Invalid Media Bit Error - CONTINUOUS!

[andrewholko]

Ok. IDE HDD, fdisked to erase and recreate the partition. No errors. Reboot and system freezes, it doesn't even reply &quot;Invalid Operating System&quot;. SYS C:\ returns an error (unable to SYS to on disk ) Very odd. FDISK /MBR, no help. SCANDISK C:\ returns an error in the MBR, which it fixes, and error in the FAT, which it fixes, then exits ok <no surface scan was requested or preformed> DIR returns a valid, but empty, result. Prior to this DIR always gave INVALID MEDIA TYPE or something. Copy some files to C:| and the copy is good. DIR and it returns result with all files named properly. ***THIS IS IMPORTANT***.

Now, I reboot to the HDD and it hangs. Reboot with bootdisk and run scandisk. Again, error in the MBR, repaired. Error in the FAT, repaired. Error in the files.. Here's the difference. When it reports the names of the files, lettters have changed. And the changes are always the same!!! A is turned to @, as in @UTOEXEC.B@T, Y is turned to X, as in *.SXS instead of *.SYS. DIR now returns the invalid file names!

So NOW I run NDD. NDD returns error to MBR. Repairs, requests reboot, so I reboot. Run NDD again. Reports MBR error, repairs it, and requests a reboot. EVERY TIME I REBOOT THE MBR IS TOASTED!

So I run NDD and repair NOTHING! I let it run all the way through and it hangs when checking directory structures. I presume that the FAT is corrupt again, especially since it TOLD me that the FAT was toast.

But it hangs, so I reboot. NDD again, this time doing only a surface scan. Its halfway done with NO BAD BLOCKS! If a sector was going bad due to physical shock, I would have repetitious bad blocks in a definate pattern.

Could the first part of the disk where the MBR and FAT are located be the ONLY DAMAGED PARTS? How do I check the physical characteristics of these areas?

And, should NDD SurfaceScan check these by default <using the &quot;Scan All Areas&quot; switch>, then perhaps a virus or worm in the MBR that nothing wants to find or repair? Is it possible to hex edit the HDD to make these repairs?

Assistance is greatly appreciated. Im pulling my hair out over this one. Ive been through lots of bad drives, and I know what physical damage is like. Thats what I see most of, clattering, chunking, sectors going bad, etc. This one is something Ive never seen before, something that affects only the MBR and FAT section of the HDD. And hooking this drive up as slave on a working machine to run a virus scan shows a change to the MBR, possible virus, and I repair it. Re-running the scan returns the same MBR error. And no, there are no codes, just &quot;There has been a change to the MBR. THis could be a virus. What do you want to do?&quot;

ARGH!

Thanks

 

[andrewholko]

UPDATE:

Using the manufacturers DFT <Drive Fitness Test>.

The drive is reported to BIOS as a 10GB HDD <which is correct>. DFT Quick and Advanced tests all report OK, no errors. Erasing the MBR, and a Full Erase (write all 0's to the drive) return OK.

I reboot and run FDISK. Here's an oddity! FDISK reports the total available size <on an otherwize empty drive, no partitions whatsoever> AS ONLY 7.5GB! Where are my other 2.5GB?

And STILL, SCANDISK and NDD report errors in the MBR and FAT, and the friggin file letters are still jumbling. ANd yeah, the drive wont boot or take a SYS.

Ideas?

 

[JohnCitron]

Hi,

It sounds like you have an IBM drive by the name of the diagnostic software - Drive Fitness Test. I have had weird problems off and on with them so...

First of all, check your drive geometry settings in your BIOS. I had that happen with my 18.0 Gig IBM. If the sector settings are incorrect, you will lose the size and have other weird problems. Instead of auto-detecting in your bios, manually enter in the settings for the Sectors, cylinders, etc. I actually ended up with an 8.0 Gb partition instead of the 17.5 Gb.

Secondly, your drive maybe in fact bad. I have seen this type of action before on IBM DeskStar (DeathStar) and their server SCSI models. I formatted the drive fine, but could not get the OS to boot no matter what. I verified that the problem was not the cable by trying another model. Replacing the drive was the only solution.

Good luck... Let us know how you make out.

John

 

[andrewholko]

Drumroll please....

And the answer IS... Bad IDE channel.

Ya know, ya never think that a HDD problem could be with the friggin mobo, eh? Its always the drive's fault.

My errors were that I never checked the drive in another machine and that I never tried a known good drive in the suspect machine. Of course, after hearing about BIOS updates from ya'll and Hitatchi <who now makes the Travelstar line of drives> and KNOWING that I had a good enough BIOS <never seen an IBM TP600E that needed one, but I checked anyway and its good> I rectified my error. And lo and behold, the drive is perfectly fine, and no matter what drive I put into the friggin machine, they have errors.

Ah well, thanks for the time and consideration. Now I just gotta get an RMA for the machine and all will be well.

TOodles

Drew