[LPDad]

Glad to help Sam. Wish I could actually guarantee a fix for your problem.
As for "help from another Country"....you will notice that pretty everyone here is from different countries...we all have a common interest (ok that does sound pretty corny...lets just say we are all trying to figure out how to keep our computers working and improving with the least hassle possiple...Ok we are Geeks.

The best place to get help is online in forums...just have to find the right forum.
This website used to be one of the hottest and most active help sites around. I have not been active here for several years (for family/job reasons.. but your need for help dragged me back...I have been in your position before and so I know your frustration, better than you think.

We only ask, as you learn, that you to help someone (anyone) else when they have a problem and you can help out. That is how we all learn. keep it up and pretty soon you will be the "expert"....Especially if you are ultimately able to recover your data. If/when that happens please post here how you solved your problem for others to lean from.

With regard to your current problem....you cannot have 2 drives set as "master" ON THE SAME CABLE. The drive on the end of the cable is always designated as Master and the one attached to the middle of the cable is designated "slave". On pretty much all computers that are less than 4 years old you can set the "jumper switch" (on the harddrive iteself) to the CSL or CS (CSL = cable Select) and the computer will automatically assign the drives correctly.

Some info we need: What brand is your computer? How old is it?? How long have you had it?? What operating System are you using?? Are you single?? (LOL...just kidding), What Model Number is your computer?

Your next step will to be to go into the BIOS and check to see if your motherboard can "see" the afflicted harddrive. Once I get the above info I can tell you how to do that.

In the worse case scenario you drive is totally dead. Your only option in that case is to send the drive to a datarecovery center, where they will dissemble the drive in a special sterile room and do a special scan of the spindle itself and they should be able to recover your data....unfortunately this can be very expensive (google "Disk Data Recovery" or something similar and you might be able to get an idea of the prices they charge).

You have to determine if your data is worth the expense... The music is pretty much not worth it (it might take you a while but you should be able to replace it)...unless it has the latest Symphony that you Wrote and have yet to publish...OR if it has Pavarotti's Last Aria which is the only copy in existence...Which WOULD BE PRICELESS then you would need to recover it. (you could always Share it with me and we could sell it and probably not have to work another day in our lives !!!)..Hahaha.
Your pictures are another story. Those are probably priceless to you and not replaceable.

HOPEFULLY... if we can get your BIOS to "see" the harddrive then we might be able to try a bunch of special programs and attempt to recover your data...your pictures at the very least.

Provided we are able to scan your harddrive with several of these programs (I have found that usually multiple tries with different programs give better results that trying with a single program) we might be able to save some of your data

Also...Do you know how to use Bittorrent?? (it might make things easier..I will explain later. ) If you do not know what that is don't worry about it.

I will check in later.

-kim