Help me revive my HD!!!

[2000_SL_1.9]

Left the computer on for an overnight download. Went to check on my computer in the morning and it was frozen. Moved the mouse, and the desktop came on and froze in place. Normally, the log on screen comes when you wiggle the mouse. Here is what I've done. 1- Rebooted, got up to the Windows XP logo with the progress bar below. It stayed like that for 5 minutes then it rebooted on its own. 2- Same as above 3- Held power button to shut down and waited 15 mins. 4- Powered on computer and got the same result as #1 above. 5- I was thinking about a new computer now, since this P4 2.4 is almost 4 years old, I went out and purchased new computer. 6- I took out the problem HD and put it in a USB 2.0 enclosure and hooked it up via USB port to the new computer. Powered on the enclosure and XP reconizes it but then the computer freezes where the balloon window in the lower left reads "Found New Hardware" 7- Shut down the enclosure and rebooted computer. Went to Run>MMC>Add Remove Snap In>Disk Management. Turned on enclosure > Refresh. HD does not display on the screen and computer freezes again. The drive has 2 partitions 1 for XP install and all programs. 2nd partition has all my docs, pictures, and downloaded video clips. I don't care about the XP install. I just want the photos that were backed up from my digital camera. I want to transfer those files to the new HD and fully reformat the problem HD and use it as a back up. That is, if it's still salvagable. I would appreciate any help. Thanks

 

[ConfederateTyrant]

In #1, does it show a quick blue screen with a STOP Error? Do you have your XP installation disc? That is appearing like a failed hard drive. My wife's laptop hard drive did that to my laptop when I had it hooked up to a USB 2 enclosure. Expect to not get your files, but you may get lucky. First thing, if you have your XP CD, boot from the CD and go into recovery console and run a checkdisk (chkdsk /r/f) and let it finish with any returning results. If that freezes or blue screens, then it's almost certain the hard drive is gone. Another way to tell if the hard drive is gone, is to attempt doing a Windows Repair ONLY (NOT A FORMAT!) and if it says it cannot find any hard drive or installations of windows, then that's a good sign of hard drive failure. Now if you'd like to make some final attempts at getting your files, try putting the hard drive in the freezer for a little while (I know, I didn't want to believe it the first time it was recommended to me, but it is a serious statement), and then quickly hook it up, just be wary of condensation. Something about the coldness causing the metal to retract can help out. I didn't have luck with that, BUT, slamming the hard drive on the work counter did it for my wife's hard drive. Hope this helps.

 

[2000_SL_1.9]

I tried the XP disk when I still had the HD hooked up via the IDE. It read "cannot find NT loader". That's when I had the "Oh S*it" moment.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Sometimes that freezer trick works. Key is to get the data off it in the first 5 minutes after removing it from the freezer. Try OnTrack's EZRecovery Pro. It bypasses Windows XP's disk manager. Yes, Explorer will look like it freezes up, but OTRP will comb thru the drive to see what it can recover. It's a great utility...I've used it several times in the past with good fortune on drives that were on the fritz.