My hard disk crashed and could no longer be detected by the bios. However I kept on trying until the Bios once again was able to detect the defective hard disk. I set the hard disk to slave with a new hard disk as Master with WinXP OS.
The Bios gets to detect the defective hard disk now as slave but when inside the windows the Hard disk could not be seen in the Windows explorer. I've tried several Hard disk utility software but they have the same message.
"There is no partition detected." (on the defective hard disk)
I'm planning to create partition into the hard disk and reformat it. My fear is that all my files which I'm hoping I could still retrieve wil all be gone. Is there any other way to retrieve my files before reformatting or can my data be retrieve still after the reformatting and partitioning process? thanks in advance.
Once you repartition and/or reformat your files will be deleted. There might be a way to retrieve your files using a commercial service but it will cost you an arm, a leg and an internal organ. Hopefully, you won't miss those body parts.
Get/create a bootable linux CD. Linux doesn't use BIOS to detect and access HDs, the kernel does it. A linux boot should be able to detect the drive, possibly allowing you to mount it and get the data.
As long as the drive is readable you should be able to get your data off. It all depends on what's wrong with the drive.