Symptoms that I felt close to certain meant my hard drive was dead appeared,
and my computer would not boot for several days. The cpu got through the
bios, but I got an error message shortly after that primary disk 0 was not
there. I was just checking to get the precise error message. This time, after
pressing "On," the computer fully booted.

If the hard drive isn't dead, what else would prevent the computer from
recognizing the disk. I had checked the bios and everything was OK. The only
change is that I detached my internet connector, which has never previously
interfered with the disk.

Is it just that the drive is "almost dead"? Or is there some other
malfunction (or best hope) some bad setting, that can create the appearance
of death? And is my external hard drive, which recently also seemed to die
and still appears to be dead also simulating death?

If anyone can answer even one of these questions, i would be grateful.

A couple of months ago I read about external hard-disks with very high
transfer speeds having loads of problems, you may want to research that !

regards, Richard


"srdiamond" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
newsEF84CAA-887F-46CF-B7C0-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Symptoms that I felt close to certain meant my hard drive was dead
> appeared,
> and my computer would not boot for several days. The cpu got through the
> bios, but I got an error message shortly after that primary disk 0 was not
> there. I was just checking to get the precise error message. This time,
> after
> pressing "On," the computer fully booted.
>
> If the hard drive isn't dead, what else would prevent the computer from
> recognizing the disk. I had checked the bios and everything was OK. The
> only
> change is that I detached my internet connector, which has never
> previously
> interfered with the disk.
>
> Is it just that the drive is "almost dead"? Or is there some other
> malfunction (or best hope) some bad setting, that can create the
> appearance
> of death? And is my external hard drive, which recently also seemed to die
> and still appears to be dead also simulating death?
>
> If anyone can answer even one of these questions, i would be grateful.

Determine the make of your hd then visit that manu web site to download &
create the bootable floppy/cd testing utility.

However if its not detected in the bios, either its dead, you have a
loose/failing connection, or your motherboard is dying

"srdiamond" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
newsEF84CAA-887F-46CF-B7C0-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Symptoms that I felt close to certain meant my hard drive was dead
appeared,
> and my computer would not boot for several days. The cpu got through the
> bios, but I got an error message shortly after that primary disk 0 was not
> there. I was just checking to get the precise error message. This time,
after
> pressing "On," the computer fully booted.
>
> If the hard drive isn't dead, what else would prevent the computer from
> recognizing the disk. I had checked the bios and everything was OK. The
only
> change is that I detached my internet connector, which has never
previously
> interfered with the disk.
>
> Is it just that the drive is "almost dead"? Or is there some other
> malfunction (or best hope) some bad setting, that can create the
appearance
> of death? And is my external hard drive, which recently also seemed to die
> and still appears to be dead also simulating death?
>
> If anyone can answer even one of these questions, i would be grateful.

This one is not terribly fast. A very ordinary ATA external drive, for
backups only. Maxtor One Touch, specifically.
"RJK" wrote:

> A couple of months ago I read about external hard-disks with very high
> transfer speeds having loads of problems, you may want to research that !
>
> regards, Richard
>
>
> "srdiamond" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> newsEF84CAA-887F-46CF-B7C0-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Symptoms that I felt close to certain meant my hard drive was dead
> > appeared,
> > and my computer would not boot for several days. The cpu got through the
> > bios, but I got an error message shortly after that primary disk 0 was not
> > there. I was just checking to get the precise error message. This time,
> > after
> > pressing "On," the computer fully booted.
> >
> > If the hard drive isn't dead, what else would prevent the computer from
> > recognizing the disk. I had checked the bios and everything was OK. The
> > only
> > change is that I detached my internet connector, which has never
> > previously
> > interfered with the disk.
> >
> > Is it just that the drive is "almost dead"? Or is there some other
> > malfunction (or best hope) some bad setting, that can create the
> > appearance
> > of death? And is my external hard drive, which recently also seemed to die
> > and still appears to be dead also simulating death?
> >
> > If anyone can answer even one of these questions, i would be grateful.
>
>

my vote would be that the drive failed to spin up... bad bearing, stuck
heads, poor power supply.

To get ready for the next time it _will_ happen,

BACKUP EVERYTHING!

Turn off all noisemakers and listen as you turn the computer on... among
the other noises such as beeps and non hard drives initializing, you
should hear fans (immediate startup, constant sound) but the drive(s)
will "spin up" sounding not unlike a turbine engine starting...
increasing in pitch.

That way, the next time it fails to start, you can listen and confirm
that they are spinning ot not.

When this happens, you can often rock the computer as you power it on to
nudge them into action, and, in a worst case senario, you can remove the
drive and rotate it quickly around the disk axis to free it up.

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]

Failing to spin up sounds like what happened. I am temporarily hampered in
backing everything up, because my external drive died about a week ago. That
one - actually, newer than the internal drive - doesn't spin up at all. To me
the most striking symptom is that when I attach it (to a usb port), the
computer freezes, to resume working after a detach it. Does that symptom have
any interpretable significance?

"Beverly Howard [Ms-MVP/MobileDev]" wrote:

> my vote would be that the drive failed to spin up... bad bearing, stuck
> heads, poor power supply.
>
> To get ready for the next time it _will_ happen,
>
> BACKUP EVERYTHING!
>
> Turn off all noisemakers and listen as you turn the computer on... among
> the other noises such as beeps and non hard drives initializing, you
> should hear fans (immediate startup, constant sound) but the drive(s)
> will "spin up" sounding not unlike a turbine engine starting...
> increasing in pitch.
>
> That way, the next time it fails to start, you can listen and confirm
> that they are spinning ot not.
>
> When this happens, you can often rock the computer as you power it on to
> nudge them into action, and, in a worst case senario, you can remove the
> drive and rotate it quickly around the disk axis to free it up.
>
> Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]
>