what are the specs on this beastie?
Did you boot it up lonesome?
check the molex plug if it has one...

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It is a SATA. In any case it worked well for two years so other than failure, what would account for it not working now? I did not try to boot from it as it has no OS, just data.

Is there such thing as "reset" a SATA HDD?

I'll have a rummage through the BIOS and see if there is anything that looks like it might be relevant, then disconnect the SDD, run the Live CD and see if gparted finds the HDD.

Nothing in the BIOS that looked relevant

Disconnected the SDD, ran the Live CD and gparted did not see the HDD.

So short of spending a lot of time trying to resurrect it, it would be a toss, except that the good news is that this little beastie turned out to be a 2 year old WD Black with a 5 year warranty, so WD is sending a replacement HDD. Yes!

Thanks again all!

DId you have to send it in?
When you get the new one check the pin assigns
I wish my 60GB Vertex4 had a 5 yr warranty, only 2 yrs

Swap over the power and data cables, dont bother if they are the same cables other stuff has worked on...

Check your pin assigns...
http://support.wdc.com/KnowledgeBase/answer.aspx?ID=981

In that link take note of RPS.
These drives can alos be pinned as a single primary drive for windows...undo that

hopefully it is spinning up when turned on, should be able to hear it start....

hunt for some software from WD

this thread may now be resolved, please mark the thread "Solved"

It's been a pleasure helping with this, happy computing and see you back soon...

I still have it pending a trip to UPS so had a look at the jumper pins and there are no jumpers on the drive (which appear from your link to be default). In fact, I had never thought about SATA drives having jumpers since SATA drives don't have cable "positions" the way EIDE drives do, but now realize that there might be other matters dealt with by jumpers. Is that there is no jumper/s meaningful within the context of this thread. I assume not since it ran fine for 2 years, but this is a big learning curve for me.

When I replaced the questionable drive with the 250GB one, I used the same power and data cables without a hitch.

Is "pinned" the same as two pins connected by jumper shunt? Just want to be sure I understand.

I see that there is a jumper setting for RPS. Is that something you recommend in this case, or generally for that matter?

Don't hear a thing from the drive when the computer is powered on. It appears to me to be very dead indeed.

Yep, by saying pinned i do mean the jumper pins shunt...

Your right regarding sata pin assigns, now-a-days there isnt much purpose but back in the day the older 250GB drive may have had them....

Somtimes shunting the pins gives a dead drive a little power kick that restores it...unshunt the RPS and see what happens

Being that it isnt spinning up with power-on there is a few more things to do with it before binning it.

Check there isnt anything in the sata or powerslot messing with the contacts.
If it has a molex power connection check the 4 power posts in the drive are not loose, somtimes pushing them into the drive make the contacts contact.
Test it in another PC. (has revied one drive for me)
Leave it in bright hot sunlight for a day (has revived much electro equipment for me)
Sit some really strong magnets on it (has never done a thing for me but still hoping)

IMO unlikely to revive it but it may be worth the effort.

Short of all that, prepare to bin it or re-purpose it http://lifehacker.com/5619879/what-c...ead-hard-drive