I want to give as much info as I can to see if help is possible in my case.

Dell Dimension 3100 windows XP pro, 320g HD (60g used) 1g ram a drive D with Norton ghost (only used once) multiple drives for camera memory cards, sticker on Western digital HD says wd2500js 250g

I got some help before (about 2 months ago) with some rootkits and viruses and it seemed as though everything was ok. (some issues with accessing data cds in the drive but I hadn’t fixed that yet) Last week when I had clicked on an Image search match, the new tab had a fake scanner running with a popup saying to scan my computer. I couldn't get the tab to close because of the popup so I did the ctrl-atl-del and stopped the firefox.exe to shut everything. A little while later when I clicked new tabs, they would be commercial sites, not what I was clicking.

I had ended up scanning 2 times with Keypersky(sp?) online scanner, 2 times with Malwarebytes, and once with Spybot S&D. Spybot was the only one that found some stuff. It removed them and I restarted the computer. Everything seemed ok but I was still worried that malwarebytes and Keypersky found nothing but spyware S&D did so I scanned with malwarebytes again and it found a few things. It had me restart to remove a "g" something dill file. (I had taken a screen capture of the item) When the computer restarted, I got an error with that dill file saying something like unable to find. I clicked ok and it continued to load windows. I then saw a lot of DOS black windows opening and closing really fast. (Probably around 20 windows or so) Everything seemed ok and I checked my email and some other stuff online.

I then started malwarebytes to do a complete scan and left the computer. (it usually takes an hour and a half to scan) I came back to see a BSOD with a message saying stuff about windows was shut down and to uninstall any devices that might have caused it. I restarted the computer and it would only go to the blue screen. I tried safe mode, a previous point, etc. All the options listed in set up but each time it would show the XP logo screen and do the fast scroll of code lines(?) and stop after about 4-5 seconds and show the BSOD. I wrote down some of the things it showed. I found a dell cd and did a diagnosis scan and it showed error codes in 2 spots under the "OS will not load" part.

page_fault_in_nonpage_area

stop 0X000000B7E (0X80000003, 0X805C49B8, 0XBA4C32B4, 0XBA4C2FB0)
-=-=-=-

error code: 650F:0244
msg: block 302362352: uncorrectable data error or media is write protected.

poped up on line- sata disk s/n = wd-wcanks175452-read test
=-=-=-=

error code: 650F:1a44
msg: block 302362352: uncorrectable data error or media is write protected.

poped up on line- sata disk s/n = wd-wcank5175452-verify test


I also got a code 7 when doing the tests. Online I found people saying the hard drive is toast and nothing can be done. Others say it means the HD can not be accessed. I opened the computer and did find the HD will spin up and make it's weird little scanning sounds. (I used a stethoscope on the drive to listen)

So I know the drive still spins but I can't access it at all. I was wondering about slaving the drive. I know nothing about that but it was recommended as an option. My drive plug goes to a SATA 1 port and right below it is a SATA 2 port (but no cable) the power cable to the drive is spliced with another plug so another drive could be put below it and have power.

Could I get a new drive, install xp from the re-install disk, and get a cable to connect to SATA2 and then be able to access the drive??

I have absolutely no back up copies from the computer at all. The computer is about 3 years old and still making payments on it. (Warrantee was only 1 year) My old computer is 10 years old and never had a BSOD like this and I never figured on making copies of what’s on the computer because dell said it should last for generations.

I really need the stuff on the computer. If I have to scrap the drive after getting the info, that is fine. As long as I can recover as much data as possible I am ok with the idea of losing the HD after.

Some sites said antivirus software or viruses could cause a HD to be inaccessible. I was thinking this is the case as it was running malwarebytes when it crashed.

What can I do to access the HD?

Ps. The HD says 250g but I have 320g. Where is the other 70g located at??

This is a very touchy situation. If you do not have any backups then you really should leave the drive alone and work with someone that is an expert in data recovery. ie. Though there are some great products out there to recover data from a good working drive, if you're not careful you can damage it more and make data recovery near impossible. If it's very important to you then I'd suggest sending the drive out for recovery. It is not cheap and typically can range from about $250 to $1,500 depending on how much data there is to recover and the difficulty the lab has with doing the recovery. If the price is just beyond your means and you're willing to take the risk then yes you can do a couple of thing to try and recover the data.

1. Remove the HD and place it into another working computer and see if you can simply copy data normally.
2. Buy a new drive as you described and slave it and see if you can copy the data normally.
3. If you cannot copy data normally then you may want to see if you can use a product like HDD Regenerator
4. Option #3 if it comes down to it is better to try than running a CHKDSK on the drive first as it could cause unrecoverable damage on a failing drive.
5. You can also try recovery software like GetDataBack
6. One of the last options if you cannot afford these other products (which to me would indicate the data is not that important) then you can try a CHKDSK D: /R (where D: is the volume/drive letter of the bad drive) and hope for the best. Normally using CHKDSK is not problematic but on a failing drive it can potentially be.

Choose what route you want to go and quit messing with the drive though until you're ready to proceed. If it is a failing drive then the more you use and run it the closer you're coming to a point where it just will no longer spin up or be detected by the OS.