HDD Error

[Steveqae]

When I switch on my PC I get the message "Pri Master HDD Error". I have set
the BIOS to read floppy drive first but it will not boot from floppy. I have
tried changing the hard drive with one from another computer and it works
fine. My question is can I recover the drive any way?

 

[John McGaw]

When I switch on my PC I get the message "Pri Master HDD Error". I have set
the BIOS to read floppy drive first but it will not boot from floppy. I have
tried changing the hard drive with one from another computer and it works
fine. My question is can I recover the drive any way?

If you take a drive from "another computer" does it work in the problem
machine using the same IDE cable and power lead? If the BIOS will see
this foreign drive (don't let it boot into the operating system in case
it tries to write data to the drive -- go directly into the BIOS!) then
you've eliminated half of the potential problems (MB's IDE controller,
IDE cable, and drive power). After that you need to figure out if the
original drive is spinning up at all.

Data can almost always be recovered but in the most extreme cases it
calls for sending it to a corporation which opens it up in a clean room
and either rebuilds it or reads the data from the platters by direct
means. But using this method is never cheap and is seldom resorted to by
any but large corporations which have a monetary interest in recovering
their data.

When I have a drive die I go as far as trying to run SpinRite on it. If
that doesn't work I assume that further efforts will be too troublesome
and expensive and chalk it up to experience.

 

[Steveqae]

If you take a drive from "another computer" does it work in the problem
machine using the same IDE cable and power lead? If the BIOS will see this
foreign drive (don't let it boot into the operating system in case it
tries to write data to the drive -- go directly into the BIOS!) then
you've eliminated half of the potential problems (MB's IDE controller, IDE
cable, and drive power). After that you need to figure out if the original
drive is spinning up at all.

Data can almost always be recovered but in the most extreme cases it calls
for sending it to a corporation which opens it up in a clean room and
either rebuilds it or reads the data from the platters by direct means.
But using this method is never cheap and is seldom resorted to by any but
large corporations which have a monetary interest in recovering their
data.

When I have a drive die I go as far as trying to run SpinRite on it. If
that doesn't work I assume that further efforts will be too troublesome
and expensive and chalk it up to experience.

Hi John,
Thanks for the reply, I am not interested in saving any data,
just wondered if the drive could be reformatted and used again.
Regards
Steve

 

[John McGaw]

Hi John,
Thanks for the reply, I am not interested in saving any data,
just wondered if the drive could be reformatted and used again.
Regards
Steve

In that case, you could certainly try reformatting it but if it were my
drive I'd want to run SpinRite on it in its most thorough mode to
discover and lock out any surface errors.

 

[Marten Kemp]

In that case, you could certainly try reformatting it but if it were my
drive I'd want to run SpinRite on it in its most thorough mode to
discover and lock out any surface errors.

Instead of SpinRite, try Powermax from Maxtor
(http://tinyurl.com/946kf). It'll do diagnostics
on IDE drives from any manufacturer, including a
low-level format and a remap-bad-sectors scan.

Listen to the drive as you apply power. You should
hear it spin up and the heads calibrate (tickety-
tickety sound). If the heads keep trying to calibrate
or the drive spins up then spins down again it's
dead and useful only for opening up to salvage the
magnets.

--
-- Marten Kemp
(Fix name and ISP to reply)
-=-=-
.... Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice
what can adequately be explained by stupidity
-- Robert J. Halon
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