Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
• First, does the drive even power up? (Do you hear the platters spinning?) If not, check all
connections. Otherwise, you have just acquired another paperweight (since you will have to
resort to snail mail until you can get online again).
• If you do hear the platters spinning, I would resort to trying the simple options in BIOS such
as LBA mode on or off and HDD Block mode. Change them to their opposite state and try to
reboot now. There are aftermarket utilities that can detect the logical parameters of a drive . It
will tell you the parameters that the drive was set up for so that you may manually enter them
into the HDD config. section of BIOS. This is also handy if you happen to be the (not so) proud
owner of a drive with an overlay installed. If that is the case, you will probably want to use the
overlay install disk to repair or replace the overlay.
• The problem could be related to the HDD controller. Try replacing it. I could rant for a long
time on other solutions, but I don't have time to get into it that deep.
From: William Maxwell
Hard drive failures can result from a number of causes.
• First line of business is to talk with the client: Was the machine recently moved? Were any
boards recently installed? A cable may have come loose during one of these operations. Check
external causes, e.g. loose and/or oxidized connectors. Don't discard the possibility of little
rodents-—I've seen flat cable gnawed through by these little critters.
• Don't forget to check the power cable to the drive-—no juice, no data.
• There's always a possibility that the on-board controller is shot, so to eliminate that factor I
would remove the drive, jumper it to be drive 1 and install it in a known good machine.
• That done, I turn to a setup program called EZDrive by Micro House International. With it you
can read and configure drive setup data, backup and restore track 0 or copy an entire
partition.
• Summing up: First of all, be a good listener. Observe carefully, use good tools and be
creative. I got a call from a client who had been away for three weeks and had gotten back to
find his machine wouldn't boot up. When I listened to his machine as it was turned on, I
noticed that the drive motor wasn't spinning. Since we live in a very high humidity climate (the
Amazon Rain Forest), I had an idea of what had happened. I politely asked him if he would get
me a glass of water, as it was quite hot that day. As soon as he left the room I gave his drive a
smart rap on the back with my knuckles. The motor immediately started spinning and by the
time he came back with refreshments, Windows 95 was up and running. I emphasized the
need to maintain regular backups and to purchase a good de-humidifier. I also suggested that
next time he was away, he have his wife run the computer for a couple hours a day. He
never pressed me as to how I got the machine running, and I thought it prudent not to offer
that information.
From:Mark Householder
How about stiction? Remove the hard drive and give it a couple of firm twists while holding it in
the palm of your hand. This will free the drive from the combination of static and friction that
has caused the problem. Re-install the physical drive and it should boot. Back-up the data and
replace the drive ASAP.
From: 2K Designs
