HD problems?

Networking/Security Forums -> Hardware // Upgrades

Author: unfunf PostPosted: Tue Aug 06, 2002 8:50 pm    Post subject: HD problems?
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had my HD for nearly a year now
40Gb partitioned into C: and D:
WINXP running on C:
the other day my comp froze, tried to reboot, and it stopped on "Verifying DMI Pool Data"
left it a cpl of days, still doin the same thing
went into FDISK, D: had gone totally, and C: said UNKNOWN under system
when i tried to create extended partition itd start "Verifying drive integrity" and just stay on 0%
tried it a few times, now C: has disappeared too n i cant do fuck all with it

any ideas as to why this has happened?
and if any chance of fixing it?
cheers
unF

Author: hadsLocation: New Zealand PostPosted: Wed Aug 07, 2002 7:15 am    Post subject: Re: f00ked up HD?
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unfunf wrote:
left it a cpl of days, still doin the same thing


Laughing Damn you're patient, I would have thrown it accross the room by then.

Does kinda sound like a r00ted HDD. Is there useful stuff on there? I would try deleting all the partitions and starting again see what happens, but never trust the drive.

Try booting off the XP CD, going into recovery console and doing a CHKDSK, its been known to take a few hours to complete but can actually fix things (that surprises me).

Author: chrisLocation: ~/security-forums PostPosted: Wed Aug 07, 2002 10:32 am    Post subject: Re: f00ked up HD?
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hads wrote:

Does kinda sound like a r00ted HDD. Is there useful stuff on there? I would try deleting all the partitions and starting again see what happens, but never trust the drive.



He is saying though he cannot even re-create the new partitions, is totally dead by the sounds of it

Author: flwLocation: U.S.A. PostPosted: Wed Aug 07, 2002 5:54 pm    Post subject:
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If he can't partition the drive, then it is a bad drive and nothing to do with XP.

This assumes the files on the bootdisk with fdisk or parition magic are good and not corrupt.

fastlanwan

Author: mef PostPosted: Mon Aug 12, 2002 3:52 am    Post subject: Checked out BIOS?
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Sometimes you can get freaky things happening with recognition of h/w when the BIOS on the system goes nuts. If you're not too attached to the settings in your BIOS, try resetting them to factory defaults and then going through the drive detection process again.

This may also be a good time to find the latest BIOS update for the motheboard and apply it to make sure it's not a problem there either.

Hope that helps

Author: Tom BairLocation: Portland, Oregon USA PostPosted: Fri Aug 16, 2002 12:33 pm    Post subject: Re: Checked out BIOS?
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mef wrote:
Sometimes you can get freaky things happening with recognition of h/w when the BIOS on the system goes nuts. If you're not too attached to the settings in your BIOS, try resetting them to factory defaults and then going through the drive detection process again.

This may also be a good time to find the latest BIOS update for the motheboard and apply it to make sure it's not a problem there either.

Hope that helps


Good advice... however, if the drive parameters got screwed up in the BIOS, he wouldn't have been able to access his C: partition as well as the D: partition.

I would tend to believe that his PC was in the process of writing data to the hard drive when the PC froze and he rebooted by either resetting or powering down the PC. That action must have damaged the physical platter at or near Sector 26 (I suspect).

Almost certain he will have to replace the hard drive. I would first try running SPINRITE on it to see if the HD was still usable?

Tom

Author: mef PostPosted: Sun Aug 18, 2002 4:49 pm    Post subject:
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Another way of narrowing down where the problem is, is to borrow a known good disk from someone else, and put it in the system. If it comes up good, then I think that pretty much decides that the original disk is bad.

I sill think it would be wise to clear out the BIOS and make sure there is nothing that is preventing it from seeing the disk clearly. I'm not just talking about drive parameters, I'm talking about the BIOS in general. The fact that the system is hanging on "Verifying DMI Pool Data" means that the BIOS is having a problem with some of the hardware. This could be caused by one of two things: the hardware is faulty or the BIOS is faulty. As improbable as this is, it is still a possibility. With all my diagnoses, I like to eliminate as many possibilities as I can and that makes finding the real problem quicker and easier. The other point I'd like to make is that starting with a fresh BIOS will not adversely affect the system. I wouldn't go with the bleeding edge version as it may have bugs that have not been discovered, but I would certainly upgrade if possible. At the same time though, I would take a copy of the current one in case a later version introduces an incompatability with the OS. Again, improbable, but not impossible.

BTW, PCWriter, I freely admit that I do not know hard disks very well, but I did a quick search on hard disks and sector 26 and didn't come up with much. Is it a hot spot on all hard disks where drive information is written, or something?

Author: ShaolinTigerLocation: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia PostPosted: Sun Aug 18, 2002 5:46 pm    Post subject:
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Check out :

Spinrite 5.0

Testdisk

Ontrack Disk Manager

Ontrack Easy Recovery Professional v.6.0

This'll tell you how bad things are and if you can do anything about it.

If a disk has physical errors (and you can be bothered) you can keep partitioning it until all you have in a a partition is the bad sector(s).

After you can whack all the good space back together and set the bad parts to unused space (Partition Magic).

A lot of hassle but you end up with a usable drive less a few MB.

Author: Tom BairLocation: Portland, Oregon USA PostPosted: Sun Aug 18, 2002 9:03 pm    Post subject:
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mef wrote:
I sill think it would be wise to clear out the BIOS and make sure there is nothing that is preventing it from seeing the disk clearly. I'm not just talking about drive parameters, I'm talking about the BIOS in general. The fact that the system is hanging on "Verifying DMI Pool Data" means that the BIOS is having a problem with some of the hardware. This could be caused by one of two things: the hardware is faulty or the BIOS is faulty. As improbable as this is, it is still a possibility. With all my diagnoses, I like to eliminate as many possibilities as I can and that makes finding the real problem quicker and easier. The other point I'd like to make is that starting with a fresh BIOS will not adversely affect the system. I wouldn't go with the bleeding edge version as it may have bugs that have not been discovered, but I would certainly upgrade if possible. At the same time though, I would take a copy of the current one in case a later version introduces an incompatability with the OS. Again, improbable, but not impossible.


Can't argue with any good trouble-shooting procedures, mef. And you're right, there could be a hang in the BIOS setting which does not show itself on first inspection.

mef wrote:
BTW, PCWriter, I freely admit that I do not know hard disks very well, but I did a quick search on hard disks and sector 26 and didn't come up with much. Is it a hot spot on all hard disks where drive information is written, or something?


Sorry about that ... Field defect sparing is generally recorded in Sector 26 of track 2 though 16, depending on the hard drive manufacturer. In a way it _is_ a hot spot on the platter since it is where bad sectors are recorded. It's been my experience that when a partition crashes, you will find the RW heads hovering over this sector. Yet I don't understand why...



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