I have 4 hard drives and one has disappeared. How can I restore it? Im running XP SP3

[dalmations]

One of my hard drives is no longer recognized on my computer. I haven't made any changes so I don't know what happened. Is it possible to restore it and the files?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, dalmations.

Did you have any issues with that drive prior to this problem? Any unusual noises/sounds coming from the drive, slow read/write speed, freezes/hangs of your system when you try to access a files on that HDD? Does the drive even power-up, do you hear it spin or feel it vibrate when you turn on your computer
I'd suggest that you try the drive with a different SATA port and cables, to see if the same thing happens, or even better - try it with a different computer. Other than that, if the drive powers up you could try accessing it via Ubuntu Live USB/DVD, to see if it's properly recognized and if you can get to your files. Another option would be data recovery software: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html and http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecovery/tp/free-file-recovery-programs.htm. And if the drive doesn't even power up, or your data is valuable to you, I'd suggest that you go directly for a professional solution, such as a data recovery company.

Hope that helps. Please let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD

 

[dalmations]

Thank you. Evidently something was wrong with the cable. It's working now.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Sure thing, I'm glad I was able to help and that everything turned out fine in the end.

I have just a quick suggestion. Please think of a backup solution at least for the valuable files, which you can't afford to lose and can't be replaced. Having a copy of those files on a cloud, a different computer, or on an external HDD are all viable options. After all, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Cheers!

 

[dalmations]

Sure thing, I'm glad I was able to help and that everything turned out fine in the end.

I have just a quick suggestion. Please think of a backup solution at least for the valuable files, which you can't afford to lose and can't be replaced. Having a copy of those files on a cloud, a different computer, or on an external HDD are all viable options. After all, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Cheers!

 

[dalmations]

Thanks. That's when I found out that my backups from the extra drives weren't being sent to the cloud. I'm working on that problem now.
Thanks again.