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Got a new computer for Christmas and yanked the 2nd hard drive out of the old computer, to use as a data drive. Connected it to the new computer successfully with a USB/IDE bridge I had laying around. Went back and forth from the old to the new computer several times with no problems. Obviously I disconnected it from one of the computers the wrong way. Now neither of the computers recognizes the drive at all. Any trick or gimmick I can use to undo whatever damage I've done? Or am I doomed, and this hard drive is now trashed?

EDIT: Checked the pins like Wil suggested. One looked a little off so I straightened it out. No luck. Tried a different USB/IDE bridge. No luck. Drive is a Seagate Barracuda 7200 - 320GB Ultra ATA

EDIT #2: It's late, I'll try putting it back into the old computer tomorrow to see if that works. That's not too hard to do.

Edit #3: Put it back into the old computer & it didn't read it. Also used the USB/IDE bridge on a different bare drive and it read that with no problem. Any other suggestions?

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up vote 3 down vote accepted

did you connect the hard drive to the IDE port of the old computer? maybe it's just the USB adapter that's toast.

edit: by 'didn't read it' do you mean the drive is not recognized in the BIOS?

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Molly - Yes, BIOS does not recognize it. – Patriot Dec 28 '09 at 16:55
well, if you checked all the pins and they're OK, i'd say, that's pretty much it then, unless you want to send the drive off to some professional data recovery service, and they're not exactly cheap. :( – Molly7244 Dec 28 '09 at 17:16
Thanks for your time Molly. The world will not end because I cannot pull the data off that drive. It was mostly backup images and the such. Fortunately I did pull off the most important stuff I really wanted, like my entire music collection :) – Patriot Dec 28 '09 at 17:41
is the drive still spinning up on power? then connect it properly to the old computer's IDE controller, disconnect the power from the computer and press the power button for a few seconds to drain the 'flea power', reconnect the power and try again. – Molly7244 Dec 28 '09 at 18:17
@Molly - "Flea ...Power ..." ? – Moshe Dec 29 '09 at 0:23
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up vote 2 down vote

Check for damaged pins and try to straighten them.

This is the most common reason for IDE hard drives with the symptoms you are saying - As you said there are no errors and it is just not being recognised.

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It depends on the damge to the drive. Like Wil said, look at the pins. Also, post more info about the drives here for more help.

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The drive could just be dead. Like you said, it's old.

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Actually it's not all that old. Maybe two years or so. It was not the main hard drive of the old computer, but one I added later on. It's spinning, I can feel it. – Patriot Dec 28 '09 at 3:54
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