Hi guys
Many thanks for all of your replies.
* I tried turning off S.M.A.R.T. but still got the error message.
* Also attached the drive to another system but got the message; "Windows halted, System error" and when I attached it a SLAVE and booted into XP, only the working system drive is shown in My Computer and in Control Panel/Disk Management - so still can't access it.
* Changed data cables - no change.
* Tried 'freezing' the drive and then reconnecting it - no change - same error.
* Tried tapping the drive 'gently' but firmly on the top but made no difference.
* Used WD disk utilty and it came up with a S.M.A.R.T. error.
* Although the drive is shown in the BIOS correctly and also during POST as the SLAVE drive, when I used boot floppy and run FDISK, it reported that no drives were connected.
With reference to "roadworker" suggestion about trying "Runtimes GetDataBack" boot floppy - everything else has failed so far but it's worth a try, but where do I get this utility from?
Regards
Brave01Heart