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Thread: Hard Disk CRASH

  1. #1
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    Hard Disk CRASH

    Introduction: I am a newbie in this site. I am already in debts and now hard disk crashed. I don’t have enough money to buy any recovery software or new hard disk. Please help me out.

    Configuration:
    CELERON 2 GHz,128 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Disk (Samsung), Mercury 845 GLM Main board. Windows 98se installed with Linux (Mandrake 9.1).
    Subject:
    Hard disk crashed.
    Problem:

    Recently I have installed soft-ice for windows95. I am practicing Assemble language using both TASM and A86 assemblers (I know they are old). I wrote a little program for printing a character “A “on the dos screen. The code is:

    MAIN SEGMENT
    ASSUME DS:MAIN,ES:MAIN,CS:MAIN,SS:MAIN

    START:
    MOV AH,02h
    MOV DL,41h

    INT 21h
    INT 20h
    MAIN ENDS
    END START

    When complied it in TASM it gave an .obj and on linking it by using
    TLINK filename.obj it gave an exe file when I clicked it the computer hanged.
    I pressed ctrl+alt+del once instead of showing end task panel the computer restarted.
    I then complied the above code with A86,the result was fine. On the same day I installed a game prince of Persia. I played it and it worked fine. But when I restarted the system my computer’s VGA was gone. I reinstalled the VGA. I again played the game. Then was unzipping a game metal gear solid suddenly the electricity went off. After that when I restarted my system, nothing worked. Windows did not load. I tried safe mode but it didn’t work. I used a bootable disk to start my system. C:,F:,G: drives were fine, but when got to D: and E: drives and wrote Dir the label of drive was an ASCII Symbol( a face, Arrows etc.) and also it gave a message:
    Data Error
    Abort,Retry,Fail?
    I then installed an another hard disk(Seagate) and made it primary master and the hard disk( Samsung) that gave error as Secondary slave for accessing the drives of this hard disk. But on restarting the computer only a blue background of desktop appeared without any icon . On pressing ctrl+alt+del end task panel appeared with explorer not responding. I restarted my computer same thing happened again. I then used bootable disk to start the computer. Then I got to the D: E: drives same thing happened and in addition to that F: drive also started giving the same error.
    Data Error
    Abort,Retry,Fail?
    The tried to paste a small text file in these drives but it gave error.
    Can’t access or create directory in f:
    It this problem due to assemble code or soft-ice or Linux or the games ??
    Please help me because I am in a great mess. I had many of my important documents on the hard disk. My job depends on them. Please kindly help

  2. #2
    AO French Antique News Whore
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    This type of problem would be best slove by a computer technician locally.

    I'm not really sure what else I can do for you. Check those

    1) Partitition are ok?
    2) Virus Free?
    -Simon \"SDK\"

  3. #3
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    installed a game prince of Persia
    I would recommend uninstalling that for a start..............videocard problem.......it should have checked.....it may have screwed up?

    Your programming should have damn all to do with it IMHO?

    Can you boot into safe mode?

  4. #4
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    hey guyz cant anyone help me. Is there no Real pro on this site any more

    i am not able to boot in safe mode, also the hdd produces a different sound.when i scanned the d:,e:,f: drives it says scandisk cannot scan the drive. also the problem has also extended to the other drives. When i try to copy data from (command prompt) any drive it says

    ERROR READING DATA IN DRIVE F:
    ABORT,RETRY,FAIL?

    its a kind of error which the damaged floppy discs use to give.

    help me plz

  5. #5
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Errr................have you checked that you don't have a floppy/CD/ZIP/DVD in drive "F"....is your webcam/digital cam/USB drive disconnected (although they usually default to "G")

    you do need to be patient, or take it to a local store?..........sorting things this way involves a lot of time lag?

    cheers

  6. #6
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    I don't have a floppy/CD/ZIP/DVD in drive "F". C:,D:,E:,F:,G: are the hard disk drives h: drive is cd rom drive.i have no usb device

  7. #7
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    Nope, it's not a problem with your game or any other software.

    Worst think that can happen is that you wipe your hard drive or infect it with a virus if you are using a pirated copy of the game.
    Your assembler proggie as described will not cause the hard drive to be wiped, but this is easy to do with a different set of instructions.

    "But when I restarted the system my computer’s VGA was gone"
    What did you do? reinstall some video drivers??
    Not that I think this has anything to do with the problem.

    "Then was unzipping a game metal gear solid suddenly the electricity went off"
    You should clarify exactly what you meant there, as that sounds like the problem to me.

    A hardware error caused by a real hard disk crash is difficult to recover from.
    I assume that your system boots and runs OK without this dodgy hard drive??
    If so, there is a simple trick you can try - get a freezer bag and stick the hard disk in it, and put it in the freezer
    After a few hours, stick it in the PC, and see if it works, and start copying your data.
    Believe it or not, this will work in some cases where the hard drive is on the way out .....

    However, it won't fix the real problem and the drive will fail again after a few minutes

    EDIT: I'm also assuming that you have reinstalled your OS on the new hard drive??
    Well, that is of course the point about taking backups in the first place, which is a problem everyone assumes won't happen to them.

  8. #8
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Hmmm,

    Windows98/98se/ME can do rather unpredictable things if you leave Cds in their drives or don't "dismount" a USB device, but we have eliminated those possibilities.

    Prince of Persia can cause video problems, which you did encounter, but that should not stop you booting into safe mode, and fixing the video.

    I am afraid that darkes is right, and that the drive has been damaged by a power spike.

    You might try the samsung and seagate sites for their diagnostics tools, and run them.

    Try going into set up, and checking that your BIOS correctly recognises the two drives (right size etc)

    Does the seagate drive have Windows installed on it? How big is it?

    Is all your important data on one partition, if so, how big is it?

    I think that your first move should be to get the machine running with the segate drive only. Then we can try to extract the data from the damaged samsung one. You should be able to find installation software on the seagate site.

    I would certainly remove the Samsung until you are absolutely ready for the transfer, as from what you tell us about the "noises" and deterioration, it sounds as if it is coming apart.

    Cheers

  9. #9
    Senior since the 3 dot era
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    It seems that either your disk has encountered a serious crash or either your partition table is failing. I strongly suggest to run the diagnostic tool for your harddisk.
    Sansung provides the following tools:
    hutil: to test samsung harddisks installed in a pc
    shdiag: to diagnose a disk when suspected to have failures

    - "hutil" and you can get info and download it from here:
    http://www.samsung.com/Products/Hard...ties/hutil.htm

    - "shdiag"
    http://www.samsung.com/Products/Hard...ies/shdiag.htm

    Besides: always test your disk with the manufacturer diagnostic tool, this tool will provide you with an error code, proving the disk is bad, making RMA a lot of easier. A useless RMA due to a problem not caused by the disk, will have adminstrative and handling costs.

    So: check your harddisk with the tool, also make sure all cables are properly seated.
    There are a lot of widely available tools to recover some of your data.

  10. #10
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    One other thing to consider for the future is to use a surge protector if you aren't doing so already. I'd say this was essential if you are at a location where the power fails from time to time for whatever reason. Often problems happen when the power comes back on, as you can get a massive spike at this point. In my time I have seen one or two PCs that have been completely fried due to a power spike.

    Surge protectors are not expensive, and over here you can pick them up in any hardware/electrical store.
    They usually work & look like a normal extension cable, so you just plug it into the wall socket, and then plug all your power connectors into the extension cable.

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