Newsgroup: it.comp.os.win.win9x
Titolo: URGENT - Hard Drive Problem

Yesterday my computer started making occasional strange noises, similar
to the little grumblings that are common when the computer is
"thinking", only much LOUDER. Like it was trying to read from the drive
but couldn't. (I am now told that ANY grumblings are BAD).
Today these loud grumblings reappeared more frequently... followed by
the blue screen of death. Can't remember exact message, but:
	Error reading from drive C:
	Data or files may be lost
Pressing any key froze the machine.
Rebooting got me back into Windows. DOS Scandisk showed nothing
abnormal. No blue screen, but the grumblings reappeared then the comp
got sluggish and froze.
Reboot again. Can't even get into Windows. Grumblings immediately.
Bootup screen:
	American Megatrends Released 10/26/2000
	7ZM FA
	Check System Healh.. OK,
	AMD-Athlon(tm) - 900MHz
 
	Pri Master HDD Error
	Run Setup
	Press F1 to resume
	Press F2 to Run Setup
So I run setup. Of course I have no idea what to do. Exit, reboot.
	American Megatrends Released 10/26/2000
	7ZM FA
	Check System Healh.. OK,
	AMD-Athlon(tm) - 900MHz
	CMOS settings wrong
	Press F1 to Run Setup
	Press F2 to restore defaults and continue
So I restore defaults and continue. Stupid move cause I don't know what
this means.
	Searching for Boot Record from Floppy... Not Found
	Searching for Boot Record from CDROM... Not Found
	Searching for Boot Record from SCSI... Not Found
	Boot failure
	Insert Boot diskette in A:
	Press any key when ready.
I reboot a few times, get thte errors again. Eventually I insert Win98
startup disk. I get a message telling me that my hard drive does not
contain valid FAT or FAT 32 partitions, and I should reformat, run
FDISK. I need an MS-DOS partition. I break into a cold sweat.
I get A:>, so I switch to C:>. DIR gives me 15 or so DOS files (i.e.
COMMAND.COM
, AUTOEXEC.BAT etc). But none of all the stuff I had on the
computer 1 hour prior.
So I've been careful to not write at all to the drive. But I'm
panicking. And hoping someone out there can HELP!!!
Is there any other relevant info that I should provide?
AMD K7 Athlon (Thunderbird) 900MHz
Quantum Fireball AS 7200/ATA-100
128 RAM
Win98
What's going on? Could it be a heat problem? What should I do to fix
this? How can I save my precious data?
TIA for all advice... I'm desperate!
Please BCC: to styles(at)canada(dot)com if you can
It's easier to check e-mail than the NGs when you can't use your own
computer!
TW

 this? How can I save my precious data?
Yellow Pages | Computer | Repair And Service
As the more you personally mess with it the less chances of recovering
anything judging by what you've done already.

Classic symptoms of a hard drive crater.  Get a new one and start over.
Good luck.
<snip>

Guessing here, but it sounds like you never actually saw C: when you booted from
the floppy.
Remove all drives except C; and floppy.
Enter setup and set the boot sequence to A:, C:, CD
Set C; to auto
Save and exit.
Before this, download free f-prot for dos
http://www.complex.is/f-prot/FP-Dos.html
Reboot with your bootdisk and type fdisk /mbr
If you can, run a scan on C:
If you can't get the drive running at all, it may be going, going, gone. Get a
new drive, load Windows, then.. try tossing the old drive in the freezer for a
few hours. Set it up as secondary master, no other drives on the channel. If it
works, grab all important files and run!
..,
Shel.
On Mon, 16 Jul 2001 23:41:00 -0400, Tyler Whitcroft <sty...@SPAMGUARDcanada.com>
aackked:


Thanks for the input Plato, Ranger, Shel. I brought my machine back to
the vendor to have them look into it. It's still under warranty so if
indeed the hard drive is defective there should be no problem getting it
replaced. It's my data I'm concerned about... I told them to see what
they can do to access the disk then call me before doing anything else.
I heard about the ol' throwing the drive in the freezer trick... but why
does this work? How long should it be in there for? Setting it up as a
secondary master would be something I'd like to try failing all else...
the problem being I would have to send the old drive to the manufacturer
in order to get a new one at no cost to me.
Also I'm told there are some decent software packages for use in
recovering data from failing drives. Anyone know of one? It's not worth
paying hundreds for a data recovery company to pull my stuff out, but it
would be really nice to have certain things back.
Thanks again
TW


 in order to get a new one at no cost to me.
I have no idea why it sometimes works but during my very first week at
work in the shop one morning the owners at that time took a drive
[wrapped in a static bag] out of the [office size] freezer where it had
been overnight and we had and hurridly connected it as a slave to an
empty good drive, detected it in bios, then used a floppy to boot and
transfer all the data over about 90% got over before the drive died
again. 
The day before it wouldnt even get recognized by the 2 bench machines.
I've seen it work about half a dozen other times as well. It's just a
chance that the freezer trick will work it's not a sure thing by any
means.