URGENT URGENT Hard Drive problem please help

[arcarsenal]

I was recording 2 bussed tracks to one and PT froze and what sounded like my hard drive was making this fairly loud churning/clicking/crunching noise so i did a force shutdown. i have 1 30gig with 3 partitions and 1 150gig for the audio.... Somebody please help me out I am panicing right now and I don't think I have to explain the significance of my life's work. What should I do????

[mixerboy]

You need to know which drive is playing up. Can you reboot? If yes, can you access the audio drive? Is the clicking sound still going on?

Assuming you can access, backup the audio immediately as it sounds like one of your drives is about to go if it hasn't already gone.

[neomodo]

it doesn't sound good - when you start getting that sound you describe - you may be able to recover your data but it may not be cheap depending on how far gone the drive is. Did you back up your life's work?

[arcarsenal]

After hearing this noise for about 15 seconds and shutting down, I booted up a minute later to see if it stopped and as soon as it started to turn on it started the noise again.

Do both hard drives spin up when you power on or just your OS hard drive? Because if its just your OS drive my recording drive may be fine. Im still scared to do anything right now.
Anyone?

[mixerboy]

Yes both drives spin on boot up.
Open your computer and disconnect the power cable to the audio drive and turn on the PC. If you hear the noise you know it is your system drive.

[arcarsenal]

This is where I have a problem, which drive is my audio drive? I have two stacked on top of eachother, so i figured the bottom one is my audio drive, but i want to be sure.. is the secondary drive the one with the grey end of the cable and the main drive has the black end?

[mixerboy]

This is where I have a problem, which drive is my audio drive? I have two stacked on top of eachother, so i figured the bottom one is my audio drive, but i want to be sure.. is the secondary drive the one with the grey end of the cable and the main drive has the black end?

Your bios will tell you which drive is master/slave/primary/secondary.

[lemix]

arcarsenal ,
Let's assume a typical configuration...( BTW..tell us what kind of drives you're using, and how are they connected )
Regular, IDE drives connected to the motherboard by an 80 conductor ribbon cable. The end of cable is the "master" and the middle tap is the slave. Your OS drive must be the master !
That scenario works, if they are both on the same cable/IDE controller. The other would connect to the optical drive/s, and/or additional hard drives...
good luck, hope this helps...

[arcarsenal]

[bleep], well i think i have some bad news...
I disconnected my recording drive and the computer booted up fine..

I dont even know what to do know... [bleep]......
What should i do? i am getting really depressed all of the sudden

[neatguys]

send me an email arcarsonal.
Dont reformat that drive!!!!
[email protected]