harddrive firmware bad?

Flamez

Hello all, i have a Maxtor DiamondMax D540X-4K ATA Hard Disk Drive
that i have identified by searching on the internet.

The model number is 4D080H4, which isnt on any site, but it is out of an old compaq computer from 2001. A few weeks ago i turned on the pc, and it didnt boot. I plugged into external and it comes up as a Romulus, which i also looked up online, and found out it could be a firmware issue? Like its lost its firmware and i should try to flash it.

If its in a pc, it won't boot to windows, it posts, it can go into bios, bios says its romulus. If i put a boot disk, it just freezes and sits and blinks at the screen with an underscore.

If i put in my windows disk with it, it gets stuck at Inspecting hardware.

I was wondering if anyone else had any ideas? I've tried all i can think of. Theres some data on it that i'd like to get back, but not so much that im willing to pay the fee's of a recovery place. Im all for swapping disks and opening it up, but to be honest i have not a clue how to do it, so i decided to see what you guys know.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Leonardo

For now, keep it in the external drive, assuming that ext. drive is connected to a working computer. Download Maxtor's drive fitness software and run it for that drive. The software should accurately diagnose the drive and repair problems if they are not mechanical in nature. If it's a firmware problem and not software, that may be rather difficult. Look carefully at the download options before you select the software - that old drive may require different software than the newer drives.

If you are able to get the drive running again, I would recommend that you quickly copy any important files from it and make that the last usage of the drive. It's probably already living on borrowed time, if not already expired.