"Primary master hard disk failure" (help)

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - "Primary master hard disk failure" (help)

Posted: 12/29/2005 6:00:53 AM EDT

Alright, so I leave for work last night, and my computer is fine. I get home this morning and my computer looks like s it trying to boot, but says "Primary master hard disk failure"... My only options are the hit del for setup, or F8 for boot options.. neither of which I think will do anything. Will not boot what so ever.

I built this computer myself, but dont claim to know how to fix shit when it goes wrong... this machine has run great for a year. Without you guys sitting at my desk, anything I should try... or am I fucked?

Posted: 12/29/2005 6:04:41 AM EDT

[#1]

Re-seat the ribbon cable and power connections at the motherboard and the drive and try another boot. Doesn't sound good, hope you have good backups.

Posted: 12/29/2005 6:05:36 AM EDT

[#2]

Is the primary hard drive still recognized by the BIOS?

Check mechanical things first; drive power plug, IDE cable, does the drive spin? make noise? etc.

Posted: 12/29/2005 6:07:27 AM EDT

[#3]

Quoted:
Re-seat the ribbon cable and power connections at the motherboard and the drive and try another boot. Doesn't sound good, hope you have good backups.

+1 if the cableing is good and the bios recognises the drive...... your screwed. buy a new drive.

Posted: 12/29/2005 6:07:52 AM EDT

[#4]

'Yer fooked.

On the other hand, you could check the following:

1. IDE Cable. Try replacing with a known good one, just for shits and grins.
2. Check power supply voltages. Personally, I allow for no more than 5% variation of rated voltage.
3. Bad controller. Hard to test, since it's built in to the motherboard. Substituting a PCI controller (I always keep one handy) is a handy way to check this.

4. Bad hard drive. Buy a new one and restore from backup. You DO have backups, right?

Posted: 12/29/2005 6:09:23 AM EDT

[#5]

If you want to try and salvage it you might try...

Get a 2nd drive
Make new drive the master, move master to slave
Get a copy of Ghost
Boot Ghost
See if it can 'ghost' the old master (now slave) to new drive (now master)
Boot new drive
Make sure all is there
Reformat old (slave) drive
If it won't format, chuck it

If that doesn't word... Tango Uniform unfortunately

You do have a backup, right?

Posted: 12/29/2005 6:11:20 AM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:
3. Bad controller. Hard to test, since it's built in to the motherboard. Substituting a PCI controller (I always keep one handy) is a handy way to check this.

Good point. You could also substitute a CDROM/DVD drive on that IDE port and try to boot from an XP system disk. This would test the cable, power and controller.

Posted: 12/29/2005 6:13:19 AM EDT

[#7]

Here we go again....

Sell it and buy a Mac. Problem solved.

Posted: 12/29/2005 6:13:32 AM EDT

[#8]

Connections are good. Im sure the computer is seeing the drive, it lists it when booting... still nothing.

Backups, yeah..... Uh, I.... no.

All my wifes budget shit is on that PC.. damnit.

That post on trying to salvage it may help, but it confusses the fuck out of me.

Posted: 12/29/2005 6:13:51 AM EDT

[#9]

Huh, mine has done this at least twice a month for a couple years now. It'll say "Primary Master Hard Disk Failure", reboot it and it says "Primary Slave Hard Disk Failure" (or something like that), reboot again and it's fine.

Posted: 12/29/2005 6:15:28 AM EDT

[#10]

if you absolutely HAVE to try to recover data from that drive.....

pull the drive and toss it in your freezer for about an hour. then reinstall and attempt to boot.

most drive failures are related to th motor spindle wearing and slipping. not allowing the platters to get up to speed to be read. freezing the drive tightens up the bearings in the motor and sometimes will be enough to get the drive up to speed. once it's spinning it takes much less effort on the motor to keep the platters up to speed.

yes it sounds nutz, but it works. i have done it MANY MANY times trying to recover a critical drive for a customer.

Posted: 12/29/2005 6:17:24 AM EDT

[#11]

one last thing you might try.

remove the bios battery and reset the bios. i have had a few flaky systems that would do that intermittantly. reset of the bios cured it. assuming a good drive

Posted: 12/29/2005 6:23:08 AM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:
Here we go again....

Sell it and buy a Mac. Problem solved.

Ah yes, the "Mac fairy" makes sure that hard drives never fail.

I forgot about that.

Posted: 12/29/2005 6:24:56 AM EDT

[#13]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Here we go again....

Sell it and buy a Mac. Problem solved.

Ah yes, the "Mac fairy" makes sure that hard drives never fail.

I forgot about that.

Posted: 12/29/2005 6:26:49 AM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:
one last thing you might try.

remove the bios battery and reset the bios. i have had a few flaky systems that would do that intermittantly. reset of the bios cured it. assuming a good drive

Tried that, got a new one "floppy fail" and "checksum fail" something along those lines...

I'll try the freezer thing.

Thanks for the help thus far.

Posted: 12/29/2005 6:30:06 AM EDT

[#15]

another LAST resort that has worked for me is whacking the drive while running with th handle of a screwdriver- it has worked, but should be only done right before you bash the thing with a hammer

Posted: 12/29/2005 6:31:51 AM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
another LAST resort that has worked for me is whacking the drive while running with th handle of a screwdriver- it has worked, but should be only done right before you bash the thing with a hammer

LOL, or can I shoot it at the next AZ ARFcom meet?

Posted: 12/29/2005 6:46:49 AM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
another LAST resort that has worked for me is whacking the drive while running with th handle of a screwdriver- it has worked, but should be only done right before you bash the thing with a hammer

absolute last resort. you WILL be bouncing the heads off the platter ever with a light tap.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - "Primary master hard disk failure" (help)

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