On Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:19:14 +0100, "Lord Turkey Cough"
<spamdump@invalid.com> wrote:

>I tried to use an old computer today and it was
>diving drive errors, I had not used the comp for
>over a year, it is possible the drives have seized up?
>Neither drives work, I tried them on this computer
>as slaves, one did not show us and the other cause
>a boot-upp error.
>

How old is the computer (how old are the drives, tell us
more about them)? Make sure the jumpers are correct and try
the drives alone on a cable as Master if you hadn't already.

Yes if a drive sits too long and it's already aged, it may
stick. Can you hear or feel the platters spinning and/or
the read arms moving? Try gently heating the drive with a
hair dryer or in a oven after it's cooled down to about 100C
and still cooling off w/door open. Once drive has cooled
till it's merely warm to the touch, try powering it on while
it is in different positions - on it's side, upside down,
etc. If the bearing needs to settle into a position with a
lubricant film under it the heat may help redistribute that
and you might temporarily regain use to copy data off. I
would not count on the drives working long, the above and
following comments would be just to get the data off, not
reuse the drive for more than that.

Some drives have mediocre contacts from drive body to
circuit board, you might also take the circuit board off and
use a dry paper towel (being a tiny bit abrasive) to rub on
the contacts. If there is environmental residue you might
first wipe with towel saturated with alcohol then be sure
it's dry before a followup with dry towel.

Also try other data cables. Old PATA cable connector
contacts are sometimes pretty fragile, even not so old ones
can be a problem after sitting then being moved/bent/etc.