"Ryel, Raymond L NWP" wrote:

> Jose E. Dominguez sugested:
> You could buy the software the recovery companies themselves use.
> I like the idea but ONTRACK sells a 'personal edition' for $179 and RUNTIME
> sells for $159 and I really don't call that 'cheap' (maybe that shows how
> cheap I am) but what bothers me most is being uncertain about what is really
> failing. Would i be buying the correct software or just throwing money at
> the problem?

I guess I "assumed" a lot of things.

First, I thought you already knew for certain that the drive had failed. If this
is not the case all you have to do is connect the drive to another computer and
see if you get the same error or if it boots. You can also connect a different
drive to your computer and see if that one gives you the error. This will
isolate the problem to the drive or the motherboard since the controllers are
onboard.

Second, I was under the impression that you did not want to lose the data you
had on the drive. If the data is not worth the money the recovery software would
cost then don't buy it. If that is the case then just fdisk and format the drive
and see if it gives you the error again. If it does then the motherboard is bad.

HTH,

Jose

PS. Have you changed the cable?

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