Bad HD,, or??? UPDATE

[Pghpooh]

HI
Yesterday, the hard drive on my pc started to click. The HD light would flash off and on and I could hear a click and the pc freezes. I also got a message saying CAN'T WRITE TO ONE OR MORE DRIVES THEN SHIOWS c DRIVE. The only way to get the pc to respond was to reset it.
During the reboot, I got the message.
Error [35] General Protection Fault in C:\windows\command\scandsk.alt at 02D0:0714
Code 0000
SS=0fd8
DS=0fd8
ES=1070
Load Base=AB40
AX=0100
BX=2000
CX=0008
DX=0000
SP=F330
BP=F360
SI=1070
DZ=001A

Also, get the message,,,,, one or more drive has developed a bad sector.

It also says to hit any key to continue. When I do, the boot proceeds for a second or so and I see the following. The screen shows scandsk analyzing the DOS BOOT RECORD.
Then, it stops and flashes (the analyzing part of the screen section)

After that, the boot continues and I am into Win98se.
I ran Norton Disc Doctor on the drive and it found no errors.
Also ran scandsk and found no errors.
Downloaded the tools from Western Digital and ran the Quick test and also the Through test and found no errors on the hard drive.
Also, moved the drives off of the Promise Controller to the normal controller. Still get the boot error message. Moved the drives back to the Promise Contorller for now.
The pc seems to run ok once it boots. BUT!!!! I HAVE A FEELING THAT SOMETHING IS GONNA DIE!!
My system is:
amd 1200
528 mb ram
WD 30 gig drive (primary drive)
WD 20 gig drive (secondary drive.
ASUS a7v133
Both drives set to ATA 100 and connected to the Promise contorller on the motherboard.
Bios, 4in1, etc drivers are up to date as of last Nov.

This is the first time the pc has had any problems.

Any and ALL help IS NEEDED!!!!
Thanks
Pghpooh

 

[Pghpooh]

bump

 

[SemperFi]

A few months back my system started acting very weird. I got an alert screen saying that I removed drive from system like you get when you remove a compact flash reader from usb port. Well the drive it showed was a hard drive. It took me a while to figure it out but the promise controller went south and wouldn't come back. That was on my A7V board.

I wasn't able to fix the windows without a reinstall. But it took probobly 10 installs of each os at the time I was dual booting. But reinstalling is what helped me figure out what wasn't working.

I can't say for sure but I am leaning toward the promise controller.

Semper Fi

 

[bruincal]

did you try doing a complete surface scan?? it might take a while, but a surface scan will check that every part of the disk surface is okay and readable/writable... since you have Norton .... choose Shut Down, and select Restart In MS-DOS Mode ... (i'm assuming you have win98 since you error showed directory \windows\command\ ) ... and type NDD (for norton disk doctor) .. choose a Thorough scan involving the disk surface scan ...

i think its better to run norton under DOS in win98 so that win98 doesn't interfere with the disk checking...

 

[Pghpooh]

HI
I am currently doing the surface scan. But,,,, it is in the Windows mode. I just started Norton DD and selected surface scan.
Rather then stop the scan,,, I will let it run it's course.
Once the scan is done,,, I'll restart to dos and run the scan from there.
Thanks
Pghpooh

 

[Pghpooh]

HI
I ran the surface scan during the night and it did not find a problem.
Since I have 2 drives on the pc,,, I have them both set up as copies of each other. In other words, when I built the pc, I used my 30 gig drive as my C drive and installed win98se and other software on it. Then, I removed the 30 gig drive and installed the 20 gig drive and loaded it as a new drive. The drives are now set up as the C drive is the 30 gig and the D drive is the 20 gig.
When I booted the pc, I entered the bios and seledted the 20 gig as the C drive.
Once the pc booted, I ran NDD and checked the 30 gig drive.
It took over 4 hours to run the scan and NO problems were found.
I did it that was as I had to use the pc for a while on work related items.

Since no errors were found,,,, I am starting to think of bad files, etc.
Before I fdisk, is there anything else I can try??
Thanks
Pghpooh

 

[Pghpooh]

HI
Got this reply from Western Digital......

Thank you for giving us a chance to answer your question. I suggest
that you do a low level format on the drive. Some of the data on
the drive may have become corrupted and often the only way to overcome
it is to wipe out the entire drive and reinstall it. The Western
Digital low level format utility is called Write Zeros To Drive and can
be found in the diagnostic menu of Data Lifeguard Tools diskette.

I do NOT want to do this............
If there is another way to resolve the problem I will do it.
If not,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, What can I do to save the data on the drive now to reuse after formating???
Will backups and restores of the data give me complete restores of the data on the drive???
Thanks
Pghpooh

 

[Pghpooh]

bump

 

[mee987]

are you able to read from the drive in windows? if so just copy the files you need onto the good drive and proceed with the lowlevel format.