OK. So.... my 2nd hdd is connected via a pci card (my terminology may be off) that I added to the back of the computer because it only had 1 slot on the motherboard.
I unplugged the main hdd, and plugged the 2nd one in here and it booted! This is the hdd with Linux (not the one I want to rescue) but it show that the computer port on the motherboard works.
I'm going to use this same cable to plug in the 1st hdd (windows). Maybe its just a cable failure?
Yea it's possible it's the cable. You can look at the port edge sometimes they wear down.
I have some of those card. PCI and PCIe to plug more hard drives.
You can also try unplugging the whole PCI card and only plug in the hard drive to the main hhd port on the motherbaord.
Sometimes the card takes priority over the main HDD port.
Damn. No luck. I just get the message "Reboot and Select proper Boot Device or Insert Boot Media in selected device and press a key"
Ya that's not a good sign after all the troubleshooting we've done. It sounds like a dead HDD chipboard.
But don't throw it out. If you have a friend get him to do troubleshooting with external tools like usb to hhd docks or other tests. You might be able to recover your data someday.
Ty for all your help bro.
I think you'd do quite well with a computer repair shop. Even in a high-tac local.
You very efficiently helped me narrow my problems to the root. I'm willing to bet 100 to 1 that the HDD chipboard is indeed the problem.
Ya it's a strange problem, makes me wonder why would it fry in the first place or maybe it's as simple as the hard drive is old.
I had a power out. My computer was connected via power surge device, but that was the catalyst to the problem.
Probably a shitty power strip advertised as something more than it was truly capable of.
Something like that happened to me because I bought a powerstrip from a second hand store. I never realized how important they are and buying used ones you don't know the history of how they were used. Losing a hard drive sucks because hard to backup everything right away
Ya. many people don't have time to fix computers, so it's in demand up here especially with the older people. Hopefully someday I can open my shop.
ty for the big zap. here is a song i celebrated with
