PC hard drive failure

Whizbang Dustyboots · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2003 12:26 pm Post subject: PC hard drive failure

Well, this is just rude -- I get rezzed in after last night's raid on that Lord of Thunder goober in Storms and my computer shuts down.

I restart and get a hard drive disk error -- cannot read drive.

I stick in the Windows XP disk and restart -- cannot "emulate" CD drive, whatever that means.

I get a DOS boot disk (old school!) and my hard drive appears to be there, but if I try to run anything in the System or System32 directories, I get a disk error.

Gonna make a Windows XP boot disk when I get home and try to run Scandisk and Checkdisk and repair the damage, but I'm at a loss if this doesn't work and what could have caused this.

And, oh yeah, probably not gonna be able to RL tonight, since I'll be working on repairing things when the raid is slated to start. Sad

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Neffretiri · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2003 2:14 pm Post subject:

Suxxors Whiz!!! Hope you figure it out. That happened to me once on my machine. My hard drive just said see ya later and quit without warning. Had to replace it, but since the unit itself was so old, I just got a new puter instead.
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Jaelin Irsei · Member Joined: 06 Aug 2003 Posts: 15 Location: Atlanta, GA

Please tell me you were a good little dobee and backed up your files.
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Whizbang Dustyboots · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2003 2:33 pm Post subject:

I really hope it's not a replacement issue, since my PC is still relatively young (got it just prior to Luclin). In addition, most of the data still seems to be there, and I've only found a few directories that appear to be damaged via snooping around in DOS. I'm HOPING this is an isolated issue that can be repaired or worked around, since I really don't want to deal with buying a new hard drive, transferring data, etc.

BonlainyT · Member Joined: 08 Jan 2003 Posts: 3942

If the HD is truly trashed can you say "OMG Whiz will be patching for a tenday!" Hope it isn't true meltdown Whiz, here's wishing for just a corrupt file or something. Good luck with it buddy.
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Whizbang Dustyboots · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2003 2:38 pm Post subject:

I'm about half and half on back-ups. On really important stuff, like my fiction and journalism, it's backed up. On stuff like my EQ files, no, but really, aside from the custom art for my frog shaman's inventory illustration (which I think I posted to the Web on the tking supporter site), that's mostly just an inconvenience.

Well, I lose my old Diablo II and Dungeon Siege characters, but I'd feel silly crying about that. Razz

Shiloch Veneficus · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2003 4:00 pm Post subject:

Whiz,

How many paritions do you have?

and... are you using NTFS or FAT32?

If indeed the problem is bad sectors, the FAT32 one will be much easier to repair. You can throw a command switch on your DOS scandisk to scan the entire disk for bad sectors with a Windows 98 Boot Disk.

If you're using NTFS, or the problem is not a bad sector (ugh) then you'll have to execute more detailed and horrendous repair procedures. Embarassed

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Sage Shiloch Venzolmes - Arch Convoker - Walkers
QUALITY, not quantity.

Whizbang Dustyboots · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2003 5:18 pm Post subject:

I'd thought that my seperate c: and d: drives are seperate physically, but I need to open the box up when I get home and make sure.

Using FAT32, though. (That's the one XP supports by default, yes?)

One apparently key thing I've left out: The hard drive CLICKS loudly when trying to read now. I'm told this is almost certainly the sign of big bad physical problems and that buying a new hard drive might well be in my immediate future. Crying or Very sad

Carianna · Member Joined: 25 Dec 2002 Posts: 254

ACK! this sounds bad Whiz. especially on the day of the Maestro hit... Sad

if your drive is making noise, then you are probaby have a physical problem and are going to need to replace the hard drive. As to your question, XP does support FAT32, but not very well, when you installed XP it probably converted it to NTFS.

Now for the part I hate to say. Though I agree, your PC is physicly young, your PC is umm.. old.. Sad

I just reaplced a PC that would have been considered upper standard that was built all of 6 months before Luclin. Sad

The good news is, a new hard drive for your system at about 40GB will only run you around 30 to 40 dollars.

But on the night that your goddlyness is supposed to lead the march on the Maestro.. Sad

Bad man.. that is just not right.
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Whizbang Dustyboots · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2003 6:30 pm Post subject:

Clearly it's Innoruuk scared of what's going to happen to his big lavender henchgoober.

Shiloch Veneficus · Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2003 2:36 pm Post subject:

Were you able to determine your HD configuration? How many HD's you have, what partitions, etc.

Windows XP will actually try to use NTFS by default on a fresh installation. The only time I think it will default to FAT32 is when you're upgrading from a FAT32 OS, which I'm not even sure XP will do without an exact 'upgrade' copy.

Anyway, if you're using FAT32, stick in your Windows 98 Boot Disk. You can start without CD-ROM support since you won't be needing it to scan the disk.

The boot disk will dump you at the A: prompt and tell you which drive its mapped its diagnostic tools to. Go to that drive (typically D) by typing D: and hitting enter.

Here, type scandisk C:

This will run the DOS version of scandisk and prompt you to run a disk surface scan at the end of its basic scans. You want to select YES to the surface scan.

If you are not running FAT32, the first thing you're going to need to do is create an NTFS boot disk. Without going into extravagent details, I'll just point you to the KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305595

Tell me how far you get.
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Sage Shiloch Venzolmes - Arch Convoker - Walkers
QUALITY, not quantity.

Whizbang Dustyboots · Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2003 3:08 pm Post subject:

It was NSFTSABCDEFG, in fact. In the process of attempting to copy off the files I hadn't backed-up previously onto floppies, the problems appeared to be progressive, to the point that I eventually couldn't even access my hard drive.

Got a new one at Fry's (/shudder) and spent way too long futzing with it last night. Then discovered my BIOS' auto-detect was not so much on the auto and had to reinstall Windows XP a second time, go find my NVIDIA drivers a second time, etc.

And omg, the EQ downloads, even with DSL. I haven't even logged in to register the game and four expansions yet.

I hope to be on sometime tonight.

The one upside to all of this is that I had no reason not to switch from Netscape 7 to Mozilla Firebird, which really is the fastest browser I've ever seen.

Miuu Miuu · Member Joined: 12 Aug 2003 Posts: 287

Eeep! Whizbang computer went <SPLAT!> (kinda like Maestro's corpse on the third run through). But yup, certainly sounds like your HD went to the necro sacrafice pile (i.e. the non-exp rez deaths).

Here is a sign that I have NO life what so ever. Brand spanky new (or semi-new) computer with Pentium IV 3.06, 1 GB of memory, 120 GB HD, 60 GB HD (from my old computer), GeForce FX 5900 Ultra video. Know what I do with it? EQ. That's bout it. If the HD dies, I just toss another one in, load up XP, load up EQ, patch like crazy, and I'm done. What I've actually taken to doing though is doing a Norton Ghost image of the 120 GB on the 60 GB (only about 20 gigs used, I have several 'backup' copies of the entire EQ directory sprinkled around the hard drive). That way if I ever lost the HD, I just toss a new one in, make the Ghost boot disks up, and restore the image. Chances of both HD's failing pretty slim and if they do, that means that the computer is most likley ka-flooie anyways. I figure it's the best method. And what will I be doing when (and if) my computer is restoring? Why playing EverQuest Online Adventures of course. And what if the internet is down and I can't get to play EQ:OA? Play EverQuest: Hero's Call on my cell phone. I need help. Really I do.

Now where was I before I went off on the tangent of my lack of life? Oh yeah. Whizbang's hard drive. Sounds bad. I'd probably try to salvage what I could from it and start fresh on a new hard drive if possible. Anyways, I have to get back to work. Course I'll be thinking of EQ the whole time.....

Whizbang Dustyboots · Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2003 5:01 pm Post subject:

How is Hero's Call, incidentally? Is it for Palm OS or the Windows handheld thingy?

Shiloch Veneficus · Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2003 5:05 pm Post subject:

I like the idea of Ghosting if you have the money to support it. Even if you can pirate a copy of Norton Ghost, you'll still need a place to slap the image.

IMO, if you are ghosting your home machine to a backup hard drive, make the image, then disconnect the hard drive holding the image (including the power cable). ALL hard drives will go bad, eventually. In fact, most have recommended spin hours (or hours it is rated for read/write before it starts to fail). If you do keep a ghosted image, only hook up that backup HD if and when your primary fails, so you don't run the risk of wearing out more equipment than you're actually using.

Glad to see you picked up a new HD, Whiz. Smile

Just patch the files you need to play, get online tonight, screw around, and then turn on the LDoN patcher after you log. Twisted Evil

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Sage Shiloch Venzolmes - Arch Convoker - Walkers
QUALITY, not quantity.