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Thread: harddrive go boom?

  1. #1
    AO übergeek phishphreek's Avatar
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    harddrive go boom?

    My server crashed and I can't figure out what the hell happened.

    The specs:

    2K Server
    1.9ghz AMD
    768MB PC2300 RDRAM
    DVD Drive
    DVD Burner
    Onboard sound
    NVIDIA 64MB AGP Video
    Promise PCI IDE Controller
    HD0:Maxtor:160gb
    HD1:Maxtor:160gb
    HD2:Seagate:120gb
    HD3:Seagate:120gb

    I had a external usb 2.0 250gb maxor one touch backup drive connected for several days prior to crash.

    I was copying data back and forth between my HD0 and the usb external drive remotely through vpn. All of a sudden, I get disconnected from the server but I'm still on vpn. I can't ping the server or anything. I disconnect and decide to wait to figure out what is wrong once I get home.

    I get home and I'm greeted with:

    No operating system found:

    I boot to my trusty HIRENS cd and use several diagnostics tools to figure out what happened.

    NTFS DOS can't read HD0 but it can read HD1, HD2, HD3
    None of the partition managers show it as a valid NTFS partition. But it can see all the other HDs and their correct states.

    I run some maxtor harddisk diagnostics tools and everything passes.

    I've come to the conclusion that the partition got corrupt and the HD is still good.
    Afterall... the HD is less than 6months old.

    I didn't loose any data. I have everything backed up.

    I should be able to just format/reload.

    But I won't... until I figure out WHY it happened.
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  2. #2
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    Just thoughts

    cause I have had that happen...where the drive\partition just died. NT 4 server SBS 4.5..and couldnt recover the drive at all....thank god for a mirror and backups

    No warnings or issues...like slowdowns? read write errors? IO errors?

    is it just defective...we had 2 new maxtors fail within one year?

    It is strange that you can access the other partition...so maybe the drive isnt defective??

    Not the controller...

    bad cable connection

    Power spike???

    Could it have filled up???

    Rogue process gone array I have seen a wins database corruption
    where it created hundreds of log files....and the system drive was filling up fast?

    Maybe a temp directory that is used by the backup...never cleared itself?

    And I have seen an index in an old database corrupt and start growing....

    I never did find out what caused the crash...now I run hardware raid.. on that machine


    Good luck

    MLF
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  3. #3
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    Just curious, does the hard drive still show up as a 160 GB drive? If you go in to FDisk does show your partition?
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  4. #4
    AO übergeek phishphreek's Avatar
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    Just curious, does the hard drive still show up as a 160 GB drive? If you go in to FDisk does show your partition?
    The drive still shows up as a 160gig drive in the bios and several of the partition tools. It does not show up as a NTFS partition. Something weird that I didn't write down as I was in a rush... something like QXD? I can doublecheck.

    When I boot using the windows 2000 server disk and go to the recovery console... it drops me at a prompt. It can't display the directory structure. Again, another weird error that I didn't write down as I was in a rush. I'll go back and get that info though.

    Originally posted here by morganlefay
    [B]Just thoughts

    cause I have had that happen...where the drive\partition just died. NT 4 server SBS 4.5..and couldnt recover the drive at all....thank god for a mirror and backups
    I have a backup and just used that as a place to download and then archived to other drives.

    No warnings or issues...like slowdowns? read write errors? IO errors?
    No slowdowns or errors. I check the logs on a regualar basis and I have SNMP running and reporting using solarwinds engineer edition.

    is it just defective...we had 2 new maxtors fail within one year?
    Could be... but none of the hard disk utilities show anything wrong with the drive itself, just the partition.

    It is strange that you can access the other partition...so maybe the drive isnt defective??
    I can access the other drives from bootdisks... not from the defective drive itself.

    Not the controller...
    Don't think so either, because I can access the other drives fine.

    bad cable connection
    I've taken the drive out and connected it to another box using different cables, and still can't access it. So, that tells me the cable is fine.

    Power spike???
    I have 2 surge protectors and a backup battery... so I don't think so. Unless the spike happened from within the PC... but that would affect more than one device? The tower and PSU is new too... only 3 months old. It is an antec case and PSU which get really good ratings.
    http://www.antec.com/pdf/flyers/SONATA.pdf

    Could it have filled up???
    It is a 160gb drive before formatting. I only had about 30gigs worth of data on there at the time of failure.

    Rogue process gone array I have seen a wins database corruption
    where it created hundreds of log files....and the system drive was filling up fast?
    I suppose this is possible... but I was remotely connected to it and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Everything was working properly as far as I know. I can't get to the system logs to find out and I didn't log that to a syslog server... actaully.. that was also my syslog server for other network devices... But... if that were the case, I should still be able to access the partition from a boot cd using a ramdisk and access/delete files?

    Maybe a temp directory that is used by the backup...never cleared itself?
    I do manual backups and no backup software is used. I just store everything on external usb drives.

    And I have seen an index in an old database corrupt and start growing....
    Indexing service was running. The install was only about 3 months old. I had gotten new hardware and was getting all kinds of errors and had to reinstall.

    I never did find out what caused the crash...now I run hardware raid.. on that machine
    I suspect that I'll never figure this problem out either. I don't have the resources to run a hardware raid... its just a home server... however I do use it for a lot. domain controller, syslog server, dns server, wus server, file server, etc. I know its not good to run all those services on one server but it is only for a couple of boxes.

    Thanks for the thoughts/suggestions. I'm going to play more tonight. I had class yesterday night and had very little time to play with it. I'm going to see if I can dig up any more info. There are tons of tools on that CD I have an I only used about 5 of them.
    http://62.253.162.19/hiren.thanki/bootcd.html (Not really legal...)
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  5. #5
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Hmmmmmmmmmm,

    Sounds as if your master boot record has been corrupted, AFAIK that is where the partition table is held?

    You might try repairing it............sorry, I don't know how to do that in Win2K Server.

    Just a thought?

  6. #6
    ********** |ceWriterguy
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    Sounds like the classic case of "left nut go hmmmm, right nut go hmmmmm, hard drive go POW!"

    One damaged part of a hd at just the right part can and will cause this (sector containing the information for the primary partition, for example) - sounds very much like you hit that part.
    Even a broken watch is correct twice a day.

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  7. #7
    AO übergeek phishphreek's Avatar
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    Originally posted here by nihil
    Hmmmmmmmmmm,

    Sounds as if your master boot record has been corrupted, AFAIK that is where the partition table is held?

    You might try repairing it............sorry, I don't know how to do that in Win2K Server.

    Just a thought?
    I thought about that too and I tried the repair.

    from recovery console

    fdisk /mbr

    or

    fixboot

    "left nut go hmmmm, right nut go hmmmmm, hard drive go POW!"
    OUCH!? Um.... I guess I'll do a low level format and put that disk in a box that I just screw around with just in case it happens again. So far I have no signs of a bad HD...

    I'm still puzzled.
    Quitmzilla is a firefox extension that gives you stats on how long you have quit smoking, how much money you\'ve saved, how much you haven\'t smoked and recent milestones. Very helpful for people who quit smoking and used to smoke at their computers... Helps out with the urges.

  8. #8
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Hi phish~

    Can you try "Fixmbr" or "chkdsk"?


  9. #9
    ********** |ceWriterguy
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    if it's just that one sector that's bad (and it's not still under warranty where you can return it), most definitely try doing the scandisk, then a low-level format. A fresh format will mark that sector as bad and that sector won't be written to in the future - the rest of it might still be of some use, but I wouldn't hang it on a machine where I stored data of any importance.
    Even a broken watch is correct twice a day.

    Which coder said that nobody could outcode Microsoft in their own OS? Write a bit and make a fortune!

  10. #10
    Blast From the Past
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    ok, i dont know much.... but you said you were remotely connected at the time

    was that time before the crash?

    if so maybe when the connection closed a packet was lost that resulted in malwriting of the MBR...

    ive had that before with my nfs at home...not fun
    work it harder, make it better, do it faster, makes us stronger

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