hard drive dead?

  • Thread starter Thread starter jinxy
  • Start date Start date
J

jinxy

Hello, I am trying to help someone at work to fix his son's pc. It is
a HP Media Center m7360n. When he tries to start it up it goes to the
4 options screen (safemode, safemode with networking, last known good
conf. that worked and start windows normally) The 30 sec. countdown
starts,when you make a selection the countdown stops and nothing
happens. If you choose safemode it begins the process and stops before
the first screen of drivers loads. It sounds as if the drive is not
running, Is this an indication that the drive is dead or dying? Thanks
for your time and efforts. -J
 
jinxy said:
Hello, I am trying to help someone at work to fix his son's pc. It is
a HP Media Center m7360n. When he tries to start it up it goes to the
4 options screen (safemode, safemode with networking, last known good
conf. that worked and start windows normally) The 30 sec. countdown
starts,when you make a selection the countdown stops and nothing
happens. If you choose safemode it begins the process and stops before
the first screen of drivers loads. It sounds as if the drive is not
running, Is this an indication that the drive is dead or dying? Thanks
for your time and efforts. -J
Click to expand...
The drive is at least able to show you the first screen, and so
is at least working a little bit.
Try a win repair install, or a factory re-install, depending on
whats on the system disk, or CD's.
 
Hello, I am trying to help someone at work to fix his son's pc. It is
a HP Media Center m7360n. When he tries to start it up it goes to the
4 options screen (safemode, safemode with networking, last known good
conf. that worked and start windows normally) The 30 sec. countdown
starts,when you make a selection the countdown stops and nothing
happens. If you choose safemode it begins the process and stops before
the first screen of drivers loads. It sounds as if the drive is not
running, Is this an indication that the drive is dead or dying? Thanks
for your time and efforts. -J
Click to expand...

A system that gets past the POST and begins to load the OS before it
freezes usually has a hardware defect or driver problem.
The way you diagnose this is to disconnect or disable all but the
essential parts (Motherboard, Memory, CPU, Video Card, Hard Drive and
Power Supply) and see if it boots. If it does, then you can add back one
item at a time until you find the one that hoses the system.
If it does not boot with just the essentials you will need to do more
advanced diagnoses. Post back if that is the case.
The drive could be going bad also, but you need to eliminate other
possibilities first before you go there.
 
A system that gets past the POST and begins to load the OS before it
freezes usually has a hardware defect or driver problem.
The way you diagnose this is to disconnect or disable all but the
essential parts (Motherboard, Memory, CPU, Video Card, Hard Drive and
Power Supply) and see if it boots. If it does, then you can add back one
item at a time until you find the one that hoses the system.
If it does not boot with just the essentials you will need to do more
advanced diagnoses. Post back if that is the case.
The drive could be going bad also, but you need to eliminate other
possibilities first before you go there.
Click to expand...



The way you diagnose this is to disconnect or disable all but the
essential parts (Motherboard, Memory, CPU, Video Card, Hard Drive and
Power Supply) and see if it boots. If it does, then you can add back one
item at a time until you find the one that hoses the system.
Click to expand...

Tried that, all works fine untill you get to the hdd. Have also
changed the sata cable on the drive, still no joy. Man this is a
really compacted tower, everything is tight in there, not much room to
work. I will ask him if they have recovery disks that came with the
pc.
I will do a non-destructive recovery if he has the disks. While I am
waiting I will take the drive out and slave it to another pc.
-J
 
jinxy said:
The way you diagnose this is to disconnect or disable all but the

Tried that, all works fine untill you get to the hdd. Have also
changed the sata cable on the drive, still no joy. Man this is a
really compacted tower, everything is tight in there, not much room to
work. I will ask him if they have recovery disks that came with the
pc.
I will do a non-destructive recovery if he has the disks. While I am
waiting I will take the drive out and slave it to another pc.
-J
Click to expand...

I'd boot a Linux Live CD, and try to copy the old disk to a new disk.
The "dd" command can do this in one shot. All it requires, is the
new disk be slightly bigger than the old disk. Since the "dd" command
does a sector by sector copy, it places the least stress on a failing
disk.

The Linux Live CD, doesn't install any software. It only requires
the CD/DVD drive be in working order. I can use such a CD as a test
of the computer hardware. If the CD won't boot to completion, I could
then start disconnecting other hardware bits and pieces, and look for
a change in symptoms.

Examples of Linux Live CDs, are Knoppix (knopper.net) and Ubuntu (ubuntu.com).

If the disk is damaged (has bad sectors), there is a procedure for
that. The "ddrescue" at the bottom of this page, has the ability to
skip over sectors that cannot be read, and preserves the maximum amount
of information from the original disk. (The regular "dd" would run slowly,
or fail completely, on a disk with errors on it.) Once you've made
your best copy of the drive, you can then attempt data recovery,
run chkdsk or whatever, on the *copy* you've made.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Damaged_Hard_Disk

The only thing that techniques like that can't help with, is environments
that use an HPA. I think perhaps Dell Mediadirect might be an example. There
is some box, that hides one of their pieces of software, in a normally
inaccessible place. If working on a hard disk set up that way, you need
to find a web site specific to the situation. This site, for example, has
info useful to people working on certain Dell boxes.

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/recover.htm

The hard drive manufacturer may provide a utility for testing the disk.
On Seagate, I use Seatools for DOS, downloaded from their web site. That
gives me a bootable floppy diskette, which can test Seagate drives. Some
disk manufacturers, provide no help whatsoever. It comes as a shock, when
you visit such a manufacturer web site, and there is nothing you can use
for testing.

So if I was visiting a friend's house, I'd probably bring along three
of my spare hard drives with me. Just in case. And my stack of Linux
CDs. And Windows installer CD, so I'd have a Recovery Console to work
with.

While I've never bothered to download this, this recovery disc can be
used to work on Win7 systems, but can apparently also be used to work
on things like WinXP.

http://neosmart.net/blog/2009/windows-7-system-repair-discs/

So there are plenty of things you can boot with, to do work
on a computer.

Paul
 
Tried that, all works fine untill you get to the hdd. . . .
I will do a non-destructive recovery if he has the disks.
Click to expand...

Necessary tests seem to be:
1. Booting DOS from a flloppy
2. RAMTEST86 which can be done from a floppy.
3. Manufacturer's test for hard drive health.
 
jinxy said:
Hello, I am trying to help someone at work to fix his son's pc. It is
a HP Media Center m7360n. When he tries to start it up it goes to the
4 options screen (safemode, safemode with networking, last known good
conf. that worked and start windows normally) The 30 sec. countdown
starts,when you make a selection the countdown stops and nothing
happens. If you choose safemode it begins the process and stops before
the first screen of drivers loads. It sounds as if the drive is not
running, Is this an indication that the drive is dead or dying?
Click to expand...

If the hard drive wasn't working, the computer wouldn't get that far
because all that information is stored on the hard drive. A self-
booting drive diagnostic, like Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test (DFT) or
MHDD (HDDguru.com has it), can check the drive, but most likely it's
fine, and the real problem is a corrupt Windows file. Try a Repair
Install from the Windows CD, but when it asks if you want to do a
Repair Install, say no, and then when it asks again, in a different
menu, say yes.
 
larry moe 'n curly said:
jinxy wrote:
Click to expand...

The critical question is this... Are there any important files on
the hard drive that have not been copied to removable media? If
so, see Paul's advice about making a copy of the drive. Never ever
use a computer unless you first copy important files to removable
media. Of course that is a judgment call, only you can decide
that for yourself.
If the hard drive wasn't working, the computer wouldn't get that
far because all that information is stored on the hard drive.
Click to expand...

A hard drive can produce signs of failing before it completely
stops working, like if the problem is on another part of the
drive.
 
The critical question is this... Are there any important files on
the hard drive that have not been copied to removable media? If
so, see Paul's advice about making a copy of the drive. Never ever
use a computer unless you first copy important files to removable
media. Of course that is a judgment call, only you can decide
that for yourself.


A hard drive can produce signs of failing before it completely
stops working, like if the problem is on another part of the
drive.

Never ever
use a computer unless you first copy important files to removable
media.
Click to expand...
This is not my pc.

I managed to get a hold of a Windows XP Media Center 2005 for HP and
Compaq's. When I ran the disk and got to the partitions page, was told
that" there is no disk in this drive".
I click install and next appears a blue screen saying, problem is
likely caused by setupdd.sys.
Stop: 0x00000050 (0xE57A3868,0x00000000,0xF74139A8,0x00000002)
setupdd.sys- address F74139A8 base at F73EC000
date stamp 41107C87
I don't know enough to understand the meaning of this message, but I
am looking on the net for answers. If you can elaborate, please do.
-J
 
"jinxy" <[email protected]> kirjoitti
viestissä:[email protected]...
The critical question is this... Are there any important files on
the hard drive that have not been copied to removable media? If
so, see Paul's advice about making a copy of the drive. Never ever
use a computer unless you first copy important files to removable
media. Of course that is a judgment call, only you can decide
that for yourself.


A hard drive can produce signs of failing before it completely
stops working, like if the problem is on another part of the
drive.

Never ever
use a computer unless you first copy important files to removable
media.
This is not my pc.
Click to expand...
I managed to get a hold of a Windows XP Media Center 2005 for HP and
Compaq's. When I ran the disk and got to the partitions page, was told
that" there is no disk in this drive".
I click install and next appears a blue screen saying, problem is
likely caused by setupdd.sys.
Stop: 0x00000050 (0xE57A3868,0x00000000,0xF74139A8,0x00000002)
setupdd.sys- address F74139A8 base at F73EC000
date stamp 41107C87
I don't know enough to understand the meaning of this message, but I
am looking on the net for answers. If you can elaborate, please do.
-J
Click to expand...

The reason that XP MC2005 CD couldn't read/find the HD in that computer is
that it has a SATA HD, for which drivers would be required on the CD..
 
Thomas said:
"jinxy" <[email protected]> kirjoitti
viestissä:[email protected]...



The reason that XP MC2005 CD couldn't read/find the HD in that computer is
that it has a SATA HD, for which drivers would be required on the CD..
Click to expand...

I would be checking the BIOS and make sure the SATA ports are not
set in AHCI mode.

http://www.raymond.cc/forum/linux/5810-unable-to-install-windows-xp.html

The computer has a P5LP-LE motherboard with 945P Northbridge and ICH7DH
Southbridge. The BIOS could have options like

IDE (Native or Compatible mode)
AHCI
RAID

I'd use AHCI for Win7, and try something other than AHCI/RAID for WinXP.

By doing so, you don't have to press F6 early in an installation and
offer drivers on a floppy diskette.

So the problem could be a BIOS setting. If the motherboard battery
is bad, perhaps the BIOS settings got lost, and the default
setting isn't useful for the install or operation as the
computer currently stands.

Paul
 
I would be checking the BIOS and make sure the SATA ports are not
set in AHCI mode.

http://www.raymond.cc/forum/linux/5810-unable-to-install-windows-xp.html

The computer has a P5LP-LE motherboard with 945P Northbridge and ICH7DH
Southbridge. The BIOS could have options like

IDE   (Native or Compatible mode)
AHCI
RAID

I'd use AHCI for Win7, and try something other than AHCI/RAID for WinXP.

By doing so, you don't have to press F6 early in an installation and
offer drivers on a floppy diskette.

So the problem could be a BIOS setting. If the motherboard battery
is bad, perhaps the BIOS settings got lost, and the default
setting isn't useful for the install or operation as the
computer currently stands.

    Paul- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

After going over this thing, I went back and asked the owner if there
was any info he could add that might help me fix the pc. Well it turns
out that he and his son had a bit of a disagreement and the pc took a
soild full on kick to the mobo side of the tower. Now that there is a
possibility of the board being damaged or any other parts broken, the
tower is on it's way back to him. I will help anyone if I can, but
when you take advantage of my good nature and bullshit me, then you
are on your own. Thanks to all that responded, and I hope I haven't
wasted your time.
-J
 
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