20 Most Recent Western Digital Caviar WD450AA 45 GB ATA-66 Hard Drive Questions & Answers

Never heard of a HDD making siren sounds but if you mean a series of beeps from your PC then they are codes which indicate the problem.

See here for how to interpret them.

Hard drive can make a nice paper weight. It's toast.

No diagrams or parts. WD may be able to repair it for you.

In some cases an IDE connector is added to RAID Hard Drives or Industrial grade desktop computer drivers.. it's a backwards compatibility measure in case of failure. Other driver may also include an IDE power source too.. Those IDE connections are also known as (PATA) or Parallel.

WARNING Before you start troubleshooting remember that you are dealing with electricity that can KILL. http://www.kitchentablecomputers.com/static.php - rules Only work inside the computer case when the power has been switched off and disconnected. Never open the power source. Some of the below steps recommend removing physical parts within the computer. While in the computer it is highly recommend that you be aware of ESD and its potential hazards Test all leads that attach to your hard drive power and data cables IDE ,SATA the leads from your MOTHERBOARD TO YOUR HARD DRIVE make sure they have a secure dust free connections and are not faulty or just replace them they could be faulty Make sure all leads that are attached to your dvd \ cd floppy drives have secure connections and are not faulty or just replace them they could be faulty. Computers need power and data to travel through every working device to continue its cycle and have an end so any faulty leads will end up with a computer error. Even something as small as a faulty electrical or fan lead can cause you problems Motherboard and a Hard Drive any leads between them will fail before your motherboard or your hard drive if its a flat ribbon 40 pin type IDE replace it this will be the first to fail. Check all electrical power input and extensions make sure they are securely seated even the cd/dvd floppy drives need to have current go through make sure these drives are working Could be a problem with the Hard Drive or the Hard drives PCB http://www.onepcbsolution.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du0Qd_3wFWM

..as i know when HDD start beeping ( internal or portable ) that indicate problem with the Hard Drive (HDD)..so nothing you can do it by your self ....if the HDD is under warranty from factory you may take it to the store that you buy or nearest Western Digital distributor to claim the warranty...but if it doesn't in warranty..that's mean a problem why?because if HDD start beeping like you have, the possibility to make it work again is almost impossible that mean you maybe lost the data that you save in this HDD..

The hardware that you are trying to access is damaged or failing.

The device drivers for the hardware are faulty or incompatible.

There is a connection problem such as a bad cable

for internal hard drives

Test all power and data leads that attach to your hard drive IDE,SATA

the leads from your MOTHERBOARD TO THE HARD DRIVE make sure they have a

secure dust free connections and are not faulty or just replace them they could be faulty if its a flat 40pin ide

this will be the first to fail

make sure all leads that are attached to your drives dvd\cd 3 1/2 inch floppy have secure connections and are not faulty

or just replace them they could be faulty a computer needs power and data to travel through every working device and continue its cycle and have an end so any faulty leads will end up with a computer error hope this helps

You have to format a hard drive with a third party disk unless its a usb data drive Restart your computer During the boot process you will see on the screen to press a certain key to enter setup Press and hold that key during the boot up process to enter BIOS then using the arrow keys navigate to advanced bios features press enter change your first boot device to cd press escape then press f10 to save to cmos restart note this will erase you operating system you will have to have an operating system disk to load it onto you hard drive or create a partition to load another operating system note after you have loaded the operating system you should go back and change the first boot device to failsafe or optimised defaults after windows has loaded your computer will automatically restart it might restart 2 times one to finish the installation the next will be because the operating system is loaded and will boot from your cd hope this helps

Please give us some more information on exactly whats happening. Are you trying to connect this to a desktop PC or put it in an external exclosure?For a desktop PC, the basic steps to try are:1 - Ensure both the IDE cable and molex cable are connected to the hard drive. If it still doesnt work...2 - Test the drive with a different molex connector that is known to work. Only connect the molex connector (4 pin power connector) and not the IDE data cable. If the drive still doesnt spin up, it would appear the drive is faulty and requires replacement.For an external enclosure:1 - Take the enclosure apart and take the drive out. Test it in a desktop machine by using the above steps. This will let you know if the drive or the enclosure is at fault.Hope that helps!

You need to run chkdsk......How to run ChkdskNotes Chkdsk requires exclusive access to a volume when it runs. Therefore, if one or more of the files are open on the disk that you want to check, Chkdsk displays a prompt asking if you want schedule the disk check for the next time that you restart your computer. Chkdsk might take a long time to run, depending on the number of files and folders, the size of the volume, disk performance, and available system resources, such as processor and memory. Chkdsk might not accurately report information in read-only mode.How to run Chkdsk at the command prompt Click Start, and then click Run. In Open, type cmd, and then press ENTER. Use one of the following procedures: To run Chkdsk in read-only mode, at the command prompt, type chkdsk, and then press ENTER. To repair errors without scanning the volume for bad sectors, at the command prompt, type chkdsk volume:/f, and then press ENTER. Note If one or more of the files on the hard disk are open, you will receive the following message: Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N) Type Y, and then press ENTER to schedule the disk check, and then restart your computer to start the disk check. To repair errors, locate bad sectors, and recover readable information, at the command prompt, type chkdsk volume:/r, and then press ENTER. Note If one or more of the files on the hard disk are open, you will receive the following message: Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N) Type Y, and then press ENTER to schedule the disk check, and then restart your computer to start the disk check.How to run Chkdsk from My Computer or from Windows Explorer Double-click My Computer, and then right-click the hard disk that you want to check. Click Properties, and then click Tools. Under Error-checking, click Check Now. A dialog box that shows the Check disk options is displayed, Use one of the following procedures: To run Chkdsk in read-only mode, click Start. To repair errors without scanning the volume for bad sectors, select the Automatically fix file system errors check box, and then click Start. To repair errors, locate bad sectors, and recover readable information, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start. Note If one or more of the files on the hard disk are open, you will receive the following message: The disk check could not be performed because the disk check utility needs exclusive access to some Windows files on the disk. These files can be accessed by restarting Windows. Do you want to schedule the disk check to occur the next time you restart the computer? Click Yes to schedule the disk check, and then restart your computer to start the disk check.The following table lists the exit codes that Chkdsk reports after it has finished:Exit code Description0 No errors were found.1 Errors were found and fixed.2 Disk cleanup, such as garbage collection, was performed, or cleanup was not performed because /f was not specified.3 Could not check the disk, errors could not be fixed, or errors were not fixed because /f was not specified.

You need to run chkdsk...How to run ChkdskNotes Chkdsk requires exclusive access to a volume when it runs. Therefore, if one or more of the files are open on the disk that you want to check, Chkdsk displays a prompt asking if you want schedule the disk check for the next time that you restart your computer. Chkdsk might take a long time to run, depending on the number of files and folders, the size of the volume, disk performance, and available system resources, such as processor and memory. Chkdsk might not accurately report information in read-only mode.How to run Chkdsk at the command prompt Click Start, and then click Run. In Open, type cmd, and then press ENTER. Use one of the following procedures: To run Chkdsk in read-only mode, at the command prompt, type chkdsk, and then press ENTER. To repair errors without scanning the volume for bad sectors, at the command prompt, type chkdsk volume:/f, and then press ENTER. Note If one or more of the files on the hard disk are open, you will receive the following message: Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N) Type Y, and then press ENTER to schedule the disk check, and then restart your computer to start the disk check. To repair errors, locate bad sectors, and recover readable information, at the command prompt, type chkdsk volume:/r, and then press ENTER. Note If one or more of the files on the hard disk are open, you will receive the following message: Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N) Type Y, and then press ENTER to schedule the disk check, and then restart your computer to start the disk check.How to run Chkdsk from My Computer or from Windows Explorer Double-click My Computer, and then right-click the hard disk that you want to check. Click Properties, and then click Tools. Under Error-checking, click Check Now. A dialog box that shows the Check disk options is displayed, Use one of the following procedures: To run Chkdsk in read-only mode, click Start. To repair errors without scanning the volume for bad sectors, select the Automatically fix file system errors check box, and then click Start. To repair errors, locate bad sectors, and recover readable information, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start. Note If one or more of the files on the hard disk are open, you will receive the following message: The disk check could not be performed because the disk check utility needs exclusive access to some Windows files on the disk. These files can be accessed by restarting Windows. Do you want to schedule the disk check to occur the next time you restart the computer? Click Yes to schedule the disk check, and then restart your computer to start the disk check.The following table lists the exit codes that Chkdsk reports after it has finished:Exit code Description0 No errors were found.1 Errors were found and fixed.2 Disk cleanup, such as garbage collection, was performed, or cleanup was not performed because /f was not specified.3 Could not check the disk, errors could not be fixed, or errors were not fixed because /f was not specified.

SATA stands for Serial ATA and describes the interface used to connect to your PC. Many older PCs have ATA or UDMA, an IDE type interface. Many newer PCs have a SATA interface. You can buy and add a SATA interface card if no additional SATA ports are available on your system. SATA drives have a small data connector and a larger power connector. Each drive has it's own SATA data cable, no daisey-chaining like IDE drives did. Since there is no daisey-chain there are no jumpers that need setting for Master and Slave.

You should not even try to install an operating system on an external drive. Windows looks at the "C" drive and installs programs to "C" drive. You are trying to put it on the "G" drive. You will have too many problems and wish you never had tried. Buy a larger main drive and partition it with two equal partitions. Then "Dual Boot". You will find how to do this on the internet. Just Google "Dual Booting".

Get TESTDISK and see if it is recognised, if so TestDisk has some tools that may help

If your HARD DRIVE was exposed to a magnetic field, this can happen.
Try a scandisck run.
Boot up in safe mode and run fix disk.