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BCM 400 failed hard drive 2

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johndoe88

johndoe88

Programmer
Jun 19, 2002
19
US
I have been tasked with resurrecting an old BCM 400 that has a failed 20GB hard drive. I connected a monitor to the system and it's reporting "Disk I/O error Status 00001000" errors during boot, and appears to be based on the WinNT operating system. The system phones work fine so I believe the only issue is with the hard drive.

I pulled the old drive (Nortel part# NTAB9926) and was able to view the contents of a couple partitions and open the PartitionVersion.txt file with contents "BCM 3.5 Build 2.3b". Hoping that is enough information to figure out what i need to replace the drive.

I also have a backup on cd from 2006 with 9 bru files so hoping the required keys/license data is there.

I have read through many of the posts here and was hoping someone would be willing to share the bit utility and discs for re-imaging that version on a replacement drive.

Of course, any other helpful info would also be appreciated!

Thanks,
John
 
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Hello John

There were various versions of BCM system running Windows NT. It does sound as if you have a defective hard disk. You could try and image the disk using a good tool such as Acronis or WinHex etc. then copy it to a good disk. You also need an d computer running XP and also with old Java. Have you got the site ID which is the MAC address from underneath the MSC card that connects to the motherboard via the PCI slot?.



Firebird Scrambler
Nortel Meridian 1 / Succession and BCM / Norstar Programmer in the UK
Advance knowledge on BCM support
 
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We definitely have enough old xp equipment, i have an xp machine connected to the serial port but am not getting anything through hyperterm due to the hard drive failure. I attempted to connect the old drive to another machine to create an Acronis image but I think the drive may have failed beyond being able to read all the partitions already.

I have a mac address labeled system id on the original install notes but am unable to register and sign in to the Avaya support site with it so maybe it's not the correct mac address.

Do you know if I can get the site id mac from the telset programming on this system? If not I can open it up and get it.

Thanks,
John
 
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Okay I've confirmed the system id and it's what I had written down. If I provide the system id would someone be able to look it up in the KRS?
Thanks,
John
 
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I really appreciate it, here is the Site ID: 4CC43F0A0000

Thanks,
John
 
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Here is what I could find John. 3 Keycodes

72319831-41822463-17877403 1 IP Client
42803260-62466056-53424450 32 Mailbox's
22004231-34056551-92693452 16 Mailbox's


Firebird Scrambler
Nortel Meridian 1 / Succession and BCM / Norstar Programmer in the UK
Advance knowledge on BCM support
 
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Thanks that looks correct, been trying to bring the old hard drive back to life but no luck so far. Any ideas on where I could get my hands on a BCM 3.5 hard drive or imaging tool and cd's?
 
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I don't think I have a BCM 3.5 image. I have a 3.7 one. The problem is that you can't restore a backup from it. However, I'm certain that your keycodes will work on the 3.7 version.

I might have the imaging tool. It is something that I've never used. I'm guessing that you have tried to give the existing hard disk a good clean and bash to see if you can kick start it.

Have you tried connecting a IDE to USB cable from it onto a computer to see if the disk is read?.


Firebird Scrambler
Nortel Meridian 1 / Succession and BCM / Norstar Programmer in the UK
Advance knowledge on BCM support
 
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Yeah I stuck it in the freezer, whacked it a few times, and was able to read a couple of partitions on it for a few minutes connected via usb before it locked up the whole system. Now I can't see any of the partitions and I've tried a bunch of times on various machines, and shouted at it alternating profanity and encouragement but it just doesn't respond. Looks like the manufacture date is 2003 so not really surprised I suppose.

If I were to image a disk with 3.7 would I have to reset the whole system and reconfigure?

 
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As for the freezer trick... 2 hours minimum.



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Toronto Canada
 
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I once had a dying BCM hard drive that I couldn't read from. I tried putting it in a zip lock bag in the freezer for a few hours. No joy. Then I figured I might as well try sticking it in the oven at 250 degrees for about 15 minutes. That worked long enough for me to pull the license file off the drive.

Brian Cox
Georgia Telephone
 
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Yeah i left it in the freezer for a couple hours and then overnight but no joy. Might try the half baked trick in the oven..

I've been looking for v3.5 hard drive online but doesn't seem like anyone has one for sale. So I've read the guide on replacing the hard drive for 3.x and wondering if I will have to to a full system reset if I get a "new" v3.7 hard drive or if the system will keep the telephony programming.

Will I need to upgrade the MSC to 3.7? What other steps like re-entering keycodes, initialising the new drive via hyperterm, etc.. will need to be done?

Thanks,
John
 
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In regards to a failing hard drive, I've had great success with a linux program called "ddrescue". It's far better than your normal drive imaging programs that just give up after a read fail or two. I've recovered all the data from a few non bootable BCM50's with 40gig Maxtor drives to a new working bootable hard drive with it.

It does a very good job of trying it's hardest to recover failing sectors. It is a command line program with a gazillion confusing switch options and can be slow as hell but a google search will give some best use examples.

The technique I use is to do a quick scan of the drive to read as much valid data as possible without trying to recover failing sectors. This creates a drive image along with a log file of good and bad sectors which you can run again and only try to recover the bad ones. You can tell it how many times you want it to hammer on the bad sectors and this is a great time to do the heat cycle thing (freezer/oven etc.) as when the drive cools or warms you may get that one successful sector read and the program then carries on to the next bad one and logs the good ones as read so it doesn't bother them again.

Every BCM50 I touch whether the drive is failing or not gets imaged and the drive replaced with an ssd drive. I feel that insurance will keep those old beasts running longer than myself.
 
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nice tip rr....also you could maybe add types you use to this thread on your last statement:



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We take the time to try to answer your questions for free, please return the favor and take the time to answer back and include any resolution you found elsewhere, thanks.

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Toronto Canada
 
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Thanks Curly,

I don't have any new ssd drive types to add to the thread. I'm just burning though a (10) lot of Intel X25-M's that I bought off ebay due to the suggestion in that very thread.

I've since purchased a BCM multi image drive and use it to create new images so I don't have to go though the pain of trying to resurrect the whole failed drives, just enough data to retrieve the license file.
 
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Well I'm officially giving up on recovering the old drive for now, it's giving me the dreaded click of death. I've used ddrescue and have a licensed r-studio that I've used successfully on other drives but this one just won't even recognize as valid. Either way I guess I'm back to the issue of only having a backup of v3.5.

Exsmogger I see where you have the r3.7 drives on ebay and am going to order one. I will probably be back with a question or two.

Thanks for everyone's help, I really appreciate it!

Thanks,
John
 
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