Help with my main hard drive.?

Question

Dell 8400 XP

Hard drive has been basically running since Feb.2005.

Last night it "died" and I've tried everything to reinstall windows, but it says that "SATA Drive (#) is not found, Press f1...."

I did all that f1, f2 c**p but nothing. Reset the BIOS back to the factory settings; made sure that the only SATA was the maindrive, etc...etc..

I took the drive out and gently shook it and I could hear the arm spinning when I turned it. Did the same thing with an exertnal drive that died on me last year and it was a very similar sound.

Is my hard drive dead? Unfixable?

Answer 1

Sounds like it is dead, you can try sending it off to a data recovery center if you need the data stored on it.

Answer 2

Sounds like its time to replace your hard drive, as it most likely unfixable