A funny problem with one of my Hard Drives

[Huzefa]

I use WinXP and I have two HD's one a Seagate barracuda 120 GB(2 yrs old) and the other is a older 80 GB(4 or 5 yrs old) Sony/Samsung drive dont know for sure as I cant read the label n forgot which one it is...
Both are connected, and this morning as I tried to switch on the PC, it started up but got hung at the CMOS stage... ie the boot up stage, I tried to enter the cmos setup n it refused, giving no error message at all...
What I did then is a process of elimination, I removed the cables of both the HD's and then restarted... now it allowed me to access the cmos setup n when I tried to boot up, the error I recd was boot up failure, which is normal as HD's are not connected...
I reconnected one of the HD's , the 80GB and the same thing happend... then I connected the 120 GB, the one containing the OS, n now the system seems to be running fine minus the 80GB HD...
My Q is could it be a HD crash ? the LED of the CPU HD Indicator blinks when both are connected...
I have lots of data on my 80GB, how do I access it, if the computer refuses to even go to the cmos setup screen with both connected ?
Do help Quick guys...
This is the forum I turn to for my PC problems and I want to say this, from among the rest u guys are the best, mods n supermods/admins n the individual members do a gr8 job...
I request a quick reply...
thnkx

 

[alexanderthegreat]

Did you hear any POST error tones? If yes, can you please describe them(how many beeps, how long etc)??? Also, is that older drive an IDE drive? In that case, check the IDE cables and slots. Do mention which BIOS you've got.

I've got a suggestion: try connecting it to some other PC.

 

[Huzefa]

no error tone other than the startup beep tht we all get... after this, the PC just hangs up
no messages nothing... I cant even enter the bios setup... this machine is a AMD athlon , 4 yrs old this 80GB HD is a slower drive, IDE and about 4 yrs old
all I see is the LED of the CPU HD Indicator blinking when both are connected...
and when I disconnect the 80GB the PC works fine... as OS is on the 120GB

 

[prateek007391]

OKay now let us see

u r not able to start the computer when both the HD's are connected, check the jumpers, if one with OS is master and the other is slave.

Else Try different IDE cable, it may be the culprit

Or else try deep freeze, in case the HD crashed and u r shure about

10 hr of deep freezing provides 20 minutes of life to an old HD

contact me for more info on this

 

[Huzefa]

deep freezing ??? u mean in the deep freezer ?? the fridge ? omg I never heard of this does this work ? wat an idea!

 

[prateek007391]

oh yes it looks funny when u here it, but study says it works

check out these article

*www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&q=Deep+freeze+hard+disk&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

*www.trisweb.com/archives/2005/06/15/hard-disk-recovery-the-freezer-trick/