Hard Drive Not Detected

[AviD]

Hi,
I am new here, having some mad troubles with my computer.
It gives me the "Pri Master HDD Error" message upon startup, so I cannot do anything with the hard drive, cannot boot up at all, can't even re install windows. The BIOS detects it as a 40gb hd, when it is a 30gb hd. But the key is, the BIOS detects something, so I know its somewhat still alive. I can hear it running as well, so its not dead just yet.

I booted up Knoppix 3.9, and it does not recognized the hard drive. I set it as my slave, and booted up fine on a primary that I just bought, it detects the primary and shows hd1 on the desktop, but nothing else. I tried unplugging, and plugging it in as a primary, but then Knoppix does not detect any hard drives at all. Is there any hope for me to still access my files, or is my hd dead? Please, I really do need these files. Willing to try just about anything at this point.
Thanks,

Avi D

[Markus]

Did you jumper the disks as master and slave?
Cable select doesn't always work with linux.

[Harry Kuhman]

Cable select doesn't always work with linux.

Cable select never works, with any OS, unless you have a very special IDE cable that swaps a set of wires between the two drive connectors. These are rare beasts (I've never actually seen one for IDE, and I'm an IT professional). It's not a fault of Linux that CS doesn't work if you don't know how to use it and have the wrong hardware.

[Markus]

I didn't realize I said it was a fault of linux.