Cannot Detect Hard Drive -- Happened over night.

N

NeedaComputer

Member
I have one 500GB HDD with XP and all my files, and I have one 250GB HDD with Ubuntu. I have the Grub loader installed, for dual booting. Both are SATA.

I left my computer on overnight for downloading. I just came home from work and my computer had restarted itself. I tried to start up XP, but I received the "Error 21: Selected Disk Does Not Exist" message. Upon closer inspection of the boot up process, my primary drive (500 GB) goes undetected.

I am currently booted into Ubuntu and I am very nervous of all the data that I may have lost on my other HD. I am trying to rule out as many possibilities as I can. So far I have come up with a few theories as to what has happened.

1.) We had storms last night. My HD was knocked out by lightning.
-I have a surge protector, and you would think that I would have major issues with everything inside the tower if that were the case.

2.) While I was downloading, I picked up a virus or someone did something to my drive.
-I have a hardware firewall and I have never had issues with any type of hacker or virus in the past. But I'll be the first to admit I don't know a whole lot about security.

3.) My HD just crapped out.
-The 500 GB is newer than the 250 GB, same model, brand, rpm, cache, just bigger. It was, however, recertified. I bought it under the assumption that recertified would mean it was actually looked at by a technician and was physically ok'd.

I am at a loss and would appreciate any input from anyone. I have hundreds of vacation pictures that have yet to be backed up. Thanks in advance.
 
recertified would mean it was actually looked at by a technician and was physically ok'd.
Click to expand...

Think it goes around the words of: It had like 1-2 year warranty, and for example the motor fails and they exchange it for an new one... the old one goes back to the factory, and the motor gets fixed/replaced, then re-sells it... only 2 years of life gone.
 
I was under the assumption that it was used, but then ok'd. Where as most products are just assumed to be good, and only a small sample tested. Still, I hope that wasn't the reason for the crap out.
 
if one sata port goes out, most likely they all will, but not allways... it cant hurt to try a different port... can you see your files in the other OS??? is your hard drive spinning??? make sure your power and sata is plugged up securely.
 
I haven't been inside the tower yet to check those things, but I can say that the HD is ignored during the initial memory test and where it detects devices. Both drives used to come up, now only the 250 shows.
 
Well I just got home and my HD was detected and opened XP no problem. Could it have overheated and shut down? I don't want this to happen again. Thanks for all the help.
 
Sorry to resurrect this thread, but it needs closure.
I believe it was just overheating, I separated the HDD's with one blank space in the rack and never had another problem.
Recently I moved my rear exhaust fan to the front as an intake blowing on the 2 HDD's. I also snipped all but an "X" in the case inlet for a bit more flow. I was able to convince the wife to have the tower on the Top Right of the desk, instead of bottom left on carpet.

oscaryu1 said:
Or the SATA wire wiggled out?
Click to expand...
That wasn't the problem in this case, but it did happen to me recently. I couldn't believe that it wiggled out, I hadn't been in my case for a while.
 
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