Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
• Anyway, since we are not going to keep this troublesome drive, remove it from the machine
and gently tap the side with a screwdriver.
• Put it back in and see if the motor will start the drive spinning. If it does—get the data
backed up immediately and then either get rid of the disk or use it as a non-critical storage
area.
• Once a drive has this problem, the solution has been known to work multiple times and the
problem usually re-occurs after a reboot/shutdown sequence.
From: TJR2
Invalid drive specification.
If drive is IDE:
1) Use the CMOS IDE auto detection. Try to use both LBA mode and normal mode. Reboot and
see what (if any) failure comes up.
2) Boot from a floppy (this is critical that the user knows what version of OS he/she is running:
95, 95b, 98, 98b, etc.). Use FDISK after this to see if the drive is present. If so, SYS the drive
and reboot (crossing eyes, fingers, and toes).
3) Tear into the computer and make sure the cabling is correct. For good measure, reseat the
HDD cable (both ends) and power cable. Turn system on briefly to ensure the HDD is spinning
up.
4) Try using the secondary controller on the motherboard (being sure to make the CMOS
change as well).
5) Try a different IDE cable.
6) If none of the above steps work, it must be 4th down and time to "punt." If the data is
irreplaceable and critical, call Onsite for a quote on data recovery.
If drive is SCSI:
1)
Use the controller utilities to see if the card settings are correct. Unfortunately I am not
experienced in SCSI drives and would not be able to apply anything more than what is
listed.
From: Gary Gillaspie
Depending on the operating system, I would use a boot disk with FDISK on it. Boot the PC, and
run FDISK /MBR, which would fix the boot sector so you would then be able to look at the hard
drive after a reboot. A 2nd option is to use the hard drive manufacturer's disk utilities from a
floppy that MAY BE able to repair without losing data.
From: Jack Levin
The first thing I do is see if the drive is spinning. Many times the drive just gets stuck and a
small tap will get the drive spinning again. If that is the case and the drive does come back
after some mechanical agitation, I "Ghost" the drive to a new replacement as fast as I can. If
the drive is spinning but still not accessible, I have had luck making it a slave drive with a
known working master. Sometimes that helps. Once I get access, I copy as fast as I can
because I know every minute is borrowed time. When the FAT has become corrupt, I have
tried third party recovery tools with little success. If the FAT backup is no good, I am at a loss
(short of sending it out to a data recovery service).
