Reply #7: If your 1st hard drive is still working and it's installed on the same IDE cable as the 2nd

[eshfemme]

then it's not the IDE cable. If you are also receiving an error with the first hard drive, then it's possible that it is the IDE cable and/or the IDE socket on the motherboard.

What people don't know is that hard drives have a certain length of time before they fail or corrupt. This is why regular scheduled backups of data is recommended. There are a few actions that can be taken to try to relieve the strain on a hard drive to delay the day a hard drive will go bad but generally, it is unavoidable. So, this is a common story-- there's so many ways for a hard drive to fail that it's hard to determine (at least for me with my level of expertise-- this is a question better suited to a specialist). However, hard drive failure can be divided into roughly 2 camps: hardware or software. If it's hardware, you will basically need to get it sent back to be fixed because it is a mechanical failure within the drive unless it is something that is easily replaceable. If it's software, it's fixable by a simple re-format (usually).

It's easier to diagnose the problem if we first assume that it is a simple data corruption as that would be easier for you to fix and thus, eliminate if it does turn out to be a mechanical failure. As for data retrieval software, there is freeware and trial software you can use. Here's a couple you can try:

R-Studio: http://www.r-studio.com/?betan001
GetDataBack: http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm
EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard: http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/

You can also search on snapfiles for trials and freeware disk recovery software. I don't have any particular recommendation as some software is more effective in some situations. There is no best software here.

Hopefully, this helps you out. Good luck!