Any Hope for my Hard Drive?

[Sierra]

After resurrecting it, all was ok for a couple of months and then I left it running. I guess it just couldn't handle being left alone without a steady hand to guide it. Now, I can't even get to the Windows Screen. I did once... but no more. It just says:

A Disc Read Error Occurred
Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to restart

Which, unfortunately ends with the same message.

I do believe I can get into the BIOS if necessary.

Any advice or suggestions? Thanks
-Sierra

[Allan]

After resurrecting what?

[imperator]

This is addressed on IDE ATA drives, not SATA drives.

 

For those of you having this problem, Here's your answer:  Make sure that the black jumper in the back of your main hard drive is set to "MA" (MASTER) as abbreviated according to the schematics shown on top of your hard drive. (On the sticker at the bottom.) Any other drives that you have such as your CD-ROM, DVD-ROM must be placed as "SL" (SLAVE) as abbreviated on the back of them. (These abbriviated letterings are stamped in the metal or plastic part in the back, it can be hard to see, use a flashlight to get a good look at it. Those of you have different brand computers, need to get into the BIOS. First, when you first turn on the computer, the post boot screen will come on, look for where it will tell you what key to press to get into the BIOS. All systems are different, some are done by pressing the F2 key, or the F11 key, others are the DEL key. On Compaqs and HP, uses the F11 key, Dells and other systems uses the F2 key. Barebone systems uses the DEL key. Once you are in the BIOS, you need to find the section on the Boot Order. Make sure the the HDD is placed as the first boot priority before any others in the listing, which means your main hard drive must be placed as a first boot device before any others that is listed.The boot order should be placed in the following order:

 

1. HDD (Hard Disk Drive)

2. CD-ROM

3. FDD or NET or the like. (The 3rd boot order can also be disabled by selecting it.)

 

 

Once you have the boot priority set, hit the ESC key and save the configuration. It should now boot to your main hard drive with the Windows loading on. Also, make sure there are no CDs or DVDs in your CD-ROM drive or the DVD-ROM drive before you start your computer! Good luck. 

[Geek-9pm]

After resurrecting it,

Sorry, crstal ball is very hasy here.
What did you do?
What kind of Computer? How old? What was wrong with the HDD?
If the drive had a real physical failure, it is still bad. And may get sorse.
Is it an IDE? Does it have SMART enabled?

[dahlarbear]

1.  Recover Data First.  If you need any "data" off the hard drive, stop "writing" to the drive.  Standard operating procedure would be to "slave" the hard drive to a working desktop system to recover the data to another hard drive or storage media.

Recover the data first, then troubleshoot the hard drive and/or original computer system.

2.  A Disc Read Error Occurred.  Check hardware configuration and run hardware diagnostics.
     a.  Check system RAM.  (www.memtest86.com or www.memtest.org).  Download "free" memory diagnostics from above website(s), create suitable boot media, then boot the diagnostics on original computer system.
     b.  Check hard drive.  Download "free" hard drive diagnostics from drive manufacturer web site, create suitable boot media, then boot the diagnostics.  Best to use working desktop system, otherwise original computer.
     c.  Check hard drive data cable, power cable, and configuration.
          (1)  If IDE, check "jumper" settings on hard drive, position on cable, 80-wire versus 40-wire cable.

3.  Hard Drive.
     a.  Make and model name/number of hard drive (look on hard drive case). 
     b.  Does it connect using IDE or SATA interface?
     c.  Approximate "age" of hard drive.
     d.  Is hard drive "detected" and correctly identified in system BIOS (vendor model number, total capacity)?

[Sierra]

First, just let me say how I really appreciated seeing all of the friendly and knowledgeable advice/questions/comments. I couldn’t respond till this early a.m. but again I posted at another site and didn’t hear from anyone for over a month. Similar issue. Now…

Greetings Allan, I was referring to resurrecting my hard drive.

Hello imperator, my hard drive is in fact an SATA Western Digital 10,000 Rpm Raptor. Circa 2007. I did check the boot order, and my HDD is first with my optical drive second. I did think to check for any discs and there are none loaded in my Sony DRU 840. Thanks for the help.

Geek-9pm, sorry I didn’t hand you the cloth to wipe off the crystal ball. How is this?
This is a computer I build myself, Intel 975XBX2KR, C2D 6420 at stock speed of 2.13. HDD described above. 2 gigs Mushkin ram at 5-5-5-15. Bought and built in June of 2007. Around late winter of said year, hard drive started making more and more noise. Nothing that I could hear over gaming though. Then it started not wanting to boot. I read up on it and decided it might be the oft quoted “Click of Death” and that the drive might be having problems seeking. I put off calling Western Digital but I was real close… till it just stopped working all together. I let it sit for one year and 7 months +-, and then tried it one day and it worked. Has worked fine for two months till I left it run by itself evidently too long. L SMART is enabled.

Dahlarbear, Great Name! Ok. I will stop writing to the drive. Thanks for the sound advice. I am kicking my self gently now as I did buy a flash drive to grab some files and never did it. As for your number two, I will do all of that if I can get to another desktop. I am in the process of building one, but it could be a while. For your number three, as mentioned above it is an SATA 10K Raptor but not the Veloci. The model number is WD1500AHFDRTL. It is approximately three years old. I do have a 5 year warranty. Also, the hard drive is detected and properly identified in the BIOS; both vendor model number and drive capacity.

All- When I did come back to find a blue screen with a lot of information on it, the instructions mentioned going into BIOS and something about clearing cache. But it said to do that if I got that particular blue screen again. So, unfortunately I didn’t write those directions down, thinking at worse I would see them again if needed. It then booted into the windows loading screen but never was able to finish. Now I don’t even get that. Just an opportunity to go into BIOS at the Intel screen then the message about Disk Read Error.

Thanks everyone!

-Sierra

P.S.-I am not expecting a miracle here. Compassionate pronouncements of my HDD’s demise will be accepted gracefully. Heck, maybe they will mail me a 150 GB VelociRaptor !! I do however, appreciate any insight into what may have gone wrong.

-SJ

[Allan]

I still don't understand. What do you mean you resurrected your hard drive? Specifically?

[dahlarbear]

1.  Drive History.  Given the "history" of the hard drive, my recommendation is to stop using it until you're ready to perform "Data Recovery" preferably from a known good working computer.  I wouldn't try to "read" it nor would I run the hard drive diagnostics until after you've tried to recover the data.  It may have very little or no life left.  I'm assuming you don't want to seek professional data recovery services because of the potential cost.

It's all about how much the data is worth to you and how much risk you are willing to assume.

If you're unable to access the "data" during your data recovery attempt, then I'd start troubleshooting the hard drive and/or file system (preferably from a known good working computer).  In the mean time, if you have another hard drive; swap that into the problem computer (pull the current hard drive out) load an operating system; and check out the computer system.

Another alternative that doesn't require a hard drive is to boot an operating system from a Live CD or USB drive, and check out the problem computer system with that.  Some of these operating systems provide read/write access to NTFS hard drive file system(s), CD/DVD drives, and USB flash/thumb/hard drives.  (And might provide data recovery access to your hard drive files.)  One such Live CD is Ubuntu Desktop 9.10 (32-bit).  There are many others.

An inability to boot to the hard drive does not mean you're unable to read the file system(s) of that drive.

2.  Western Digital Corporation links:
     a.  Why is the error "A Disk Read Error Occurred: Press CTRL ALT DEL to restart" shown while booting to Windows 2000 or XP?
     b.  How to test a WD SATA or EIDE drive for errors with a Data Lifeguard Diagnostics CD or Floppy disk.

[Allan]

We really don't know the history of his hard drive. He said he "resurrected" it. We have no idea what that means.

[dahlarbear]

Around late winter of said year, hard drive started making more and more noise. Nothing that I could hear over gaming though. Then it started not wanting to boot. I read up on it and decided it might be the oft quoted “Click of Death” and that the drive might be having problems seeking. I put off calling Western Digital but I was real close… till it just stopped working all together. I let it sit for one year and 7 months +-, and then tried it one day and it worked. Has worked fine for two months till I left it run by itself evidently too long. L SMART is enabled.

We really don't know the history of his hard drive. He said he "resurrected" it. We have no idea what that means.

I'm "assuming" they took no directed activity to resurrect the hard drive.  I'd be curious as to whether any BIOS parameters relating to the drive or the SATA interface were changed (or what they're currently set at).

[Allan]

I'm "assuming" they took no directed activity to resurrect the hard drive. 

Sorry db - don't know what you're saying. But no matter - I'm curious to hear what the OP has to say.

[Sierra]

Thanks Allan,

By resurrected I mean by an act of faith. “I am curious what the OP has to say.” Is that original poster?

Thanks Dahlarbear,

I will indeed pass on professional data recovery services. It is screenshots from World of Warcraft (memories... I can make more) and saved games (if the game was that good I probably won’t mind replaying. The rest is programs I own and can reinstall. Still, I will try to salvage data once I have the working computer. Thanks for the links. I will check them out asap. I am very interested in the Ubuntu Live CD and will research that as well. I like that idea.

All for now,

Thanks for your time and input,
 
-Sierra

[Allan]

Thanks Allan,

By resurrected I mean by an act of faith. “I am curious what the OP has to say.” Is that original poster?

I still have no idea what you mean by "resurrected" the hard drive - it would help if you explain. Or not - it's up to you.
And yes, Original Poster.

[Geriden]

You could try using Hirens boot cd and run HDD Regen, this should hopefully provide a temporary fix for any bad sectors giving you enough time to backup any documents/pics etc, not reccomended for the long term though.

[Sierra]

Thanks Geriden. I will check into it.

Thanks Allan. Let me see if I can clarify:

I and my system were clearly under attack. The Ghost in The Machine? Demons? Who knows. Hardly a day goes by in my life when I am not subjected to the whims of the enemy. In this particular instance, after getting worse and worse, my HDD literally grinded to a stop. It was a terrible thing to listen to. So I just let it sit there for over a year, almost two. Not much you can do against demons. And what was the point of buying another if they would just destroy that HDD also? When the demons were gone, I said a prayer and held my hands over the harddrive. Low and behold (I kid you not) it worked. The computer was up and running again. As a long time faith healer who has often had success where Penn Medicine's doctors (and others) have failed, I have experience with this sort of thing. It comes easy, except there is an awful price to pay. You become a target.

Hope this helps

-Sierra