www.deadharddrive.com

ebdet2002 · Officially active! Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3

My 250 bg Western Digital hardrive suddenly stopped working. An error message saying something like 'NTLDR is missing' came up and the computer can't recogonize the hardrive. Does the problem lie in the logic boards, and if so, will switching the logic boards help? If not, where else could the problem be and are there any other solutions? The hardrive was brim full with data, and 210 gb of data is too much to lose.

Also, I can't seem to find what firmware my hardrive has. I looked on the label, but couldn't find it. Any where else I should look?

Thanks in advance.

AngryLlama · Active contributor Joined: 05 Jul 2006 Posts: 8

ebdet2002 · Officially active! Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3

I am running windows xp. Everything else on the mobo works fine, just the hardrive. I am getting a replacement hardrive with which I am going to try the logic board swap trick, but before I attempt it, I will plug in the hardrive and see if the ports still work. Hope it's not the mobo!!!

AngryLlama · Active contributor Joined: 05 Jul 2006 Posts: 8

Listen, if it is getting the the point where it complains about NTLDR, then your harddrive works! It just won't boot. Boot off of an install CD and rollback to a save-state (recovery points? I dunno what MS calls it).

Just the fact that it complains about NTLDR means that the drive is being accessed properly.

You should be able to just install an operating system on the new drive and copy the contents of the old drive over IDE (or sata, whatever you are using).

ebdet2002 · Officially active! Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3

You are right...the drive was intact, the motherboard had somehow reset (I had to move a few of the jumpers around). After that, I just went through the F2 set up screen and the drive works great!! Thank god...I don't think I could switch platters!