Is my hard drive dead?

[thomvic]

My PC seems to have died and any help would be gratefully received

We had a couple of powercuts last night. After the second I shut the PC down and went to the pub.

This morning it wouldn't start up. There is power and the opening Phillips screen appears (It is a Phillips PC) as normal but then I get the following message "Reboot and select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot Device and press a key." I have restarted several times but keep getting the same result. On attempting to re-start I am able to get into the BIOS but don't really understand it. There seem to be 5 boot devices listed - 4 of which have the same name - presumably my hard drive and another which I presume to be the CD/DVD drive. I have tried re-starting with the recovery disk in the drive but it doesn't change anything.

As I said - any help will be gratefully recieved.

Richard

 

[Chems]

Unlikely that the hard drive has died cause you normally get quite a specific set of errors when your hard drive has died off.

Try restoring the BIOS to default, should be a option on there somewhere if you look carefully, if the loss of power and resurge coming back on has wiped its boot order that should sort it.

Failing that, seek help!

Best thing is thou is that its very unlikely even if it is the hard drive that you've lost your data. Pop that hard disk in another computer and use a program like getbackdataNTFS and you should get it all back.

 

[knappers]

Also, check you haven't left a USB stick or memory card inserted, or it may be trying to boot off that.

Si

 

[thomvic]

Thanks gents

Definitely no memory cards or sticks nor cds or DVDs.

I got into BIOS and restored to default as suggested - now, instead of the error message I'm just getting a flashing cursor and nothing else happens! Also I can't get back into the BIOS again. I'll keep trying.

Richard

 

[thomvic]

Eventually got into BIOS again - restored defaults again and got back to exactly where I was at the beginning of this post. However, I did notice something odd in the BIOS. In the boot sequence I have 3 devices listed

1st - [Network:B04 D001]
2nd - [USB:WD 10EADS E]
3rd - [USB:Generic 2:01]

Note the square brackets.
In the help panel alongside the above list it says "A device enclosed in parenthesis has been disabled in the corresponding type menu." Am I to assume that all three are therefore disabled and if so, how do I enable them? I cannot find a "corresponding type menu."

Maybe its off to the PC doctor on Monday.

Richard

 

[Chems]

Your usual boot order should be along the lines of,

HDD,
CD/DVD Drive
Network Boot
USB

If it seeing neither the CD or HDD its suggests bad thing. That none of those ones listed are enabled isn't real of any use as your not wanting to boot off of them.

I take it your computer isn't connected to the mains via a surge protected plug bank?

I'm going to open the betting on either a corrupt SATA controller as neither HDD or DVD is showing. Thats if its a fairly newish PC.

 

[knappers]

WD 10 EADS is a hard drive. 1Tb western digital. Looks like the bios is reporting it on USB, though.

Si

 

[Titus A Duxass]

Clear the BIOS memory (usually by removing the battery and then shorting the jumper terminals).
If that doesn't work down load a copy of "ultimate boot CD" and run the pc with that in the drive.

UBCD has lots of tools that may fix your problem.

 

[thomvic]

Thanks again gents.

I take it your computer isn't connected to the mains via a surge protected plug bank?

I'm going to open the betting on either a corrupt SATA controller as neither HDD or DVD is showing. Thats if its a fairly newish PC.

The PC is connected to the mains via a surge protected plug bank and its two and a half years old - ancient in IT terms I suppose. However, the PC that I'm using at the moment is 6 years old running Windows 98, not connected via a surge protector and is working fine.

Clear the BIOS memory (usually by removing the battery and then shorting the jumper terminals).
If that doesn't work down load a copy of "ultimate boot CD" and run the pc with that in the drive.

UBCD has lots of tools that may fix your problem.

Removing the battery and shorting the jumper terminals sounds a bit scary to me though I have fiddled with the insides of PCs in the past - adding memory, new power supply, additional drives etc. I think I'll have a go at the "Ultimate boot CD" first if I can find where to download it from. As the PC doesn't seem to recognise any form of drive (CD or HD or FD) how will the "Ultimate boot CD" work?

Thanks again chaps, I'll get back later with progress.

Richard

 

[Chems]

http://ubcd.mirror.fusa.be/ubcd503.iso

You can download UBD from there. Write it to a CD, its already an image so most burner programs it will be fairly straight forward.

You can also make it bootable from a USB pen drive but its quite hard sometimes depending on the make of your pen drive.

But like you said it may not boot at all if it can't see the CD drive.

What I would try next, is take the hard disk from this computer and put it in the other computer, just see what happens. If it boots up with another HD in it you know that the other HD is the problem. If it doesn't you can hopefully assume its something with the BIOS.

Pulling the battery from the motherboard isn't as scary as it sounds an may be worth a try.

 

[Titus A Duxass]

Thanks again gents.
Removing the battery and shorting the jumper terminals sounds a bit scary to me..
Richard

There's usually a How-To in the Motherboard handbook.

 

[thomvic]

http://ubcd.mirror.fusa.be/ubcd503.iso

You can download UBD from there. Write it to a CD, its already an image so most burner programs it will be fairly straight forward.

You can also make it bootable from a USB pen drive but its quite hard sometimes depending on the make of your pen drive.

But like you said it may not boot at all if it can't see the CD drive.

What I would try next, is take the hard disk from this computer and put it in the other computer, just see what happens. If it boots up with another HD in it you know that the other HD is the problem. If it doesn't you can hopefully assume its something with the BIOS.

Pulling the battery from the motherboard isn't as scary as it sounds an may be worth a try.

Thanks. Visitors this afternoon so tomorrow I'll try the HD switch first because I'm pretty sure that the BIOS won't read the UBCD when I've got it - I don't think it will read from any source. Then maybe I'll try the battery removal.

There's usually a How-To in the Motherboard handbook.

I'm afraid you don't get a motherboard handook with a PC from PC World!


I'll report back later.

Richard

 

[Titus A Duxass]

Open your pc up, identify the motherboard, go on't tinternet and download manual.

 

[Loz_S]

...I'll try the HD switch first...

Well, if you are going to check the HD in another PC then don't forget to set the "dead" drive to SLAVE before you install it!

 

[thomvic]

Thanks a lot again gents - the problem now seems to be resolved.
Before doing anything invasive I rang the local repair shop and explained the problem. He said he would look at it for me but suggested that first I remove all peripherals except monitor and try again as the problem could be external. Guess what, it worked! :roll: Have now reconnected mouse and keyboard (wireless vis USB dongle) and still working fine. After responding to you guys I will re-connect the other peripherals one at a time to see which is causing the problem and will report back in due course.

Richard

 

[Titus A Duxass]

Thumbs Up.

 

[Chems]

How aboutp that. Never come across that. I've learn't something new today. What sort of things did you have connected?

 

[thomvic]

Seems ok now though I did have problems along the way. Nothing unusual attached - heres how it went.
As I said previously, after connecting the wireless mouse and keyboard all seemed well. I proceeded to add speakers, external hard drive, floppy drive and printer. I re-booted between adding each item and all was well until I re-booted after adding the printer (which had worked ok before the re-boot). I then found that the wireless keyboard and mouse wouldn't work! The dongle for these was attached via mains powered USB hub in order to give a direct line of 'sight' between keyboard and dongle. I re-positioned the CPU (tower box) and connected the dongle to an on-board USB port - re-booted and Bingo! It seems the USB hub might have been the problem all along. I'm not ultra confident of the 'fix' as yet but am keeping fingers crossed.

Thanks yet again for your interest and assistance. I have learned along the way and hopefully so have a few other members.

Richard

 

[knappers]

Has the printer got any card reader slots in it. The drive discovery part of the post may have been getting confused by the "drives" in the printer if you had a USB undervolt situation.
The BIOS messages you were getting were suggesting a USB drive problem - hence my original question about USB sticks / cards.

Si.

 

[thomvic]

Has the printer got any card reader slots in it. The drive discovery part of the post may have been getting confused by the "drives" in the printer if you had a USB undervolt situation.
The BIOS messages you were getting were suggesting a USB drive problem - hence my original question about USB sticks / cards.Si.

Yes, the printer has 3 card readers - never really thought of them as drives before - I never use them - but all is well again at present - removing the USB hub seems to have resolved the issue. Does this justify your suggestion of "undervolt situation?" What I don't understand is why it has taken the best part of three years for the issue to appear - or can it really be due to the power cut? (given that I have surge protected sockets).
Maybe we'll never know.

Richard