I recently attempted to replace my motherboard with an alternative. I was very careful to handle the hardrive with care. Yet it seems as though I didn't do this enough. The motherboard didn't work out so I put my original motherboard back in my computer. Now whenever I try to start it up, the hardisk starts making a clicking noise, and I get an error that states it cannot access the hardrive. Is the hardisk dead, physically broken? If so can I get some suggestions on what I should buy to replace it? I don't need more than 30 gigs of space.

I don't know too much about harware, but I am using 40-pin connectors to connect it to the motherboard.

Are sure you used te correct connector on the cable?

There are 2 40-pin connectors that are used, I'm pretty sure I tried all of them. Would it help to try all of the different power connectors coming from my power supply?

That might help. Also make sure you didn't lose the jumper on the back of the drive.

Eh... What's the jumper. On another not, I called Maxtor's technical support (now owned by Seagate) and after a little research on my drive, the man informed me that my hardrive is broken. Weird way to say that it doesn't work anymore, but I'm pretty sure that this is the case. Thanks for your help ScottGem, I'm just going to buy a new laptop anyway because the computer holding that hardisk is almost 10 years old =O