HDD Problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Midnight Moocher
  • Start date Start date
M

Midnight Moocher

About a week ago, I began getting some errors booting up which seemed to be caused by my secondary HD.
I disconnected it and everything was working fine.

Today has been the first chance I've had to take a look at it. I tried reconnecting the power and IDE cable, but when I start the
machine, the BIOS doesn't recognise any Hard disks.

I've kept the configuration same as before:
1st Hard disk (OS installed) set to Master
2nd Hard disk (mainly used as back-up drive - but with some individual files that are not backed up) set to Slave.

I've tried different configurations, but anything that involves that 2nd hard disk and the PC won't even recognize
the Master.

Is there anything I can try before trashing it to recover some of the files stored on it?

The HD is a Fujitsu and about three-four years old.
 
Midnight said:
About a week ago, I began getting some errors booting up which seemed
to be caused by my secondary HD.
I disconnected it and everything was working fine.

Today has been the first chance I've had to take a look at it. I
tried reconnecting the power and IDE cable, but when I start the
machine, the BIOS doesn't recognise any Hard disks.

I've kept the configuration same as before:
1st Hard disk (OS installed) set to Master
2nd Hard disk (mainly used as back-up drive - but with some
individual files that are not backed up) set to Slave.

I've tried different configurations, but anything that involves that
2nd hard disk and the PC won't even recognize
the Master.

Is there anything I can try before trashing it to recover some of the
files stored on it?

The HD is a Fujitsu and about three-four years old.
Click to expand...

Fushitsu?! You've gotta be kidding, right?! I'm surprised it's lasted that
long!
 
About a week ago, I began getting some errors booting up which seemed
Fushitsu?! You've gotta be kidding, right?! I'm surprised it's lasted that
long!
Click to expand...
In my limited sample set (one) I've never had a problem with a Fujitsu drive
:)

Seriously, though, I've got a 15 Gig Fujitsu that's rock solid. I've had two
(later) Maxtor's die on me, but the Fujitsu's never caused me a problem. Got
Debian on it at the moment.
 
About a week ago, I began getting some errors booting up which
seemed
Read this!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/11/05/fujitsu_admits_4_9_million/
Click to expand...
So it was one model that was clearly faulty because of faulty goods from one
of their suppliers? Is there any hard-drive manufacturer that hasn't had
similar problems? Unless I'm missing something, there doesn't seem to be
anything in that article to suggest all Fujitsu hard drives are shit and
will fail within three years. As I said, I've had problems with a couple of
Maxtor hard drives in the past, many people have experienced problems with
the IBM "Deathstar", and ISTR that there were problems with some Seagates a
couple of years ago.

If you get a hard drive, from any maker, it might fail. Back up your data
and live with it. I don't think that there's any need to interject with
"you've got a brand x? but they're shit!" (I know that wasn't you, Ken)
whenever you read that someone has a particular piece of hardware.

YMMV.

CK
 
CK said:
So it was one model that was clearly faulty because of faulty goods
from one of their suppliers? Is there any hard-drive manufacturer
that hasn't had similar problems? Unless I'm missing something, there
doesn't seem to be anything in that article to suggest all Fujitsu
hard drives are shit and will fail within three years. As I said,
I've had problems with a couple of Maxtor hard drives in the past,
many people have experienced problems with the IBM "Deathstar", and
ISTR that there were problems with some Seagates a couple of years
ago.

If you get a hard drive, from any maker, it might fail. Back up your
data and live with it. I don't think that there's any need to
interject with "you've got a brand x? but they're shit!" (I know that
wasn't you, Ken) whenever you read that someone has a particular
piece of hardware.

YMMV.
Click to expand...

I have a 3.2GB Fujitsu that has been running 24/7 since new (7-8 years?) and
it's all good. The only drives I've really had problems with have been
Maxtor 2.4GB drives that were factory-fitted into IBM POS machines
(computerised tills). They have been giving bad sectors but I'm confident
that it was mainly due to overheating due to the design of the case.

It was tiny, using an embedded Cyrix/IBM MII fanless CPU (at around 233Mhz)
and 64MB EDO RAM. I was given a bunch of them free as they had been failing.
I hoped to salvage the HDDs for freebie machines for PC-less friends/people
but it seems it was the HDDs that were causing the failure. The boards were
interesting, an on-board NIC and one PCI slot on a tiny riser. They actually
had a 3Com 10/100 NIC in the PCI slot for some reason. I set one up running
Win 98 but couldn't get video drivers for it. The graphics were embedded
into the CPU (It was a "Media" CPU or somesuch) so the resolution was
limited to something like 640 x 480 and 16 colours. Shame really, they could
have proven to be fairly capable email/wordprocessing machines for someone
who didn't have a machine.
 
I have a 3.2GB Fujitsu that has been running 24/7 since new (7-8 years?) and
it's all good. The only drives I've really had problems with have been
Maxtor 2.4GB drives that were factory-fitted into IBM POS machines
(computerised tills). They have been giving bad sectors but I'm confident
that it was mainly due to overheating due to the design of the case.
Click to expand...

<snip>

After 5 years use I see every brand with significant failures,
including bad sectors. They've provided plenty of service by
that point, 5 years is way too long to use a drive considering
the amount of data accumulated in that time, not to mention the
vast performance benefit and noise reduction to new drives.
 
kony said:
<snip>

After 5 years use I see every brand with significant failures,
including bad sectors. They've provided plenty of service by
that point, 5 years is way too long to use a drive considering
the amount of data accumulated in that time, not to mention the
vast performance benefit and noise reduction to new drives.
Click to expand...

Oh, for sure. I just attempt to put together or upgrade older systems for
people who can't afford anything better. (It's amazing how many people hear
that I dabble in computer hardware and ask if I can have a look at their
machine s it's not working/playing up. A surprising amount of these machines
are 486's. I replace them with Pentium 1's when I can but I'm finding it
hard to find a source of old machines. It's not like I'm a registered
charity or anything, it's just a hobby. Getting working monitors free/cheap
is the hardest part usually) I like to get as much use out of components as
I can. Wherever possible I like to put two old HDDs in each system and
suggest that if there's anything they'd hate to lose then to have copies on
both drives and call me if one goes down. I've put one of a bunch of old
drives in the region of 120-212MB into some of these machines simply for
data back-up. I know it's not what we would call safe for mission-critical
data but mostly these are just used for email/school
projects/correspondance. Having a copy on each of the old drives does give
some measure of safety. I've not had a 'client' lose their data yet.

I must familiarise myself with a simple Linux distro that will run on this
level of hardware, Windows licences are a big problem too. Any suggestions
on a user-friendly Linux distro that will run on, say a P120 with a 1-3GB
HDD and 32-64MB RAM?
 
So it was one model that was clearly faulty because of faulty goods from one
of their suppliers? Is there any hard-drive manufacturer that hasn't had
similar problems?
Click to expand...

Exactly. The costliest one for me was the WD 1.6 gigs. It cost me a
bundle. But I *DID* get a free WD T-shirt out of it! lol

And most of the bad Fut drives were built for the Japanese market.
Very few...if any...got into this country.

Over the years, the WD's have been the best drives...by FAR. The only
thing that surpasses their quality is their customer service.


Have a nice week...

Trent©

What do you call a smart blonde?
A golden retriever.
 
So it was one model that was clearly faulty because of faulty goods from one
of their suppliers? Is there any hard-drive manufacturer that hasn't had
similar problems? Unless I'm missing something, there doesn't seem to be
anything in that article to suggest all Fujitsu hard drives are shit and
will fail within three years. As I said, I've had problems with a couple of
Maxtor hard drives in the past, many people have experienced problems with
the IBM "Deathstar", and ISTR that there were problems with some Seagates a
couple of years ago.

If you get a hard drive, from any maker, it might fail. Back up your data
and live with it. I don't think that there's any need to interject with
"you've got a brand x? but they're shit!" (I know that wasn't you, Ken)
whenever you read that someone has a particular piece of hardware.

YMMV.

CK
Click to expand...

Yeah I had one of the recalled WD years ago too but they were really
cool about replacing it though they had a rule if you did the WD diag
and it came up with bad sectors then they would replace it so at first
they didnt want to replace my HD but I talked them into it.

http://support.wdc.com/archive/recall/caviar-recall.asp
 
First thing you need to do is get your machine to recognize the drive
Unplug your good drive to protect it from harm, hook up the misbehavin
drive as master making sure to jumper it as master.

See if your system recognizes it.
Can you hear it spin up and come ready?
Do you have another drive of exactly the same model?

If your system recognizes it, you have a chance.
I have been using a tool called HDD Regenerator it basically
low level formats the drive but it preserves data, it moves a secto
worth of data then formats it, error checks it, maps out bad any ba
blocks then copys the data back.

I have used it on two customer drives and both times it worked.
but these were drives that were recognized by the system, but cause
bad read write errors and would not complete a system tool check disk.
It worked twice for me, but if your system can't see the drive it won'
do you any good.
Their web site is http://dposoft.net

Best of luck
 
First thing you need to do is get your machine to recognize the drive.
Unplug your good drive to protect it from harm, hook up the misbehaving
drive as master making sure to jumper it as master.

See if your system recognizes it.
Can you hear it spin up and come ready?
Do you have another drive of exactly the same model?

If your system recognizes it, you have a chance.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. I'll certainly give it a try, though I think all hope is lost.
I don't think the system will recognise it.
Initially when it broke down, I managed to get it recognized, but didn't have time to work on the problem.

I left it a week or so before trying it again only to find the computer wouldn't boot at all when the HD was
brought into the configuration.

I've sent for a replacement drive. I've gone for a WD 160GB for around £60.

That will be two WD I'll be running when it arrives.

It pays to have a back-up drive. Someone once told me Fans are the most likely components to break-down
in a PC. Hard drives coming in a close second.
 
Midnight said:
Thanks for that. I'll certainly give it a try, though I think all hope is lost.
I don't think the system will recognise it.
Initially when it broke down, I managed to get it recognized, but didn't have time to work on the problem.

I left it a week or so before trying it again only to find the computer wouldn't boot at all when the HD was
brought into the configuration.

I've sent for a replacement drive. I've gone for a WD 160GB for around £60.
Click to expand...

I hope your BIOS can recognize a drive over 137GB. That is the limit
for a BIOS using 28bit LBA. You also need WinXP with SP1 to go over 137GB.

Virg Wall
 
I've sent for a replacement drive. I've gone for a WD 160GB for around £60.
I hope your BIOS can recognize a drive over 137GB. That is the limit
for a BIOS using 28bit LBA. You also need WinXP with SP1 to go over 137GB.

Virg Wall
Click to expand...

I am running WinXP with SP1 though I'm unsure of the BIOS using 28bit LBA. How do I check this out?

P.S. I'm using the Asus A7V8X board.
 
I am running WinXP with SP1 though I'm unsure of the BIOS using 28bit LBA. How do I check this out?

P.S. I'm using the Asus A7V8X board.
Click to expand...

It should have 48b LBA. I am not certain that the first bios did
(most likely) but certainly the current version does. You need
to install win2k's SP3 though.
http://www.48bitlba.com/win2k.htm
 
Back
Top