Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
From: Lawrence Shipinski
Easy, go to Maxtor's Web site or Seagate Web site and download the utility software. It's free.
Please back up whatever you can first!
From: Jake G.
Well, I'm kind of new to this, but I'll throw my hat in the ring.
First, I would try flashing the CMOS. If the battery is built into the system board (I bet it is),
then find the CMOS jumper, pull it-—or move it from pins 1-2 to 2-3—then kick the power on
for a few seconds. Power down; put the CMOS jumper where it started. If the battery is
removable, then pull the battery and flash the CMOS. Try rebooting. If that doesn't work, put
the Quick Restore disks in, reboot, and exit to DOS when you get the chance (I don't
remember the exact steps to that). Now, depending on how this QR was put together, you may
have to change to a virtual -drive—possibly N: and then the TOOLS directory. You may be able
to do this straight from the A: or C: prompt. Run the command FDISK /MBR and reboot. If it
still doesn't work, then I would have to check into a disk utility you can run from a bootable
floppy (assuming you can even get that far). Don't have a whole bunch of experience with
those. The next step after that is to just swallow hard and kiss that data bye-bye.
From: Gordon G., IT Manager
The following is the normal procedure used at my company (before sending the hard drive to a
data recovery agency).
1. Return the BIOS to the original state. If "auto" for hard drive then "auto,” otherwise to "user
defined" with LBA enabled for Microsoft's operating systems.
2. If the system still doesn't boot off the hard drive, then boot off a write-protected bootable
floppy using the same operating system and version as what is on the C: drive.
3. If there is no hardware error during the boot process, see if the c: drive can be accessed at
all. If it can be accessed and files and directories can be viewed, now is a good time to back up
files if the physical condition of the hard drive is suspect.
4. Check the hard drive with an antivirus program. Sometimes computer viruses damage the
boot sector. A good antivirus program will identify the problem and may even correct the
situation.
5. If there is no virus found on the c: drive, then run "sys c:" to restore the boot files to the
hard drive. Only run the sys command if you are sure the BIOS settings are the same for the
hard drive as before the problem was reported. One way to check this is to look at the file and
directory structure of the drive. If you see garbage, then the settings are probably not the
same (or the FAT was corrupted). Reboot the system after running sys.
6. If the drive boots, you're almost done. If not, then reboot off the diskette and scan the drive
for errors. Reinstall the operating system without formatting the drive.
7. If the drive makes any unusual sounds or doesn't spin, then your best option is to send the
drive to a data recovery agency. Attempting to recover data from a physically damaged disk
usually results in further damage to the drive and little chance of recovering any data later.
The best question to ask here is "What is your time and data worth?"
8. In step 6, I said that if the drive boots you're almost done. What's left? Make that recovery
diskette, make a backup of the drive and thoroughly scan the hard drive for any physical
errors. Perform the scan last, since the drive may fail during a scan if there are any physical
problems with the drive mechanism.
