Hard Drive Error on boot up - MBR problem?

[Bobfromshokan]

I've had many problems with this hard drive but now I think it's completely gone (I hope I'm wrong.)

When I boot up I see a 'Hard Drive Error' message immediately at the top of the screen. Earlier I had tried to partition the HD but kept getting a vague hard drive error. I then tried fdisk /mbr and that didn't seem to work right but after that I got the HD error message.

Is it possible the MBR is not there or in error? And if so, is there anyway to recover it?

Thanks,

Robert

 

[wolluf]

Bob,

Take it this is continuation from your last post - have just quickly reread that, but may repeat earlier advice, as there was quite a lot of it!

Have you another machine you can connect drive to? If the drive is the problem, should get same symptoms, in which case can you download a utility (should also have a binary zero-fill utility - sometine same utility. I know you ran wipeout earlier, but manufacturer's own utility might be better) from drive manufacturer's website to check the drive - they nearly all have such a utility. If drive ok in other machine (ie, you can run fdisk /mbr, create & format a partition), you need to start looking at other hardware in your machine for the problem (eg, memory).

 

[Bobfromshokan]

I should have included more information in my first note.

This is the same HD that was in the Dell system that I had all the problems with. I borrowed an IBM Aptiva system from a friend; made sure the system was operating properly and then put the suspect HD in the Aptiva.

I had to change the jumpers on the HD because the Aptiva wouldn't recognize the HD at all - original jumper was set for CABLE SELECT and had to change the jumper to DEVICE 0 MASTER.

The system then recognized the HD and I went into FDISK and was going to partition the drive but that didn't work as FDISK never got to the menu (it came back with a vague error message and I'm afraid I didn't write it down.)

I then tried MaxBlaster utility to try to partition and format the drive. I've never had much luck with this utility and when it said it finished (it was very fast which didn't seem right.)

I still couldn't access the HD and it was then I went to the A: prompt and entered the fdisk /mbr command, after which the HD error message came up on boot up. In the CMOS it shows the HD but I'm unable to access it - on boot up there is a double beep and the system goes into SETUP.

Let me know if you need more information.

Thanks,

Robert

 

[Bobfromshokan]

I just noticed something else I didn't put in my previous note.

If I power down the system, rather than ctrl-alt-del, I do not get the HD error on boot up.

Also, I went back and ran FDISK and right after the message:
DO YOU WISH TO ENABLE LARGE DISK SUPPORT (Y/N)
and I select 'Y', I get the message:

ERROR READING FIXED DISK

In the meantime I'm going to try the Powermax utility.

Robert

 

[wolluf]

i would suspect your hard drive is dying/dead. I would just give up on it - because I'd never trust it if I ever did get it to take a partition (when will it fail next, oh dear, forgot to back up since last month.....).

Just my opinion.

 

[Bobfromshokan]

I tried the Powermax utility but couldn't get it to work right - I guess it only works with Maxtor hard drives.

If It try fdisk /mbr, I get a message 'The master boot code has not been updated.'

Robert Melone