Boot up issues - this is bad help me

[Guest]

SPECIFICATIONS: Dell Dimension 9100
Intel Pentium 4 processor, 1GB RAM, 2x 160GB hard disks, 256MB nVidia
GeForce 6800 graphics, DVD+/-RW +DL, DVD-ROM

ok, yesterday I got a wondeful blue screen of death which amongst other
things said unmountable boot volume (before I continue i'm writing this on a
laptop in case your wondering) After much internet searching, diagnostics etc
I was getting a return code of seven, which basically means the hard drive
has gone kuput (i think)

Anyway on more searching i read somewhere that the drives actually are a
copy of each other and hold the same info...soooo I was wondering, can one
work on its own with the backup..this is where I come unstuck

basically i can see that theres something called a raid array which is
looking for the two drives, when it get see them walking ok, I assume this is
why they fail. So, first question is this, can I get one to work on its own
by changing settings etc on the boot up bios? Second question is, on trying
to enter safe mode, it always scrolls down a long list of stuff and then goes
back to the blue screen, is this as bad as I think?

Thirdly, if none of these things are applicable, can anyone advise on how I
can get access to these drives becuase basically theres a lot of stuff on
there I havent backed up (i know..im a noob) and I could do with at least
getting access so I can copy it to the lap top or to disk at the best case
scenario. There is stuff on there like baby photos of my kids that I won't
get back otherwise, hence the seriousness

any help would be gratefully appreciated guys...I'm pretty much begging here

 

[Malke]

SPECIFICATIONS: Dell Dimension 9100
Intel Pentium 4 processor, 1GB RAM, 2x 160GB hard disks, 256MB nVidia
GeForce 6800 graphics, DVD+/-RW +DL, DVD-ROM

ok, yesterday I got a wondeful blue screen of death which amongst other
things said unmountable boot volume (before I continue i'm writing this on a
laptop in case your wondering) After much internet searching, diagnostics etc
I was getting a return code of seven, which basically means the hard drive
has gone kuput (i think)

Anyway on more searching i read somewhere that the drives actually are a
copy of each other and hold the same info...soooo I was wondering, can one
work on its own with the backup..this is where I come unstuck

basically i can see that theres something called a raid array which is
looking for the two drives, when it get see them walking ok, I assume this is
why they fail. So, first question is this, can I get one to work on its own
by changing settings etc on the boot up bios? Second question is, on trying
to enter safe mode, it always scrolls down a long list of stuff and then goes
back to the blue screen, is this as bad as I think?

Thirdly, if none of these things are applicable, can anyone advise on how I
can get access to these drives becuase basically theres a lot of stuff on
there I havent backed up (i know..im a noob) and I could do with at least
getting access so I can copy it to the lap top or to disk at the best case
scenario. There is stuff on there like baby photos of my kids that I won't
get back otherwise, hence the seriousness

A lot depends on how the RAID was set up. If this is RAID 0, you are out
of luck because when one drive fails they both do. Call Dell tech
support and ask them your question. While you are speaking to them, ask
them how to run the Dell Diagnostics on the hard drive on that
particular model computer. Usually you can run Dell Diagnostics from a
special partition on the hard drive or by booting with the Dell Resource
CD. You can also get a drive diagnostic from the hard drive mftr. but I
like to try Dell's diagnostics first because they will give you a Dell
error code - useful for when you need to RMA a part.

If they confirm that the drive is indeed dead/dying and that you can't
recover data from the second one, all is not lost. You can send the
drives to a professional data recovery company. My preference is for
Drive Savers (www.drivesavers.com) but there are others. Data recovery
is expensive, starting at around $500 USD and going up from there but if
your data is priceless...

After this is all over, get a backup strategy in place and use it. For a
lot of my clients I find that using something like Second Copy
(www.centered.com) to copy files to an external hard drive and then
regularly also burning a DVD of that backup works well.


Malke

 

[- Bobb -]

Real quick version of answer - have to ask a few things 'cuz the solution
'depends' on what you've got. Reply inline to any part of this you do not
understand.


BIG PICTURE:
If drives are mirrors ( redundant copies), you want to 'break the mirror'
to have them independent, then install the good one directly to the
motherboard. ( now just like any store-bought PC) You may need to change
BIOS setting ( press F10 or the DEL key when you boot - it will tell you
on the monitor when you power up) to boot to that drive rather than SCSI
card ( or whatever your raid card is called in BIOS). Go to BOOT part of
BIOS.

As for 'just getting your stuff off there'. You could just open the box -
remove the drives - walk over to a neighbor's add one as a second drive
( disconnect his CD if you have to). Then open Windows Explorer - if drive
is 'kinda working' and just windows part of the drive is toast, you might
still retrieve your data. Or try your other drive. Copy your data to
folder on his drive. Reinstall his CD. Burn to CD. If he doesn't have
one - take yours or go buy one. ( PAY attention to MASTER/SLAVE jumper - 2
masters and his PC won't boot).

read on.

DETAILS:
When you boot do you see a message like
" Press CTRL+L to enter boot menu" after BIOS loads ?
YES ?
Do so and you'll see a menu.
All you want to do is 'break the raid'. (go to Dell.com for how-to or tell
us what card)
Now : pick one to be master boot
Try it - right one ? You're all set.
No - try the other.

Or once broken could remove the card. ( have you been inside a PC before
?)
Turn off. Unplug from wall. Wait 30 seconds.
Open the box.
Are both disk drives plugged into a card ( RAID) ?
and you could plug the cable into motherboard ?
Move one disk cable from raid card to motherbaord ( unplug CD/DVD if you
have to )
Power up - into BIOS.
Does it see that drive? As a MASTER ?
You MAY have to mess with master/slave jumper on ( can hook up 2 drives to
one cable sothey refer to them as master/slave and there is a jumper on
each that determines that setting.
You want the drive to be PRIMARY MASTER in BIOS.
Once so, save/exit BIOS and boot.
If still blue screen remove it and try the other disk drive.
Good luck.

Bobb

 

[Opinicus]

After this is all over, get a backup strategy in place and use it. For a
lot of my clients I find that using something like Second Copy
(www.centered.com) to copy files to an external hard drive and then
regularly also burning a DVD of that backup works well.

That looks interesting. It automates the "backup strategy" that I use.
Thanks for the link.

 

[Guest]

ok, not the most technical bod around so a lot of that flew over my head
lol. I want to deal with the issue of getting stuff off there first...the
bios and that can come later..if you dont mind of course.

Anyway, I actually have an unused tower here..could I use that? It's just I
took the back of it and the connections to the hard drive didnt seem the same
as the hard drive connections in the current dell pc

 

[Guest]

ok, this is the upshot of what I can after the dell screen disapeers

Raid Volumes:
ID 0
Name Array
Level Raid0(stripe)
Strip 128kb
size 298GB
Status Normal
Bootable Yes

Then underneath that I've got

Psysical Disks

Port 0&2
Drive WDC x2
then the model and serial numbers
size 149GB
Typw/Status (vol id) 0 is member disk (0) and 2 says error occured (0)

hope this helps

 

[Guest]

seems after speaking to dell im well and truly done, drive shot to pieces and
no chance of breaking the raid due to it being a raid 0 set up

hearspeaketh the codemned man

 

[Bob I]

Yep, that's the downside to the RAID0, it's not really RAID, and so you
end up with 2 times the hardware failure rate and no redundancy.

 

[- Bobb -]

STRIPED RAID = bigger drive : no backup.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID#Standard_RAID_levels
Sorry

If you REALLY need to recover the data , you could leave them as-is and
PERHAPS your pcitures etc are OK - maybe just Windows boot info is hosed
( like a scratch on a CD/record). These drives act as a pair - if one is
absolutely fried, then you're out of luck. IF just a windows issue on that
drive, maybe the data part of the disk is OK.

Big picture: how much time/money you want to spend to recover ?

Understand what you're gonna do since if the drive IS good right now, if
might die entirely within a short while. You want to do things quickly (
that stuff that scratched off the surface is now floating around in there
and will make it worse as time goes on)
To see if data still OK:
1. From another PC, you can download linux onto a CD.
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
Burn the Cd , bring it home and boot it.
You need to go into BIOS and change BOOT order to boot CD FIRST.
See the drives ? Your folders still there ?
No - sorry - that's it.
Yes - Good.

2.. Do you know someone /have another PC with room to insert the card and
both drives into it ? Boot his disk on his pc and it should find your
disk(s). Open Windows explorer. See the drive ? Your folders still there ?
copy all of your stuff to his drive starting with the most valuable to
you.

3. No other PC ? You're on an island ? then ...get another disk drive.
Install windows to it ( leaving the current drives alone - unlpug them
even). Do not hook up network cable/modem etc - you just want a quick
version of linux/windows on there.
After linux/windows is installed, shutdown/power off. Reconnect the two
drives/raid card. Boot to the new winodws disk and HOPEFULLY the OS will
find the drives and be able to read your data.

Not an option ? Or the drive is definitely unreadable ?

4. Then since you've lost your data, remove the bad drive and install
Windows to the good drive. Insert Windows CD and have it reformat/ install
..
You might need the license info handy, so if on the CD, write it down
first.
If Dell OEM CD then it might just do it all by itself - depends on the CD.

Good Luck
Bobb

 

[Guest]

appreciated your help guys...close to giving up lol

anyway...downloaded linux...think I've sorted out the boot order but nothing
is happening...any ideas>

 

[Guest]

ok, think i'm doing something wrong here thats probably obvious to most. I
put the cd in my laptop and just the folder with the iso on the disk came
up...it's late think I'm going bed haha

 

[- Bobb -]

an ISO file is a burned copy of a CD ( think of it as a zip file)
BURN THE ISO to CD and you'll end up with bootable cd

 

[Guest]

yeah, my bad...told you I was half asleep here. Sorted it, got a version of
linux called Morphix, but dont have a clue what I'm supposed to be looking
for with regards drives etc...there is a file manager but doesnt make sense.
Is this just the version of linux I have being crap

 

[Guest]

ok, last act of the day saw me get the one you suggested, all booted up ok
except when it went through some kind of test and found what can only be
described as a lot of errors, mostly compression errors but it was scrolling
quite quickly. Anyway, long and short of it linux didnt start for me...oh
well, thats it for today, see you all tomorrow hopefully with some
answers...thanks everyone for today

 

[Guest]

is there anyway I could boot to dos and try and get the files from there

 

[Thufir]

is there anyway I could boot to dos and try and get the files from there

I haven't followed the thread but based on that question, two solutions
come to mind:


1.) boot to safe mode, perhaps command line only. there's your DOS, go
to it.

2.) boot knoppix, <http://www.knoppix.org/>.


IMHO, knoppix is preferable, you'll have a GUI to poke around in the file
system. Unless there's encryption, most likely the data will be readable
from within knoppix.

If not, you can simply upload the files you're after from the hdd to a
website.



-Thufir