the long tangential rant, but the word scam being applied here really ticked me off.
</rant>EDIT: Didn't notice that your old board was dead. Ok, what kind of board was it? That may be of some relevance, or whatever killed it may have killed your drive too. Memory doesn't kill boards. If by change it will still power up even it unstable, see if your drive works on it. If it does, something's up with your new board. Also, make sure your SATA settings are ok in your BIOS and try another SATA port.