I think my hardrive is toast

Hello All

the subject describes it
machine is a PIII 1.2 GHz 1/2 Gig RAM
Seagate ST3220420A 20 Gig disk
It's been running linux 24/7 for about 4 years
when I try to boot I get a "boot disc failure" message
I took the disc out and held it in my hand with the cables hooked up and
when I turn on the machine I can tell it's not spinning up
Interestingly, I noticed if I connect the power but not the ide cable, it
does spin up when I start the machine
I'm thinking it's a problem with the ide controller
Is there a way around this?
I tried making it the slave on a different machine and that didn't seem to
work, wouldn't even boot
It has some stuff on it I'd like to have, any ideas???

TIA
Dave

PS I have other machines I can try to use to access this thing

that guy wrote:
> the subject describes it
> machine is a PIII 1.2 GHz 1/2 Gig RAM
> Seagate ST3220420A 20 Gig disk
> It's been running linux 24/7 for about 4 years
> when I try to boot I get a "boot disc failure" message
> I took the disc out and held it in my hand with the cables hooked up
> and when I turn on the machine I can tell it's not spinning up
> Interestingly, I noticed if I connect the power but not the ide
> cable, it does spin up when I start the machine
> I'm thinking it's a problem with the ide controller
> Is there a way around this?
> I tried making it the slave on a different machine and that didn't
> seem to work, wouldn't even boot
> It has some stuff on it I'd like to have, any ideas???

Hi Dave

It could perhaps be the print on the disk that fails? In that case you
will need to switch it with another ST3220420A disk.

--
Mvh.
Peter Bak
Erstat "invalid" med "dk" i min e-mail
Replace "invalid" with "dk" in my e-mail

If you try to boot on another machine, it might not work for various reasons
regardless if the HDD is good anyway. However, as you know, you
can't make it boot if it's a slave anyway unless you futz with the bios
as well.
So back to your Q. You have the right idea. Even if it ID's in the BIOS, you
cleared the chipset test, but the other parameter is still the mechanical
issue, and that can fail to show your "disk failure" prompt.
I would start by replacing the IDE cable.....yes they go bad somehow.
I learned that after hours of swearing. If that is not it (likely not, but a
cheap
test to try) than get another HDD of similar size, or confirm your BIOS has
limitations that you can live with and move up.