is the drive dead? do i need to run more diagnostics? advice...

[meltdown75]

Ok, I have a system here which I was looking at for a friend. Issue: Vista hangs at boot.

Box is an Acer m1641 - purchased sometime within the past couple of years I assume.

Sure enough the problem replicated when I got it here - hang at startup.

- tried to boot into safe mode, boot hangs @ crcdisk.sys.
- boot via vista recovery disc, tried repair - error: no hard drive detected.
- boot into Ultimate Boot CD and ran a few tests... as far as I can tell, C: drive is there but there is nothing on it. appears to have been wiped clean. Using DOS-based file browsers, the only thing I can see is a 32mb boot drive (partition?). 0_o
- BIOS detects the SATA drive so I am sure it is getting power...
- i also tried booting from a bootable Knoppix CD but I am thinking the version I have burned to that disc may not support SATA.

I am thinking initially that the drive just up and died on him. It's a Western Digital WD5000AAJS 500gb SATA drive.

He didn't have anything backed up. I am just wondering if there is anything else I can try before I tell him officially that the drive is toast and he needs a new SATA drive and reinstallation of an OS (apparently they didn't include Vista with the purchase - ouch).

Any help or advice is appreciated. Thanks

- melty

 

[RebateMonger]

Attach the disk as a secondary disk on a working PC. Using a SATA-to-USB connector is easiest. If the second PC sees a disk at all, then run one of the many data recovery programs to see if partitions and data can be recovered.

 

[meltdown75]

Thanks. Can you suggest a program or two to try?

 

[rasczak]

the drive manufacturer usually has a set of tools for hd diags.

 

[meltdown75]

in this case it was WD... so I guess I will check out what they have to offer.

I'll hook it up to my PC tonight. Only problem is... i'm running IDE and this is SATA... so I might definitely need one of those converters... although I know my board supports SATA so maybe I will try to get it to show up as a slave drive.

My last resort will be the freezer trick.

I really appreciate any further input or suggestions. thanks

 

[cbaze19]

Yeah, run some tests. I had a similar problem with a defective WD HDD that I had to send back. But my difference is that in the BIOS, my drive would show up as "MASTER CHANNEL 1: " with nothing after the colon. But if you say that the BIOS recognizes it then it may be some other problem.

 

[larslake]

http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

 

[meltdown75]

well... my official diagnosis is the drive is dead. WD lifeguard boot CD doesn't even boot with the drive attached and does fine with the drive disconnected. I didn't try hooking it up to another PC with some different SATA cables.. maybe when I have some more time, I will try that.

 

[cbaze19]

Sounds like it. If the drive isn't recognized by another computer that pretty much confirms your diagnosis.

 

[rasczak]

well... my official diagnosis is the drive is dead. WD lifeguard boot CD doesn't even boot with the drive attached and does fine with the drive disconnected. I didn't try hooking it up to another PC with some different SATA cables.. maybe when I have some more time, I will try that.

Try different cables, try different ports. Just to be sure.

 

[meltdown75]

i will. i want to be 100% sure it's dead before i declare it a brick.

i did find a Seagate 250gb SATA drive for $50 on newegg.ca. so that seems to be a suitable replacement, should he want me to go ahead and order it.

 

[meltdown75]

ok, i got back to working on this system on the weekend a bit...

i have the new Seagate drive installed. now I am experiencing problems installing Windows XP. During the install process, i get hundreds of "Setup cannot copy the file" <insert filename here>. Same result with a couple different XP install CDs.

Upon googling, I see that this could point to faulty RAM, so using Ultimate Boot CD (I just love this compilation!!), ran Memtest (latest version) and no errors came up. I have also ran the Windows Memory Diagnostic and no errors were found.

The new drive shows up fine, and I have also ran diagnostics and a few tests on it. everything seems fine.

As a precaution, even though the PC is not that old, I checked for blown / leaky caps on the motherboard and everything looks fine.

I'm running out of ideas... not sure what the problem could be. Guess I'll have to start taking out components to try to isolate the problem.

Things I might try tomorrow:
- trying to install with a new CD-ROM drive
- removing one of the sticks of RAM (there are 2) and trying with each on its own (even though memtest showed no errors, could it still be the ram?)
- trying a different PSU?

Any help or further suggestions would be appreciated... thanks

 

[meltdown75]

oh and i did confirm that the old drive was toast... it freezes my main PC at boot whereas the new seagate works just fine. so that also means that the SATA cable is fine.

 

[meltdown75]

1) even though memtest showed no errors, could it still be the ram?

2) I am experiencing problems installing Windows XP. During the install process, i get hundreds of "Setup cannot copy the file" <insert filename here>. Same result with a couple different XP install CDs.

any comments?

 

[rudeguy]

I'm pretty sure its because you are Canadian.


IIRC, I had this problem a few years ago with plain XP. No service packs or anything. It ended up being the DRM built into the cd drive I was using.

 

[meltdown75]

i just want to install XP and get this computer back to my buddy. :/

 

[meltdown75]

i found this while googling, some more suggestions to try for later:

Receiving a File Copy Error During Setup
When you try to install Windows XP, you may receive the following message, where file_name is the file that Setup cannot copy:

Setup cannot copy the file file_name. Press X to retry, Y to abort

This behavior can occur for any of the following reasons:

- Your Windows XP CD-ROM is scratched, smudged, or dirty. Clean the Windows XP CD-ROM with a soft cloth, insert it into the CD-ROM drive, and then click OK.
- Your CD-ROM drive is not working correctly or the CD-ROM might be vibrating too much for the laser to accurately read the data. For more information about this problem, consult your hardware documentation, or contact the CD-ROM manufacturer.
- If you are using multiple CD-ROM drives, your computer may be trying to locate files on the wrong drive. If your hardware has a feature to disable CD-ROM drives that are not being used, disable the CD-ROM drives that you are not using.
- Your computer is over-clocked. Because over-clocking is very memory-intensive, decoding errors may occur when you extract files from your Windows XP CD-ROM.
- Try to use the default clock timings for your motherboard and processor. For more information about how to do this, consult your hardware documentation or contact the motherboard manufacturer.
- Your computer has damaged or mismatched random access memory (RAM) or cache memory. For example, you might be using a combination of extended data out (EDO) and non-EDO RAM, or different RAM speeds.
- Decoding errors can occur even if Windows appears to be running correctly because of the additional stress that is put on your computer when Windows tries to extract files and access the hard disk.
- To determine how to make your computer cache memory unavailable during Setup, see your hardware documentation or contact your hardware manufacturer.
- Your computer has Ultra direct memory access (DMA) turned on in the CMOS settings, and the data is moving too quickly.
- Change from DMA mode to Processor Input/Output (PIO) mode to lower your data transfer rate. If this does not resolve the problem, lower your PIO mode settings. The higher your PIO mode settings are, the faster your data transfer is.
- You are using a third-party memory manager.
- There is a virus on your computer.

 

[meltdown75]

issue#2 resolved.

it was a drivers issue... had to create a custom bootable iso using nLite with the required chipset and sata drivers... the disc being used to install did not have the required mobo/chipset drivers.

OS is installing.

 

[rudeguy]

nice!

So you were trying to use a sata drive?

 

[RebateMonger]

issue#2 resolved.

it was a drivers issue... had to create a custom bootable iso using nLite with the required chipset and sata drivers... the disc being used to install did not have the required mobo/chipset drivers.

That's weird that the Windows XP installer would let you install to a disk that Windows couldn't see (no drivers for the disk controller).

XP doesn't have drivers for a lot of recent disk controllers, so if you are using anything but an IDE controller you can assume you'll need to feed it disk controller drivers with F6/floppy or will need to slipstream the drivers into the XP Install CD.

 

[meltdown75]

nice!

So you were trying to use a sata drive?

Yep. The new SATA is up and running. XP is installed, all I need to do now is run patches and updates.

 

[meltdown75]

That's weird that the Windows XP installer would let you install to a disk that Windows couldn't see (no drivers for the disk controller).

XP doesn't have drivers for a lot of recent disk controllers, so if you are using anything but an IDE controller you can assume you'll need to feed it disk controller drivers with F6/floppy or will need to slipstream the drivers into the XP Install CD.

It was showing up in the BIOS under on the primary Master SATA channel, but you're right... with the regular XP install disc, I got BSODs (0x0000007b - no hard drive error). I had to slipstream the drivers and also put two nvidia storage drivers on a floppy. Finally, XP is installed.

 

[Kougar]

What version of XP was the disc you were using, out of curiosity? Windows XP SP2 and XP SP3 discs shouldn't have this issue, if I'm right...

 

[meltdown75]

old school XP... Service Pack zero