Re: Accessing HD by bypassing BIOS?


Here and Kickin' wrote:
> My mom's Seagate ST38421A died after my sister's kids installed a game on
> her computer (I do not think the kids caused the problem, however.) The
> HD was factory installed into a Compaq 5441, and my attempt to diagnose
> the problem is the first time that anyone has touched the innards of the
> PC since it was assembled at the factory approximately six years ago.
> The symptoms are a strange singing sound as the computer starts up (my mom
> says that the sound was present for a time before the drive failed; the
> sound is NOT the BIOS beeping). After trying to boot from the HD, the
> CD-ROM, and the floopy disk. the computer announces a boot problem, and
> asks me to provide a system disk.
>
> My mom's Seagate ST38421A is the only device connected to the second IDE controller of the
> computer. The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-5SMM.
>
> What I've done:
>
> -Booted from drive A: system runs MS-DOS fine, but declares a "Invalid
> drive specification" when I try to switch over to C:.
>
> -Tried to use Compaq's restore disk, but the system could not find the HD;
> the restore program asks me whether I want to restore again or exit the
> program.
>
> -Swapped the drive into my working Compaq 5204; no sound, but same error.
> Same difficulties with accessing C:
>

>
> Does anyone have a suggested solution, or should I give up?

If you can find another ST38421A swap the electronics of the two
drives. I never tried this but there is a chance your mom's data is
still intact, only not accessible.
>

.

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