Hard Drive Problems

[thegreatjeff]

Hi everyone,
I'm having trouble with my hard drive, it's 15gb and whenever I try to format it with either the "format" command or with Win2k setup, it won't let me finish it. When I format it in DOS, it hangs up on the "writing file allocation tables" and in Win2K setup, it hangs on 100%, then says I'll have to select a different partition. It also clicks whenever it gets to the point where it hangs up. I'd just like to erase everything...any ideas?
Problem #2:
On another hard drive I have, I can't even get my motherboard to recognize it. Any idea what the problem is with that?

And, yes...I have checked jumpers and cables a MILLION times!

 

[PCResources]

For your first drive the problem is a bad boot sector, this means that the OS cannot write the boot information to the first sectors of the disk. There is really no way to get around it, i would suggest that you get another drive and use it as the boot drive, you can still use your old drive for other things.

For your second drive, it sounds like the chip that holds the firmware on the disk is damaged... The computer can recognize the disk by reading the firmware from the disk, but if it is damaged that will not work...

Patrick Palm

PC Resources

 

[thegreatjeff]

So how would I update the firmware?

 

[GregMal]

For the 1st harddrive I'd goto the manufacture's web site and
download the latest HD utility. Most will scan the harddrive and
flag the bad sectors so no writing can be done. (This is much better
than using scandisk). I've used this on an old WD HD that I was
having similar problems with and it worked like a charm.
Greg

 

[PCResources]

You cannot update your firmware if the chip that holds it is damaged...

There is no possible solution, if you cannot get another firmware chip, desolder the old one and solder the new one in it's place... usually those kinds of circuits are surface mounted though, so soldering it is very tough... There is another possibility, on some drives the chips sits in a socket, then there would be no problem to change it...

Contact your retailer about it, if he's not helpful, contact the company that made the disk, they might be able to help you out...

Patrick Palm

PC Resources

 

[PCResources]

<< flag the bad sectors so no writing can be done >>



The only problem with this would be that no data can be written to that sector, you have to be able to write data to the bootsector to be able to boot from the disk...

Patrick Palm

PC Resources