New Hard Drive Issue

[NikkiR1983]

Hello,
This the first post I've made to the website so please accept my apologies if I have not entered the full information needed.

When checking the event viewer yesterday I noticed that I had error code 7 appearing. When checking the Windows Help and Support it advised I replace my hard drive.

I then looked on Device Manager to see which hard drive I currently have... it seems I have two. I think when I had the computer put together they marked one as the slave drive.

How do I tell which drive needs replacing?

I also want to remove the slave drive as we don't use it, is this easy to do?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Nikki

 

[vacunita]

Windows Version please.

The Error Message in the Event Viewer should have more information available as to what drive has issues.

If you can post the complete message here so we may see.

Otherwise, you could download the drive manufacturers diagnostic Tool, and run it on both drives.

Device Manager should tell you the make and model of the drive.

As far as removing the slave, are you sure you aren't using it for anything? Storage, backup maybe?

Just because its salve doesn't mean its unused.

As far as removing it well just unplugging it should be all it takes. However, I see no reason to remove it. Keeping it really does not affect you in anything, and gives you some extra storage space should you need it.

----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
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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.

Behind the Web, Tips and Tricks for Web Development.

http://behindtheweb.blogspot.com/

 

[NikkiR1983]

Thanks very much for coming back so quickly. As I read your message I started taking another look at the Event Log and saw how it identified which driver it is.
Thanks as well for the advice on the slave drive. I will double check it's not being used before taking any further action.
Nikki

 

[kjv1611]

You may not feel comfortable with doing this, or else, may not understand it well enough, so if this is too difficult, go with the stand-alone diagnostic tool(s) for the manufacturer(s) of your drives.

What I suggest is downloading and burning a copy of The Ultimate Boot CD, and booting from it. Here's how:
[ol][li]Go to the link given, click on download (left of screen), then go down to the "mirrors" section, and download from one of the links there. You're looking for a .iso file if you have different ones to choose from.[/li]
[li]While that is downloading, also download ImgBurn[/li]
[li]ImgBurn should complete downloading, quite possibly, before The boot cd. Regardless, when ImgBurn downloads, install it.[/li]
[li]After ImgBurn is installed, and the Ultimate Boot CD has been downloaded, open the new program, ImgBurn.[/li]
[li]In ImgBurn Browse to select your downloaded iso file of TheUltimateBootCD[/li]
[li]Make sure a blank CD-R is in your CD/DVD burner drive (I'm assuming you have this media, and that you have a burner with these directions)[/li]
[li]If not already selected, be sure to select your CD/DVD burner for the device to burn the image file to.[/li]
[li]Click the "Go" or "Burn" button, I forget how it's labeled.[/li]
[li]Once it's finished, if the CD tray was opened, close it.[/li]
[li]Close all your programs, and reboot (Windows Restart)[/li]
[li]When the computer is booting back up, hit Del or F1 or whatever button it tells you to "enter setup"[/li]
[li]There, be careful, find your boot options. Don't change ANYTHING else.[/li]
[li]Once you've changed your boot options to boot from CD first (there will liklely be instructions on your screen telling you how to make changes) It's also possible that you won't have to change anything, as some systems are set to boot from CD first anyway.[/li]
[li]Save and Exit (or exit without saving if no changes made)[/li]
[li]Now you should be booting to the Ultimate Boot CD rather than Windows. If not, then you didn't do something right in the Boot settings, most likley.[/li]
[li]On the Ulitmate Boot CD Menu, choose "hard drive tools/diagnostics"[/li]
[li]Under that menu, find the manufacturer of your drives, run their utility, and/or run another utility if you think you need to. This part may take a while, especially if you run a "full check"[/li]
[li]When it finishes, write down the results, reboot, and post the results here if you prefer, or just go by what you have read.[/li]
[/ol]

Also, on the slave drive issue. If the drives are IDE drives, then it may "truly" be a slave drive. However, sometimes people use that term for "extra" hard drives, even if on different channels. If there are separate cables connecting the two, then it's not technically a "slave drive"... thought that's not a technical term anyway.

I say this b/c now most systems are using SATA hard drives, not IDE anymore, so there's a good chance they are SATA drives on separate cables. IDE cables are very wide, about the width of a parallel printer port/connection. SATA cables are about the width of standard USB connections.

I suppose that isn't that important, other than to say if the system is still using IDE drives, then I'd not think about dumping much money into it at this point.

Whatever you do, post back with your progress.... and as requested earlier, how about telling us the version of Windows you're running. If you don't know, do this:

1. Press the Windows Key on your keyboard, and the <R> key together.
2. In the box that pops up, type winver and hit your <Enter> button or click on the "OK" or "run" button in that box.
3. On the next screen, you'll find your version of Windows... assuming it's recent enough to support that command.