OK this MAY sound dumb, but I'm lost.  I had posted a problem with a hard drive that was missing a file to boot up.  My question is, If I insert a start up disk will it make the hard drive run?  OK two for one offer,  another question, does a start up disk come in a USB  NOW?No to your first question and yes to your second question.

If you boot from a floppy, you might be able to view files on your hard drive (depends if it is NTFS) and what type of floppy you are BOOTING with.

If you computer supports booting to USB then you can boot to a USB drive.ANY IDEA WHRE I CAN GET A USB START UP ?burned we're going to need more info on your machine , what happened prior to this and what OS you are running to assist further.  PATIO, I installed two hard drives ( not together ) It looks like both HD were knocked down by some SVC host. exe ( trogan)  I didn't want to format, since I have so much information on them.  I tried to do what they say the R-repair with the license CD but it wouldn't.  Later on, the motherboard dosn't reconize none of them.
Other than that, I havn't done anything, hoping that I could save my files.  My OS is Windows XP.  Any help would be apreciated.  I keep reading the forum, trying to figure out if what my repair man at the computer center I always deal with is trying to make a few bucks on my hopes.  He wants to charge $75.00 and says "MAYBE" we can recover your files.  I must include that both HD I was the Administrator with a password.  I don;t know if that helps.
THANKS again.Slave Drive Tutorial

This will explain how to hook them up to a working DESKTOP to retrieve your data...
The drives don't need to boot to windows for this to work...Patio, I have done that and it don't work.  I think I have lost all my info. unless, I'm doing something wrong. Do only one at a TIME...
Are they being detected by the BIOS ? ?
Can you feel/hear them spinning up ? ?no to both questions and I am testing them, one at a time.Then i'm afraid they are DOA.