Harddrive vannished

  • Thread starter Thread starter EriX
  • Start date Start date
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EriX

The BIOS denies the existence of the hard drive and I am unable to
partition or re-format the HDD. The Auto Detection feature in BIOS
found nothing, nor did re-flashing the BIOS do any good. FDISK from
floppy boot won't help, and boot from Win98SE installation CD
doesn't work since there is "no hard drive" to install to.

Prior to this, while the machine was still working, Scandisk (under
MS-DOS) was reporting "lost clusters" but then the meter got stuck
at 15% while trying to fix the problem. Reboot, and go past Scandisk
was then the only remaining option for starting the system from C:.
Scandisk from within Windows was of no use, while Scandisk from a boot
floppy fixed some of the problems, but then the hard drive vanished...

Am I out of "software-options"? Advise would be greatly
appreciated.

Main Board: Gigabyte GA-6vx7-4x, Socket 370
Chipset: VIA 82C691/686, SST. Type: 29EE020
BIOS: AMI 03/01/00
62-1001-001199-00101111-071595-V694V686-GA694002-F
CPU: Intel Celeron, 700MHz, DRAM 100MHz
SDRAM: 124MB (DIMM 1)
System: Win98SE (OEM), Swedish version
Made: Scaleo (Fujitsu Siemens)
 
EriX said:
The BIOS denies the existence of the hard drive and I am unable to
partition or re-format the HDD. The Auto Detection feature in BIOS
found nothing, nor did re-flashing the BIOS do any good. FDISK from
floppy boot won't help, and boot from Win98SE installation CD
doesn't work since there is "no hard drive" to install to.

Prior to this, while the machine was still working, Scandisk (under
MS-DOS) was reporting "lost clusters" but then the meter got stuck
at 15% while trying to fix the problem. Reboot, and go past Scandisk
was then the only remaining option for starting the system from C:.
Scandisk from within Windows was of no use, while Scandisk from a boot
floppy fixed some of the problems, but then the hard drive vanished...

Am I out of "software-options"? Advise would be greatly
appreciated.

Main Board: Gigabyte GA-6vx7-4x, Socket 370
Chipset: VIA 82C691/686, SST. Type: 29EE020
BIOS: AMI 03/01/00
62-1001-001199-00101111-071595-V694V686-GA694002-F
CPU: Intel Celeron, 700MHz, DRAM 100MHz
SDRAM: 124MB (DIMM 1)
System: Win98SE (OEM), Swedish version
Made: Scaleo (Fujitsu Siemens)
Click to expand...

Most likely the hard drive has died or the cable to it has
become partially unplugged etc. Does it actually spin up ?
Can be hard to tell with the other fans running.

Try a power connector from one of the optical
drives, the metal tunnels the pins go into can
open up over time and not make good contact.
 
EriX said:
The BIOS denies the existence of the hard drive and I am unable to
partition or re-format the HDD. The Auto Detection feature in BIOS
found nothing, nor did re-flashing the BIOS do any good. FDISK from
floppy boot won't help, and boot from Win98SE installation CD
doesn't work since there is "no hard drive" to install to.

Prior to this, while the machine was still working, Scandisk (under
MS-DOS) was reporting "lost clusters" but then the meter got stuck
at 15% while trying to fix the problem. Reboot, and go past Scandisk
was then the only remaining option for starting the system from C:.
Scandisk from within Windows was of no use, while Scandisk from a boot
floppy fixed some of the problems, but then the hard drive vanished...

Am I out of "software-options"? Advise would be greatly
appreciated.

Main Board: Gigabyte GA-6vx7-4x, Socket 370
Chipset: VIA 82C691/686, SST. Type: 29EE020
BIOS: AMI 03/01/00
62-1001-001199-00101111-071595-V694V686-GA694002-F
CPU: Intel Celeron, 700MHz, DRAM 100MHz
SDRAM: 124MB (DIMM 1)
System: Win98SE (OEM), Swedish version
Made: Scaleo (Fujitsu Siemens)
Click to expand...


You provide all the salient details of the system - but what of the hard
drive itself?

Is it Fujitsu or Maxtor?


Odie
 
It is a 20.4GB Fujitsu HDD, model no. MPG3204AT, dated 2000-10.

Fujitsu's own HDD diagnostic utility (FJDT.EXE, ran after MS-DOS
floppy boot) suggests to check the cabling, but power and data cables
ARE firmly attached at both ends. The hard drive activity light goes on
and off as expected, but it's hard to say whether the HDD actually
spins.

Could a VIRUS attack make the hard drive 'disappear' - even for
FDISK, Install-CD's, and HDD-tools?

Eric

Rod Speed skrev:
 
EriX said:
It is a 20.4GB Fujitsu HDD, model no. MPG3204AT, dated 2000-10.
Click to expand...

Urk, one of the infamous Fujitsu MPGs. Those have died
like flys and have generated a full class action suit.

You'll find it very difficult to find one with a working logic card now.
Fujitsu's own HDD diagnostic utility (FJDT.EXE, ran after
MS-DOS floppy boot) suggests to check the cabling, but
power and data cables ARE firmly attached at both ends.
The hard drive activity light goes on and off as expected,
but it's hard to say whether the HDD actually spins.
Click to expand...

The easiest test for that is to have it loose on
the desktop and put your hand on the drive.

Its almost certainly died tho, not even worth trying that with an MPG.

Some have had some success with freezing the drive
in a plastic bag in the freezer and getting the most
important files off the drive quickly before it warms up.
Could a VIRUS attack make the hard drive 'disappear'
- even for FDISK, Install-CD's, and HDD-tools?
Click to expand...

Nope.

The problem is that its an MPG. You into necrophilia ?
 
Since the hard drive does not work in ANY machine, it has been granted
retirement and was sent to the trash bin. So the problem is...
'solved'.

Data recovery was never an issue since all sensitive data has been
backed up before the crash, but it would have been fun to save the
device.

Thank you for the input!

Eric

Rod Speed skrev:
 
EriX said:
Since the hard drive does not work in ANY machine, it has been granted
retirement and was sent to the trash bin. So the problem is...
'solved'.

Data recovery was never an issue since all sensitive data has been
backed up before the crash, but it would have been fun to save the
device.

Thank you for the input!
Click to expand...

If it's not too late to recover it from the trash bin, and if you are in the
US, you might want to look at
 
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