Lost Partition. Any chance of data retrieval?

[Jen123]

I switched my PC on to find that I appear to have lost the partioning on my hard drive, operating system, data etc... Is there any chance of retreiving my data?

 

[Paulmac]

What makes you think you have lost your partitioning? What error are you getting. What can you see when you FDISK?

 

[Jen123]

I think the hard disk may have failed because when you fdisk you get "No current fixed disk present"

 

[Paulmac]

Sounds like. You may want to check out the drive is set up in the bios anyway. Can you hear the drive spinning? Long shot if the machine has not been touched but check the cabling. Extremely long shot but if it looks like it is completely dead you may be able to get it spinning by gently tapping the area where the spindle motor is...this has worked for me on more than one occasion and at least you can backup your data. If you don't have a backup and your data is crucial the try somebody like Ontrack Data Recovery before the brutal approach.
Good Luck, When you think you have nowhere else to go - Improvise, Adapt, Overcome.

 

[edfair]

Or alternately, take drive out and rapidly rotate in same plane as disks and stop with heel of the other hand. This is the temporary solution for the "stiction" problem.
Is the drive ID'd on POST? If so, you have power to the drive and the controller is reading. You might replug the drive power. Loss of 12v would stop rotation. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[Jen123]

Tried both things to no avail. The disk is making a clicking noise so I think it's well and truly dead.

Thanks anyway.