Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
customers. "Something SCSI this way comes" This may seem stupid, but is the drive a SCSI
drive? Again, check the cables and the termination. Boot up and check the SCSI bios to see if it
is set up properly. "Back to the Bios" If the drive is spinning and the cables are properly
seated, check the "Detect IDE Hard drives" in the bios. For some reason, on some of the older
motherboards, it will pick up a drive that "AUTO" won't pick up. "Swap meet" The old "swap"
maneuver. Is there another drive in the company that is exactly the same? Back up that drive
and remove it from the other computer. Remove the logic board on that one and transplant in
onto the drive that isn't detecting. Boot up. If it detects, get the data off of it and return the
logic board to the other drive. Double check that the drive you took the logic board still works!
(Warning! Not for the faint of heart! May result in two defective drives!) "Third Party!!!" Get
out the big guns.
R Studio
are great tools to get into spinning drives. One thing to remember,
listen to the problem the customer has, but find your own solution! I fell into that trap once "I
tried this and that,” and yet, after a couple of hours of painful work, I tried the customer's
solutions, too. Sure enough, the customer may have tried those solutions, but he didn't do
them properly. These are presented in no particular order. You will do things differently
depending on the situation (usually check the bios first and see the problem for yourself, then
try to boot it up without doing anything to the machine. Based on the sounds the drive makes,
or doesn't, this will give you a place to start your problem-solving skills). I really hope these
help you out.
From: Michael Dal Lago
Maybe try the following;
• Boot from a bootable disk that every good IT tech has and carries. Now you should carry
bootable Windows 98 disks with files like Fdisk, Format, Chkdsk, and other diagnostics files.
Now if you have an NT system with NTFS, you can boot with OS2 bootable diskettes; with will
read NTFS.
• If the BIOS still sees the HD but you cannot access it, your Master Boot Record may be
defective. If this is so you may be able to recover it with the following command (Fdisk/mbr).
This should recover the master boot record so you can read the drive.
• After that, you may be able to run DOS base backup software. Make sure that you realize
long file names are not supported by DOS.
• If you wish to copy files to a different one, maybe you can use XCOPY32 to copy LFNs. Of
course, if the user was not backing up the system before this would be a good time to buy
backup software since you will be in the store for the new HD. You may also use software like
GHOST to make a image of the HD when it is running and install this image and ghost software
to a bootable CD. When the system does crash, which will happen no matter what you do,
remember to always plan for the worse. If you make the CD bootable, you can recover from a
crash just by booting from the CD. Another suggestion I would have is have an Application disk
that contains all the applications and a different one for data. Keep a good daily backup of the
data disk and maybe a backup of the application drive when major changes are performed.
From: John Dalnes
Already had this one this week. User deleted command.com and wouldn't boot. Tomorrow's
presentation on the drive. Installed as secondary master in another machine and transferred
data to the server. Reformatted and back online the next day.
