# [SOLVED] primary master hard disk fail



## ron derenzo (Feb 17, 2002)

I went out of town for 3 days and came back and the pc was stuck on the message:
primary master hard disk fail

I asked the wife and kids if they did anything strange and the answer is NO.
I tried and tried with boot disks and rescue and recovery disks to get this to work but to no avail.
Then I un plugged the machine and started it up, did this a few times, at it finally cycled through.
I ran a virus check , scan disk and nothing showed up. It froze last night and the same thing happened. This morning, I powered it off and on several times, each time unplugging it and I kept getting this master hard disk fail....I finally got it to open.

I'm running windows 98 and am not sure if this is WORM related or something else????

ANY IDEAS????

Help.....Its homework season and dont want to buy a new machine, just yet


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## raybro (Apr 27, 2003)

First thing to try. Go to the hard drive mfr's site and download their utilities and test your drive. If it shows up bad, you don't need to buy a new computer... just a new hard drive. 

Saving all your data may be another question altogether. There are a couple of things to try, but first you need to determine just what the problem is. It sounds like the drive is dying, but lets be sure before doing anything else. For the time being, don't have your PC powered up unless you have a real need to do so.

Other info needed:

Do you have another PC available?

Do you have a CD burner?


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## ron derenzo (Feb 17, 2002)

A few followups:
I do have a cd burner and an older laptop.
I had also installed an additional drive in this machine a while back and NEVER used it. Maybe I can switch to that, its newer.
How does one do that>? How do I make the newer drive the main drive and the older drive the secondary? Is that an easy thing to do???
A real novice here....
Windows 98
Inteva Pentium 3 450 mhz

Thanks again


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

How did you set the new drive up? Did the old drive ever 'see' it via my computer?


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## raybro (Apr 27, 2003)

OK... Candy asked a good question. If your second drive is recognized in "My Computer", you are half way there. This indicates the drive is formatted and ready to have data installed.

Assuming you "See" the drive, the firsrt thing you need to do is find out if there is anything already on it. In My computer, double click the drive and see what, if anytyhing, is there. If it's empty, you are good to go. If not, I would suggest the thing to do would be to format the drive so it's clean. You can do this in windows. Just right click on the drive icon and select format. Then select "Full format" and OK.

It would probably be a good idea to go into fdisk and see what is listed there. Go to start/Run and type in fdisk. then OK. The first screen will ask about large drive supprt. Just hit enter. On the next screen hit the "5" key and then Enter. Now select the second disk number (probably 2) and again hit Enter. Now hit the "4" key and then Enter. This will display the partition data for the second drive. It should have a primary DOS partition in FAT32 format. If it's anything else, post back with whatever it says. Exit fdisk by hitting the "Esc" key repetitively until the window closes.

If all is well, all you need do now is copy the C: drive to the second harddrive. This can be done in a number of ways. The simplist is probably to again go to your drive mfr's web site and download their utilities. It should contain a copy utilitiy. Here's one that should do the job

http://support.wdc.com/download/

Download "Data LifGuard v10.0". It has a drive to drive copy utility.

If the drive does not show in My Computer, then we have a whole different approach to this process. Post back with what you have.


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## ron derenzo (Feb 17, 2002)

When I was trying to figure this out last night, I did get an error message which mentioned 3 things:
1) The computer is missing a FAT or FAT32
2) You are using a 3rd party partion program
3) You have a virus.

Now, that you mention this FAT thing, does this help diagnose the problem???

Continued thanks
rd


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Well, you may have set the new drive up with the overlay software. Where are you getting the info that you posted.


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## raybro (Apr 27, 2003)

Doesn't sound like this is going to be a straightforeward process after all... Oh well  

Provide an answer to Candy's question and we can go from there. Be as specific as you can.

Couple more points to clear up.

Do you know of any 3rd party partitioning software installed? Look for Partition Magic or Partition Commander.

Do you have an antivirus program installed?

BTW... FAT and FAT32 are nothing more than acronyms that describe the type of format an OS uses. They have no direct bearing on the diagnostic process. You just need to know which one is in use.


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## ron derenzo (Feb 17, 2002)

Here is what I found:
1) I went on line to copy the drives as suggested. I went to Segate and followed the on-line wizard. It bombed out while copying from drive C to D. I could do NOTHING.....
Unplugged the machine and turned it on and off about 20 times, It finally booted up this morning.
2) The machine stops at the following point:

Award Plug and Play Extension v1.0a
Copyright (c) 1998, Award Inc
Detecting IDE Primary Slave......press f4 to skip THIS THEN FLASHES after about a minute to read NONE
Found CDROM: Toshiba DVD ROM SD-M1202
Found CDROM: CD-RW IDE 2410
Primary Master Hard Disk Fail

After repeated attempts at turning it on and off, it works.

I have Norton Internet Security installed and it works fine, including live update.
I have Search and Destory and it found nothing
I ran scandisk and it completed
I dont think I have 3rd party partitioning software.

The new drive is set up on the computer. Its a 32 gig drive.
I see it on the computer panel.

IF I AM ABLE TO COPY from C to D, how do I get the machine to point to D in the startup???? Is there a way to get me to D as the primary?

Love you guys!


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## raybro (Apr 27, 2003)

Hi again ron... Changing the boot drive is pretty simple, but you must first get a good copy process to get the OS on the slave drive. If the slave drive does not have a bootable partition on it, there will be no point in switching. Copying the C: drive to the slave will create a bootable partition.

Here's how you switch the boot drive from the current (master) to the other (slave).

Go into BIOS and find the 'Boot' section. It varies from one brand of BIOS to another where this is located, but what you need to do is select the bootable hard drive by brand name. 

The other option is to switch the cables on the drives and/or change the jumper settings on both drives. I recommend the BIOS method myself. A lot less complicated once you understand it.

From what you described, it sounds like your primary master drive is dying. If it goes altogehther, there is a last ditch process that has worked for me and others a couple of times. 

It goes like this:

Remove the drive and put in into a plastic bag. Place the bag in the freezer for 30 minutes or more. When you are ready to do the copy process, remove the drive from the freezer, install it and boot the PC. Immediately initiate the copy process. I've had as much as 30 minutes of operation from a drive that was completely dead using this process. I know it sounds pretty Mickey Mouse, but it does work sometimes depending on the actual cause of the drive failure.


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## ron derenzo (Feb 17, 2002)

Ray.
You are the best. Are you kidding me about the freezer? I am so gulible I will actually try it>>>>

How do you get into the BIOS???? Is there a combination of keys while booting up??

Thanks again.....Should I just go out and buy a new machine????
If so, Dell, Gateway or Sony?>


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Bios setup varies depending......usually it's DEL, but can be F 1 or F 2, if it's a Compaq machine, F 10.

Yes, cooling the drive down can work.....been there done that...didn't have to put it in the freezer, just left it out of the machine for a day or so, then I had enough time to transfer files. You might try that first.


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## Triple6 (Dec 26, 2002)

Yes, the frezzer trick does sometimes work.

To get into the BIOS you generally have to press F1, F2, F10, OR DEL. You should see a message that may say something like PRESS DEL TO ENTER SETUP. Usually this is doen around the memory count just as the computer starts.

I would not recommend any Name Brand computer - they use inferior parts and don't perform as well as a custom computer or by one bought from a small local computer shop. If you really want a Brand Name system then DELL has all other Brand Name computer manufacturers beat hands done.


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## ron derenzo (Feb 17, 2002)

You guys are the best!
I followed the instructions as suggested and am happy to report I will not be rushing out to buy a new computer for the kids this weekend. We can wait till Christmas when the even newer technology will be around!
The BIOS change worked. The old drive and new drive are both installed. AOL is working. Life is good.

I assume I will leave the old drive alone, and not delete it or its content, for a while, but I am happy as hell that I can be back on this machine so the kids can do homework till they drop.

LOVE THIS SERVICE AND LOVE THE FOLKS WHO CARE ENOUGH TO HELP! WONDERFUL GUIDANCE>>>>>THANK YOU SO MUCH


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## raybro (Apr 27, 2003)

Within the confines and scope of tech forums, IT DON"T GET BETTER THAN THIS!!  

Most people who frquent these forums do so in the hope/expectation of helping someone as they have been helped in the past. That's what it's all about. :up:


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