Reviving An Old Computer

[SonofAdam]

I have a five year old Sony VAIO computer which has given me good service with W95. About a month ago, it failed to boot up. Attempts to use Scandisk to see what is wrong also fail; it gets so far and then says that Scandisk has encountered a 'fatal error', and that 'the destination disk is full'. During the Scandisk, it finds numerous files or directories that are damaged; I usually click on the 'Fix It' option. When I run Scandisk and receive an error message, I have only two choices, to 'Fix It' or 'Don't fix it'. If I choose 'Don't fix it', the screen goes blank, says Scandisk found an error,
and then brings up a screen that says 'Data error reading drive C''Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail' . Abort or Fail shuts down the computer. Retry or Ignore simply repeats the same message. So, I can't get far enough to clear my hard drive of any files, and there seems to be no way to delete
corrupted files. Also, on boot up, a message tells me that "the system configuration manager failed to run". I also tried booting up with the Sony Emergency Recovery CD; that goes on for a while, then gives me an error that says it cannot continue and to run Scandisk! I realize I could probably buy a whole new cheapie system for the cost of replacing the hard drive in a five year old system, but I am taking it as a kind of technical challenge. Anyone have thoughts on how I might get this old thing to run, or maybe where one could buy a cheap hard disc for an old computer? Btw, I do have a new system on which I am writing this message, but there is some data on the old one that I could use. Advice appreciated, Thanks,
John

 

[mainegeek]

Try booting up with a boot disk and run scandisk from
the cd.
D:\cd\win95
D:\win95> scandisk c:

Or you could slave the hard drive from the old system into the new and see if you can retrieve the files you want and maybe able to run scan disk and other utilities on it as well. Make sure your antivirus definitions on your new system are up-to-date before you put this hard drive in. If you choose to do this. If you get this drive functioning you
might want to check/replace your cmos battery on the "old sony".

 

[Sly979]

The hard drive is toast, Replace the drive and, Check your house wiring, I have two clients that went through three hard drives a peace because their houses where wired wrong, wiring had no ground and the hot wire was in the return wires place, All of the disks showed the same as the one you are working with, bad sectors, and the took for every to scandisk and repair. The machines all worked great on the bench, but after about two weeks they wood start to show the same thing. "More Than Merely Names"
YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN

 

[paparazi]

It may be reteieved with a low level format and clean install but first remove the harddrive and slave it to your other systems HD, that way you maybe able to retrieve any valuable files you have on the drive before the clean wipe.
Low level is best just in case you have a boot sector virus that could possibly be left on after a normal format.
HD manufactures usually have a free low level format utility on there website. Martin Please let members know if there advice has helped any.

 

[ceh4702]

If the drive is full during scandisk there may just not be enough swap space to run windows. If you have a boot disk to reload the operating system from a clean format that might be possible to try that. This can also be caused by a pesky virus. Sometimes it is safer to use FDISK and delete the old partition and start by adding a new partition and then reformatting.

No guarantees on success. You can buy a new hard drive for less than $80.00 at

http://www.newegg.com

You might have to pay for shipping.

It may be time to just buy a new computer. Sometimes it is chaeper in the longrun. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[JimInKS]

On that old of a computer the BIOS may not auto detect the hard drive on boot up. If CMOS battery is low or for some other reason CMOS has wrong configuration for HDD you may get the kind of errors you are reporting. Check the HDD config in BIOS setup to see if it matches your actual HDD. Run the HDD autodetect function to correct.

But probably, your hard drive is toast...

 

[ANFPS26]

Replace the CMOS battery. After 5 years it needs a new one.
Get you a cheap, used, or rebuilt hard drive at

http://www.compgeeks.com

and replace that hard drive. I went through the same thing with an old 486 and got a cheap, rebuilt drive at geeks and now I'm back in business. I wouldn't waste the money on a new drive. Your bios probably wouldn't see more that 2GB anyway. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[nnewman]

first boot up to the set-up and check the settings for the cmos. If they are ok then boot from a boot floppy and run scandisk. if it will not run type in c:\ and press enter. type in c:\windows\command\fdisk/mbr and hit enter. then type in c:\win and hit enter. if windows comes up your main boot record was fouled up by either win95 or by a virus. get data off that you need and then fdisk and format.

 

[SonofAdam]

I appreciate all the advice given in the above posts. I have attempted several of the solutions offerred, but believe, as one of you said, that the hard drive is 'toast'. I will be looking into a replacement at one of the sites suggested above. Thanks. John, Son of Adam.

 

[SonofAdam]

Thanks to each of you who posted possible solutions to my old hard drive problem. None of the attempts to retreive data from or resurrect the old hard drive worked. The hard drive in question is a Quantum Fireball IDE TM series 3.5 with 3.8 GB capacity, circa 1996. I looked for a replacement drive on the websites suggested, but no comparable drive was listed. I did, however, locate what seems a nearly identical drive on Ebay, for $31 delivered, and have bought it. The description says it has been loaded with DOS. I have a Sony Recovery CD with which I presumably can reload Windows 95. And so my somewhat Quixotic Quest continues. I will post here if I knock down the windmill. Thanks again.
John

 

[SonofAdam]

Oh, by the way, I do have a replacement CMOS battery to put in when my refurbished hard drive arrives.

John

 

[SonofAdam]

Hello again. I am still working on reviving my "old Sony". I received the replacement hard disc which is a Quantum Fireball IDE TM series 3.5 with 3.8, mfg circa 1996. I have physically installed the drive. Have also replaced the CMOS battery with a fresh one. The drive was advertised as already loaded with DOS, and it appears to be so. However, booting up has not worked. If I choose F3 for a boot screen, then F1 for setup, I can see the BIOS setup screen. I have entered the proper date and time. Primary IDE Master shows as "Installed". IDE Device Configuration is set to "Auto Configured". However, the data for the drive are all zeros: Cylinders, Heads, Sectors, Maximum Capacity are all zeros. Also, the system wants to designate the hard drive as Drive A, whereas it should, I think, be C. Now, when I insert the "Sony Recovery Disc", the system stops with a screen that says:
"An error was encountered while attempting to access the first fixed disc. Please run your system setup utility and verify that the first fixed disc is properly configured". Hitting return at that point gives me the DOS prompt of
A:\> From this prompt, I can run a scandisk which concludes that no problems were encountered. If I try to save the repair log, I get an error message that says:
"The repair log was not saved because Scandisk could not write to the C:\SCANDISK.LOG log file. There might not be enough free disk space to work with the file". What this last tells me is that I need to somehow get the system to recognize C: as the hard drive instead of as A:. At this point I am kind of stuck. Advice appreciated. I would also appreciate your steering me to any websites from which I could learn more about starting a system up from scratch. Thanks in advance.
John
jphanley@ix.netcom.com

 

[Guest_imported]

Make sure the jumpers on the drive are set like the old ones. It could be one of 3 ways basically. They are, Cable Select (Often set on OEM Machines like your Sony), Slave (This means another device is the primary which in your case is not true, I think) and finally, Master (This means this drive is the master boot device.) Usually, you will see two devices on a single IDE ribbon cable with one set to master and one set to slave. Most often it will be that the HD is the master and the CDROM is the slave. The Cable Select setting (if the BIOS supports it) allows both devices to be set to CA and the BIOS is smart enough to know which device to boot to. Check out the Quantum site for drive jumper configuration for this device:

http://www.maxtor.com/Quantum/support/archive/fireballtm_ata_support.htm

Good Luck!

 

[ceh4702]

The new hard drive has to be set up in your BIOS. Try pressing DEL, F10, F2 when you boot up. Usually your computer boots and says press ??? to enter BIOS.

You have to set the Cylinders/tracks/sectors for the harddrive. Your BIOS may have a utility to run that does this automatically, so try to do that first. You can set it manually but your drive instructions should say what the settings are???

Then you have to put a partition on the drive.

Maxtor has a website where you can download a utility to copy the old drive onto the new drive, but you may not want to do that if you will just end up with 2 full drives. If the new drive is larger you can try it. Look for downloads or service and utilities and look for the title EZ-MAX or EZ-DRIVE. This utility can fit on a boot disk. It can copy the old drive or set up the new drive. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[SonofAdam]

Thanks for help from tmclain and ceh4702 for recent ideas.
I examined the hard disc jumpers and there are four possible, named DS, SP ,CS, PK. Only DS is set, and the Maxtor/Quantum web page says DS indicates Stand Alone, or Master to Slave. On my BIOS setup page, the hard drive info shows as:
Primary IDE Master [Installed]
Primary IDE Slave [Not Installed]
Secondary IDE Master [HITACHI CDR-8130]
Secondary IDE Slave [Not Installed]

I don't know why the Primary IDE master does not show up with a manufacturer name, like Quantum or something? Not sure why the CDR does not show up as Primary IDE Slave, is it supposed to?
When I hit return on Primary IDE Master, and choose Auto Configured, there are zeros in the Cylinders/Heads/Sectors.
If I choose User Definable, I can input the C/H/S data from the Maxtor/Quantum web page for the 3.8 GB hard disc; i.e., 7480/16/63. Ok, then I Exit BIOS Setup, with my Sony Recovery Drive in the CDR -- a screen comes up saying &quot;No DOS partition found. To partition your hard disc, enter PCV 100 or PCV 120 after you press ok&quot;. <note:
PCV120 is the Sony Computer model number, and also the name of a PCV120.BAT file>. So, I enter PCV120 at the A:\> prompt. The result is:
run-time error R6003
-Integer divide by 0
Your drive has been partitioned.
With the Recovery CD in your drive, restart (Ctrl-Alt- Del) your system and select 'Format and Recover Hard
Drive'.
So, I restart it, and wind up back at the screen that says:
No DOS partition found, etc. There is no 'Format and Recover Hard Drive' option on this screen.
I am stuck again. Not clear on why it keeps giving me an A:\> prompt instead of a C:\> prompt?
I appreciate your help in sticking with me on this.
John Hanley
jphanley@ix.netcom.com

 

[delder]

You have a controller problem, change the cable to primary for your hard drive.

 

[delder]

Also make sure there is no antivirus program running in your bios, and install your drive as user with the exact specs.

 

[CitrixEngineer]

Because you are booting from the Sony system floppy, this would explain why you get an a:\ prompt and not a c:\ prompt. The floppy sets the path where it can find its own system files and does not expect to find a hard disk necessarily.

The PVC120 message you are getting is likely referring to a Toshiba utility that was in a hidden partition on your old disk, but does not exist on the &quot;new&quot; disk.

If the floppy has sys.com on it, try typing sys a: c:, then remove the floppy and reboot.

Not all IDE disks are &quot;Intelligent&quot; enough to return the full manufacturer details to the BIOS, especially at that age.

You should, once you have booted from the floppy, simply be able to insert your Windows 95 CD and type d:\win95\setup.exe and Windows should re-install.

I hope this helps

CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk

 

[chaosinc]

try wiping and reformatting the drive.if you're still getting the errors then it's time for a new h.d.

 

[TedM]

Hi again, SonofAdam. I have signed up and am no longer a visitor (tmclain). Based on what you have written and the responses following. I have this insight...

First, the CDROM on the secondary is OK. If you trace the IDE cable, you'll find that it is attached to the Secondary IDE port and is jumpered as the master for that port. Not a problem, don't mess with it.

CitrixEngineer is right, some older drives don't always communicate with the BIOS to pass the Mfr name. Do you remember if your old drive did? If so, there may be another issue to resolve. However, if the BIOS is properly recognizing the manually entered drive parameters that should work OK. To check it try typing c: at the A:\ prompt and see if the system can address the disk. Do a DIR and see if the number of mb's returned for the drive is fairly close to the known size of the drive. If it's close, then your manual parameters are most likely OK. If you get a message that says the drive is inaccessible or something to that effect, you'll probably need to FDISK and FORMAT the drive.

I am not familiar with Sonys per-se. Some Mfrs do use a hidden partition that stores Restore and BIOS info on the hard drive (like COMPAQ). Don't know about Sony, but again, I would go with CitrixEngineer's recommendation of just trying a clean install of WIN95 if you can't get the Restore disk to work for you.

Of course, the Restore CD is the optimal choice, since it will restore all of your original applications, etc. But, I suspect that some parameter that the PCV120.bat file is looking for has changed. If you are good at editing batch files you might take a look at it and see what it is specifically looking for before it will allow the Restore to occur. I have run across restore files that look for a particular Volume Label or device profile before they will run. It may just be that the drive needs to be FDISK'd and Formatted first. I won't make any promises, but if you want to e-mail the batch file to me I will take a look at it.

If you can't get the restore CD to work, you're pretty much locked in to a clean install of Windows or whatever the Operating System du-jour happens to be. Good Luck!