Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
screen. If you don't hear anything and the period after the floppy and before the notification of
hard disk failure is more than 20-30 seconds, then your drive has most likely run out of gas. If
it did make a noise (hum type) odds are the drive is still alive so let's try to wake it up. This is
my methodology for firing that sucker up to breathing again.
1. Identify the drive and its parameters. You'll probably need to take it out of the case. On the
outside is a label with a model number, cylinders, heads, sectors, and landing zone (usually
not necessary). The model number may be necessary to seek out the parameters of the drive
if they are not readily available. The PC Pocket reference manual has an extensive list of older
drives. Newer drives are labeled with specs.
2. With the parameters in hand, boot the machine and enter the bios. Go to the Drive 0
settings and enter the cylinders, heads, and sectors in there appropriate areas.
3. Hit escape, F10, and answer "Y" to the “Save?” question.
From: Shadow
THE SITUATION:
You get a call from a user at work, a consulting client, or a neighbor who's found out you're "a
computer person." (Sometimes they all call on the same day, don't they?) Maybe you're lucky.
When you get there, the machine boots just fine. The user says, "That computer doesn't like
me." You tell the user to back up important files while the system is running because you're
going to order a new hard drive so this doesn't happen again. But then there are the times you
aren't lucky. You get messages like "disk 0 error" and "invalid drive specification." I recently
got those errors trying to revive the hard drive of a Compaq Prolinea 4/66. It doesn't matter
what the box is, though. The circumstances are all too familiar: The data isn't backed up. The
problem came out of nowhere. The user had accessed Setup and tried to manually enter the
settings for the drive type when "Auto" didn't work. There was no startup disk made by this
machine.
Reviving a drive like this one—even if only long enough to copy its data before you put it in File
13—is a tough challenge. How would you approach it?
THE SOLUTION:
Before going on-site I would be sure to have my various boot disks available (DOS6.22, Win9x,
WinNT and AntiVirus) containing the usual disk and file utilities, a spare hard drive and a small
hammer. When I arrive on-site, I would first reset the CMOS settings to factory default. There
can sometimes be corruption of the CMOS and can cause drives to seem to have "failed". Then
I would go over the CMOS settings and make the appropriate changes for that particular
system, including setting the primary HD to AUTO. If this fails, then I would boot to floppy and
determine if FDISK can see the drive. If not, then it's time to open the case. With the PC
turned off, I would first check the drive cables to verify a solid connection to both power and
data cables,and install my spare drive (to save data with). With the case still open, I would
power-on the machine and listen carefully for the drive to spin up. If I cannot hear the drive
spinning up, then I would remove the drive (with power off of course). Then with the drive in
my hand and still connected, I would power up the PC again, feeling for the centrifugal force
the drive would create from the spinning platters. If there is no torsion effect felt, then this
would mean that the platters are not spinning and that the heads may be '”stuck.” This is
where the hammer comes in. Power up the PC again and LIGHTLY tap the drive case edge once
or twice with the hammer handle. This will usually unstick the heads from the platter and allow
