Is it a Bird, Is it a Plane, No is a HDD Failure!

MoonShadow_1AU · 06-15-2005, 04:15 AM

Time marches on and after 3 week of havng no issues with my system I broke Murphys law and stated it as fact that my system had been running smoothly.

2 days later, after using the computer one morning, I turned it back on in the afternoon and nothing .... "System Disk Not Found" displaying on the screen and a quiet coffee grinding noise coming from the computer.

Aaaahhhhhh.

Well checked BIOS and sure enough there was no HDD on the Primary IDE master slot. Last backup 2-3 weeks old, but as it was an OS and Programs only drive I knew I lost a couple of downloaded programs and the keys I had purchased (but had thankfully printed off with the invoices).

Bought a Segate 80Gb to replace the Hitachi 60Gb (yep another DeathStar bites the dust). Ran Ghost 2003 recovery, booted and all was sweet with the world once more.

There were three issues I was having before the drive gave out (and possibly all the problems over the last 2 years of the drives "cough" life.

1) Occasional failure to boot which seemed to be fixed every time I opened the case and pulled the cables out and put them back together.
2) Spontaneous reboots, Windows XP sp2 deciding to restart with no warning and no errors in the logs.
3) Ghost 9 failing to verify any backups after a certain point in time (is after about 3 successful runs). There was never a problem backing up from Ghost 2003 as it ran from DOS.

I had run the IBM / Hitachi drive analysis tool numerous times on this and the other IBM / Hitachi drives I have had an none reported any errors.

All I can say is that if any of the above points apply to you, you might want to considder keeping your backups up to date and a spare HDD on hand.

Cheers

~~whodat~~ · 06-15-2005, 05:19 AM

good morning
the first sign of any trouble with your new hard drive, change your power supply.
chow

**Terrister** · 06-15-2005, 06:40 AM

If a new power supply does not help, you may need to do a repair install of Windows. You could try SFC. I need to know your Windows version to give more info.

Congrats on having a backup.

I wish more people would do this. I hate to be the Tech walking in saying it's all gone and there is nothing I can do about it.

MoonShadow_1AU · 07-10-2005, 03:08 AM

Replaced HDD when I first started this thread and I have had no issues since.

Also my rant on Norton Ghost failing to backup all HDDs on my machine suddeny started working.

My best guess .....

A bad HDD with C: and the OS installed on it had corruptions (probably in the registry) that prevented programs from working, and made the OS hang / crash from time to time.

I am one happy computer user (for a change). Out with Hitachi (IBM DeathStar) in with Segate.

As a side note: This was the last "old" drive in my machine. I ran IBM's drive check program against it a couple of times with no issues reported. My only warning that the HDD was the problem was when it dissapeared from the BIOS and I could not get it to re-appear (even after pullig out and putting back into the machine).

The backup I recovered to was 2-3 weeks old, but being OS and programs only this was no big concern.

I wish there was a way the HDD failure could have been antisipated as that might be useful to this forum.

Always remember ..... bakup, backup, backup.

**linderman** · 07-10-2005, 05:20 AM

Mr. Moon:

You are evaluating your previous dilemma from a pessimistic point of view my friend. Yes it sux to have lost the downloads and key codes that you have obtained over the last 3 weeks (actually how many could that be ????)

Just count your blessings that you had a "near" current back-up / imagine spending a GOOD full two days reloading your OS and all the drivers, service packs,updates, programs, tweaking all your favorite settings etc !!!!!!!!!!

Count your blessings my friend that your good computer habits (back-up) just payed off for you big time !!!! I was impressed with the "printed the key codes" another smart move !!

I also appreciate you taking the time to come in the forum to share this experience / maybe it will just ring a bell for one or two posters ?????

You would be shocked at how many posters come in here in "terror" because of a hard drive crash or OS unstability and beg to rescue their data that they just cant "live" without. But have no back-up for !!!!!!!

Thats why I am an avid fan of xxclone.com / (hard drive cloning) its easy ~ it's free and my 4th grade daughter can do it - its all accomplished from within a windows interface / and you can clone as often as you desire & no DOS !!!

BACK-UP BACK-UP BACK-UP ----------- NO I DONT MEAN REVERSE

regards

joe

06-15-2005, 04:15 AM	#1 (permalink)
MoonShadow_1AU Registered User Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 119 OS: Win Vista Ultimate	Is it a Bird, Is it a Plane, No is a HDD Failure! Time marches on and after 3 week of havng no issues with my system I broke Murphys law and stated it as fact that my system had been running smoothly. 2 days later, after using the computer one morning, I turned it back on in the afternoon and nothing .... "System Disk Not Found" displaying on the screen and a quiet coffee grinding noise coming from the computer. Aaaahhhhhh. Well checked BIOS and sure enough there was no HDD on the Primary IDE master slot. Last backup 2-3 weeks old, but as it was an OS and Programs only drive I knew I lost a couple of downloaded programs and the keys I had purchased (but had thankfully printed off with the invoices). Bought a Segate 80Gb to replace the Hitachi 60Gb (yep another DeathStar bites the dust). Ran Ghost 2003 recovery, booted and all was sweet with the world once more. There were three issues I was having before the drive gave out (and possibly all the problems over the last 2 years of the drives "cough" life. 1) Occasional failure to boot which seemed to be fixed every time I opened the case and pulled the cables out and put them back together. 2) Spontaneous reboots, Windows XP sp2 deciding to restart with no warning and no errors in the logs. 3) Ghost 9 failing to verify any backups after a certain point in time (is after about 3 successful runs). There was never a problem backing up from Ghost 2003 as it ran from DOS. I had run the IBM / Hitachi drive analysis tool numerous times on this and the other IBM / Hitachi drives I have had an none reported any errors. All I can say is that if any of the above points apply to you, you might want to considder keeping your backups up to date and a spare HDD on hand. Cheers __________________ MoonShadow Dell 2405FPW, BenQ 17", D-Link DI524UP, Epson CX5100, Epson R310 + CIS Kit Vista Ultimate, P4 3.2ht, ASUS P4C800-E Dlx, 3Gb RAM, XFX 6600GT 128Mb AGP8x, 700Gb HDDs, DVD-RW, DVD-ROM, SoundBlaster X-Fi

06-15-2005, 06:40 AM	#3 (permalink)
Terrister Moderator Hardware Forum Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: West Georgia, USA Posts: 7,098 OS: Xp	If a new power supply does not help, you may need to do a repair install of Windows. You could try SFC. I need to know your Windows version to give more info. Congrats on having a backup. I wish more people would do this. I hate to be the Tech walking in saying it's all gone and there is nothing I can do about it. __________________

07-10-2005, 03:08 AM	#4 (permalink)
MoonShadow_1AU Registered User Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 119 OS: Win Vista Ultimate	Replaced HDD when I first started this thread and I have had no issues since. Also my rant on Norton Ghost failing to backup all HDDs on my machine suddeny started working. My best guess ..... A bad HDD with C: and the OS installed on it had corruptions (probably in the registry) that prevented programs from working, and made the OS hang / crash from time to time. I am one happy computer user (for a change). Out with Hitachi (IBM DeathStar) in with Segate. As a side note: This was the last "old" drive in my machine. I ran IBM's drive check program against it a couple of times with no issues reported. My only warning that the HDD was the problem was when it dissapeared from the BIOS and I could not get it to re-appear (even after pullig out and putting back into the machine). The backup I recovered to was 2-3 weeks old, but being OS and programs only this was no big concern. I wish there was a way the HDD failure could have been antisipated as that might be useful to this forum. Always remember ..... bakup, backup, backup. __________________ MoonShadow Dell 2405FPW, BenQ 17", D-Link DI524UP, Epson CX5100, Epson R310 + CIS Kit Vista Ultimate, P4 3.2ht, ASUS P4C800-E Dlx, 3Gb RAM, XFX 6600GT 128Mb AGP8x, 700Gb HDDs, DVD-RW, DVD-ROM, SoundBlaster X-Fi

07-10-2005, 05:20 AM	#5 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,437 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	Mr. Moon: You are evaluating your previous dilemma from a pessimistic point of view my friend. Yes it sux to have lost the downloads and key codes that you have obtained over the last 3 weeks (actually how many could that be ????) Just count your blessings that you had a "near" current back-up / imagine spending a GOOD full two days reloading your OS and all the drivers, service packs,updates, programs, tweaking all your favorite settings etc !!!!!!!!!! Count your blessings my friend that your good computer habits (back-up) just payed off for you big time !!!! I was impressed with the "printed the key codes" another smart move !! I also appreciate you taking the time to come in the forum to share this experience / maybe it will just ring a bell for one or two posters ????? You would be shocked at how many posters come in here in "terror" because of a hard drive crash or OS unstability and beg to rescue their data that they just cant "live" without. But have no back-up for !!!!!!! Thats why I am an avid fan of xxclone.com / (hard drive cloning) its easy ~ it's free and my 4th grade daughter can do it - its all accomplished from within a windows interface / and you can clone as often as you desire & no DOS !!! BACK-UP BACK-UP BACK-UP ----------- NO I DONT MEAN REVERSE regards joe __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial Last edited by linderman; 07-10-2005 at 05:23 AM.

06-15-2005, 05:19 AM	#2 (permalink)
~~whodat~~ Register user Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 5,931 OS: XP	good morning the first sign of any trouble with your new hard drive, change your power supply. chow