ap3489

Ok i have that set up and tried the error checking and nothing happened the error checker just closed without scanning....?

No change Ok we're still at the stage where if the faulty drive is anything but the slave it wont pass the boot sequence and if it is the slave then the PC will boot but the faulty HDD wont be read and tries to format....

OK so put the faulty drive to slave and the working drive to what....?

Ok with the Working drive as CS the BIOS shows both of my HDD's are connected I then tried to boot into XP passed the Boot sequence and then the black and white loading bar just before the windows loading bar appeared and then just AFTER the standard windows XP loading bar appeared the pc blue screened for around a second then restarted?!!?

oops will do

Ok gooooood... Changing the Faulty HDD to CS (Slave) has worked and the PC has booted I open up my computer and the drive is listed so I assume that means it's working but again when i try to "explore" the drive it says that it needs formatting..... This happens when i connect it to the Caddy too is there any way of accessing the drives contents without reformatting the HDD? Thanks Very much Adam

Exactly that the PC boots though XP no problem with the MOLEX removed from the faulty HDD...where do i go from here?

Ok so i used the 3 way IDE cable and did what you said but the BIOS will only show the broken HDD even when i try to "detect" the other one. I can get the broken HDD as the Primary Master and Secondary Slave but nowhere else and the working HDD doesnt show on the BIOS unless the broken HDD is removed from the IDE cable.... really confused:confused:

I have a Caddy to connect as a USB device but when i try to "Explore" the Device it says that it must be formatted. The HDD is PATA so IDE yes and when i connect the borken HDD to the system as the secondary HDD the thing wont move past the boot sequence. Is this becuase it needs to be set as a slave device? If so how do I do that? Thanks Adam

Ok so i turn on my PC it runs the standard system checks, reaches the boot stage then tells me to restart by pressing Ctrl, Alt, Del Do this same thing happens....Then i change the BIOS boot sequence to start with my CD-ROM drive ad put in my XP disc. This the reaches boot and asks me to press any key to boot from disk. I do this then it says it's checking my systems hardware configuration and the screen goes blank and does nothing. I then open the case and put in an old HDD with XP on instead of the problematic HDD and it boots. Therefore I presume my XP files on my HDD with the problem are corrupted however the only option apparently is to format the drive completely to reinstall XP therefore loosing all my files. Is there anything I can do at home to get into the HDD with the problem to remove my personal files before reformatting and reinstalling XP? Thanks in Advance Adam