slave hard drive not working

Hi there,
I got a problem with my hard drive (with important old data) and your help will be appreciatedddd:
Harddrive: Maxtor fireball 3 (40 GB)
Current issue:
I tried to set it as a slave drive on a properly working computer (to rescue data on the drive). However, computer booting immediately got to an error state with a message "operating system not found". Note: 1) I double checked jumper setting, cable connection...they were fine. 2) another drive can be set as a slave drive at the cable location for the same computer. so it seems like only possible cause of the problem is from the hard drive itself.
What's puzzling me:
How come the connection of this drive as a slave could block the booting from the master drive?
Final focus: how to get this resolved?

Regarding the hard drive history: It initially worked as the master drive for one computer. During some hard drive handling, that computer got "dead": could not be rebooted even when I used another hard drive for a fresh window setup.

Thanks in advance,

Da

Do you have another HDD with an OS on it? Some newer dirves conflict with other drives when they're set a slave, have you tried it as Secondary Master or Slave? Its weird that it displays "Operating System not found". Im guessing it wants to only work on master,or its maybe faulty, if it is just hold on to it anyway, My Western Digital Cavier 13.6GB died, and after 4 months at the bottom of my Computer desk without a static bag, one day, when i tested it it suddenly worked fine, without any problems . If it is faulty, It might come back to life. But by the sounds of it, Its prob. just as conflict issue, dissconect ALL Secondary devices, and try boot with the HDD on Secondary Slave.

Hope that works!!

(^^;?(Curious, but not rare or impossible. I think.)

I suppose that the bios detected your Slave Maxtor as Active for some reason. Because it was set active by Fdisk formerly. If the bios first check whether there is another drives or not and check the partition table at the same time, the Slave is first detected as Active and as selected as boot device.

In any way, download first Maxtor Diagnostic Tools, and make it stand alone. Then Check it. There's also salvage softwares available on the web.

Note: You can deactivate the HDD by fdisk or other utility. But be careful! All data is gone by wrong operation.

Thanks for all your suggestions. I tried maxtor's diagnostic tool "Powermax" to check it: Booting from the A: drive with powermax disk got to: No hard drive found!! Maybe it's necessary to sit it for months and visit back to hope for its self revival.....

(^^;(Oh! it's somewhat too late.)

If you can do this, there is a last resort, but needs somewhat dexterity, and somewhat of danger.

In a word, removing the controller board, there are motor connection and signal connection. Then shut down signal line by tape and make it race a few minute. Then plug it again. This revives HD for a while.

If it fails, repeat it several times. and if revived, immediately take back-up. Don't imagine to scandisk it. It soon will be unrecognized again forever.

before doing something like that drastic, you should try to fit in the two drives in this configuration:

install linux or w2k on the new drive. pu it in the primary master position

and put the old ailing drive in the secondary slave position.

before plugging in the old one, remove all other ide devices except the two hdd. and removeany other unneded peripherals. like scanners, sound cards, floppy drives, etc.

(^^;(Thanks for your follow-up, Arkantos. I might be a short of words.)

Because it is the last resort, before this any possible configurations may be tried.

In addition to arkantos, you can try another PC, because different bios may recognize it and this is sometimes the case.

alright if i was you. i would keep the master harddrive on ide1 on the mobo. plug the slave drive you want into ide2. THE MASTER DRIVE MUST BE ON IDE2. try that. email me if it doesnt work and ill try to help.

also, check to see if your boot drive is set to master and not cable select