How unlucky can you get? Help no C: Drive! 1

[MikeThorne]

Hi

My friend decided to back up his computer so he bought a LaCie 500 gb USB drive and Norton Ghost.

I went over to help him set it up I have the same setup both Ghost and a LaCie drive.

We installed and formatted the external drive and then copied some thing to is to make sure that everything worked OK.

Then we installed and set up Norton Ghost 12 on his computer.

Once done we rebooted and started to do a complete backup of drive C:\.

Everything seemed to be going fine but when it got to the end we got a message that said that no backup was created because of a Windows error.

We decided to reboot and try again.

We shut off the computer completely and then restarted it.
Nothing happened! It just sat on a black screen with a blinking underling in the corner.

When I asked it to go to the boot menu it did so but when I tried to do a normal boot it said that “Master Boot Drive 0 not found” or something to that effect.

I do not see the hard drive light blinking at any time.

When we went into setup every thing looked normal as far a settings but it says Master Boot Drive not found when I look at the setup for it.

We tried booting from the Windows CD and when we try and run any diagnostics, Windows install or partitioning utility we get the same Drive Not Found message, not matter how we try and access it.

Where do we go from here?

The computer is a Dell 8300 with a 40 gig hard drive.

At this point I had to leave but I suggested that he open up the computer and unplug and reconnect the cables to the hard drive but beyond that I don’t have a clue as to what to do.

If the hard drive has died how bad can your luck be to have it go just as it is being backed up for the first time.

Thanks for the help…

Mike

 

[tf1]

Insert the Windows DVD and boot into the recovery console. Choose Repair Startup problems.

If it is only the MTBF or one of the boot files damaged, it should be recover it.


Regards: tf1

 

[cdogg]

Yeah, that is bad luck! He got punished for doing a good thing!!

It does sound like the drive has died on you. Because it was in the middle of an operation, it is probably a mechanical failure of some sort.

First, try the drive in another computer all by its lonesome to be sure. If the BIOS still doesn't see it, then only real option you're going to have left is to try to get your hands on another identical hard drive (look on eBay maybe). Make sure the firmware on the drive's label matches exactly. Once you get it, you can swap the circuit boards (underneath the drive) without the need of opening the hard drive. This will solve an electrical problem with the drive but do nothing for a mechanical one.

If that's the option you try, shoot for a new drive if possible. A used drive might have had bad sectors flagged which could prevent you from retrieving some data on the original drive.

Other than that, it's $500 or so for professional drive recovery.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Einstein
[tab][navy]For posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[vacunita]

I'm assuming that by:

When we went into setup every thing looked normal as far a settings but it says Master Boot Drive not found when I look at the setup for it.

you mean BIOS. If that's the case and the bios isn't picking it up, then yes its most likely dead. In which case trying to repair the MBTF or boot files will solve nothing.


I would check that everything is plugged in correctly provided that opening the case doesn't void his Warranty.

He might want to unplug it and stick it into another machine as a slave, and see if it can be read. If it can then backup everything important before proceeding any further.

If it can't, it most likely suffered a fault, it could be just coincidence that it failed as it was trying to be backed up. It could have been in its way out anyway, and Ghost just sped up the dying phase.

In any case the first thing to do is determine if the drive still works, As I said the easiest thing would be to plug it into another Pc and see if it can be read.

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[bummper]

If the hardware can't see the hardware, you are at square 1. Sounds like a straight hard disk failure to me.

However, pull the drive and place it into another working machine as a secondary or whatever, and see if it spins up and then if it gets recognized.

If so, then put a known working drive (hopefully an expendable one) into the 8300 and see if IT gets recognized. If not, then possibly a controller or cable problem. Put in a known good cable and try again, etc.; it's a process of elimination from there. Switch power connectors, too. Or, swap with the CD Drive. See if the CD is recognized on the primary. I think you'll get the idea. Make sure you turn off the system before making any changes.

If you an see the drive at the hardware level, but it still won't read, you could still have a failure as the IDE is talking but nothing else. Is it spinning up and/or getting warm?

At today's low disk prices, it doesn't make sense not to completely clone important drives at the sector level on a frequent basis using an older version of Ghost outside of Windows. It has saved me "zillions" of times.

HDD's die unexpectedly all the time, but you were probably getting subtle indications before hand, like delayed write errors, pauses and short freezes maybe? An 8300 with a 40 is fairly old, too. if it's a WD 400 series, then you've already cheated death far too long. <g>

If the system has been packed with dust, then you have accelerated the problem.

Good luck.

 

[BadBigBen]

I can only concur with the rest here...

and as mentioned, if it is a WD400, they tend to get flaky after a few years, and the BIOS reads them wrong...

e.g. originally the BIOS would recognize the drive as a WD400EE-sv01 (just for demonstration it may vary)...
after a few years (and not all the time) the BIOS would recognice the drive as WX455-SSee1...

the above is from experience, the only resolve I found was to attach the drive to either the Secondary Port or to a PCI IDE card, which for some reason made the drive to be correctly recognized and functioned thereafter without probs for a year thereafter... but it got ditched as a BOOT drive long before that...

so:

1.) see what drive it is... look in the BIOS setup to see if it gets recognized correctly...

2.) if not then move drive to a) another PC (as mentioned) and back up data, or b) move to the secondary IDE port, and go back to step 1...

3.) once you get access to the drive, back up the DATA...

4.) buy a new HDD with a higher capacity, as the drives are cheap now a days (500gb going for $100 or less (Europe))

5.) then do a fresh install and copy data back to the drive...

good luck...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[MikeThorne]

Hi

Thanks for the help, he is going to check the plugs etc and I think try putting the drive into another computer.

His wife has a newer Dell.

Thanks again…

Mike

 

[vacunita]

He'll have to make sure his wife's computer has a connector that can accommodate the drive.

Since its a 40GB drive I'll assume it an EIDE/ATA.

While the newer DELL may only have SATA connectors. So he'll need to look out for that.

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[bummper]

This won't specifically apply to your one-issue problem, but for those that mess with different drives or want to backup to bare drives, etc; I found this little item to be invaluable:

Coolmax Multifunction Converter

http://www.coolmaxusa.com/extenclosure.asp?item=converter

I can, via USB, copy, test, whatever just about any drive when I need to. USB 2.0 can be slow, but worth the ease of use.

I do not have any connection with this company whatsoever and I'm not endorsing the brand per se. I Just think having something like this for those that don't is a plus.

Retail in U.S. is about $25.00

 

[acewarlock]

Thanks Bummper, I just ordered one and it will come in handy. have a Star on me.




This is a Signature and not part of the answer, it appears on every reply.

This is an Analogy so don't take it personally as some have.

Why change the engine if all you need is to change the spark plugs.

 

[MikeThorne]

Thanks again for the info.

The converter looks like a great tool for anyone who works with computers. There have been times when I could really have used this.

Mike

 

[goombawaho]

In summary - your luck can be pretty bad. I went out to a client's house to replace his desktop hard drive (Maxtor FTL) and in between when he made the appointment for his desktop and when I arrived, the hard drive on his laptop died.

Don't trust in luck - have good backup and TEST it periodically. The end is always near.... if you're a hard drive.

 

[vacunita]

The end is always near.... if you're a hard drive.

Truer words have ever been spoken. Hard Drives are near the end even the moment they roll of the assembly line.

Its just one of those sure things in the world.

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[bummper]

LOL!

Then again, so are we...