Re: [newbie] PRIMARY MASTER HARD DISK FAIL
We where replacing them while still in warranty. Roly On Thu, 17 Oct 2002 07:00:02 -0400 ET <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Wednesday 16 October 2002 09:42 pm, Roland Hughes wrote: > > The "Quantum fireball" disk drives have a very high failure rate. At > > work we have replaced every one of them. Roly > not really fair to blame quantum, since almost every 10 gig hard drive > is about due to fail, however, he should try to auto detect it in > bios, and see what happens. > > > > On Wed, 16 Oct 2002 19:55:45 -0700 > > > > "Dimitris Adamopoulos" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Need some help here! > > > Yesterday I installed mandrake 8.2 on my oldie. P133 with 72mb RAM > > > and a 10gb quantum fireball. > > > When I finished the installation everything seemed to be right. > > > The system was stable. Only when I had the kde up was a bit slow, > > > something expected of cource. > > > After about an hour the system went on "stand by" mode and the > > > monitor turned off. > > > When I moved the mouse to wake up the system the monitor turned on > > > but the only think I saw was a stucked screenshot! > > > My system was crashed. > > > I did my best to recover it but the only way to move on was to > > > push the power off button. > > > When I tried to reboot I saw this f.. message: > > > PRIMARY MASTER HARD DISK FAIL > > > > > > Due to my old BIOS the primary disk it seems to be only 8gb aprox. > > > but during the 8.2 installation progress the disk was seemed to be > > > 10gb(actual size) > > > What happened? > > > I am a new linux user and I would really like to know what went > > > wrong. Thanks .. Until my next crash! > > > -- "The directions said to install Windows 98/2000 or better! So I installed Linux!" Linux Counter: 241069 Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] PRIMARY MASTER HARD DISK FAIL
The "Quantum fireball" disk drives have a very high failure rate. At work we have replaced every one of them. Roly On Wed, 16 Oct 2002 19:55:45 -0700 "Dimitris Adamopoulos" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Need some help here! > Yesterday I installed mandrake 8.2 on my oldie. P133 with 72mb RAM and > a 10gb quantum fireball. > When I finished the installation everything seemed to be right. > The system was stable. Only when I had the kde up was a bit slow, > something expected of cource. > After about an hour the system went on "stand by" mode and the monitor > turned off. > When I moved the mouse to wake up the system the monitor turned on but > the only think I saw was a stucked screenshot! > My system was crashed. > I did my best to recover it but the only way to move on was to push > the power off button. > When I tried to reboot I saw this f.. message: > PRIMARY MASTER HARD DISK FAIL > > Due to my old BIOS the primary disk it seems to be only 8gb aprox. > but during the 8.2 installation progress the disk was seemed to be > 10gb(actual size) > What happened? > I am a new linux user and I would really like to know what went wrong. > Thanks .. Until my next crash! > > > > > -- "The directions said to install Windows 98/2000 or better! So I installed Linux!" Linux Counter: 241069 Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
[newbie] PRIMARY MASTER HARD DISK FAIL
Need some help here! Yesterday I installed mandrake 8.2 on my oldie. P133 with 72mb RAM and a 10gb quantum fireball. When I finished the installation everything seemed to be right. The system was stable. Only when I had the kde up was a bit slow, something expected of cource. After about an hour the system went on "stand by" mode and the monitor turned off. When I moved the mouse to wake up the system the monitor turned on but the only think I saw was a stucked screenshot! My system was crashed. I did my best to recover it but the only way to move on was to push the power off button. When I tried to reboot I saw this f.. message: PRIMARY MASTER HARD DISK FAIL Due to my old BIOS the primary disk it seems to be only 8gb aprox. but during the 8.2 installation progress the disk was seemed to be 10gb (actual size) What happened? I am a new linux user and I would really like to know what went wrong. Thanks .. Until my next crash! Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] Primary master hard disk fail
On Tuesday 24 July 2001 21:07, Marcia L Waller wrote: > Dear All, > I decided as a last resort to download the utility from Fujitsu and to > check the drive. It failed the tests but not necessarily because it is > permanently bad from what I could tell. I decided to get the utility also > to do the low-level format. I am looking at my desktop and it says the > format just finished successfully. What should be my next steps at this > point? I do not want to install anything but LM8 on my machine. Any > suggestions? Thanks. > Sincerely, Marcia The next step is the install CD. If that works, you are back in business for a while. But start thinking about a new hdd and saving for it and bargain hunting. I saw an IBM DTTA 12.9G for $51.50 at www.compgeeks.com. If the Fujitsu never fails, then you have more disk storage, and that is not usually a bad thing. Civileme
Re: [newbie] Primary master hard disk fail
Dear All, I decided as a last resort to download the utility from Fujitsu and to check the drive. It failed the tests but not necessarily because it is permanently bad from what I could tell. I decided to get the utility also to do the low-level format. I am looking at my desktop and it says the format just finished successfully. What should be my next steps at this point? I do not want to install anything but LM8 on my machine. Any suggestions? Thanks. Sincerely, Marcia On Tue, 24 Jul 2001 09:23:00 +1200 "skinky" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Hi Marcia > > I agree with Tazmun, you need to go the the drive manufacturers > website and > download the utility made specifically for your drive to do the > low-level > format. However, I would also search the manufacturer's site for a > drive-testing utility and run the diagnostics test first. The test > should > tell you whether or not the drive is kaput and if so, as a last > resort > perfom the low-level format. As Civileme pointed out, low-level > formats can > totally finish off the drive. > > Good luck > skinky > > > - Original Message - > From: "tazmun" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > > probably a long shot though. The low format utilities are not > found in > your > > bios, or at least I've never seen such a thing. I would suggest > > downloading the utilities offered by the hard drive manufacturer > on line. > > The ones I've used are quite helpful and offer the proper low > level format > > for your drive if necessary. They normally offer to help you make > a > > bootable disk to boot on your floppy drive. The low level format > is > > sometimes called the "write test"(specifically maxtor), but > remember this > > wipes your drive completely clean and requires a fdisk and normal > format > > afterwards. Sorry I don't know the Linux equivalents. I have had > drives > > testing bad after a low level format test out ok. Depending on > why the > > > > Tazmun > > > > > > > > _ > Do You Yahoo!? > Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com > >
Re: [newbie] Primary master hard disk fail
yep absolutly correct and the bad battery will cause the bios to lose it's settings as to what and where the hard drive is On Monday 23 July 2001 17:15, Jose M. Sanchez wrote: > This message is -NOT- caused by a virus! > > It is caused by the drive's own seek mechanism being unable to > recalibrate and locate the first track and sector at a "low" level. > > This is not the same as corrupted a boot sector which a virus can cause. > You can have a corrupt boot sector & track yet the drive will not issue > the hard disk fail error message. Rather the system will hang or fail to > boot. > > Low level formatting (which it is NOT!) merely re-initializes the data > in the sectors on an ide drive while checking for bad spots. Unlike > older MFM drives, this is performed at a much higher level than IDE. For > the most part, unless you have a special hardware device which can lay > down the timing marks, you cannot really "low level format" an IDE > drive, even via the bios. > > One thing though. If something screwed up the settings on your BIOS, you > may get this error, even though the drive is fine. This is because the > BIOS is being told to look for the first track somewhere it's not. Check > that the settings are set to how they used to be, or for AUTO detection > of the drive and AUTO for block mode. > > -JMS > > > -Original Message- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Marcia L Waller > Sent: Monday, July 23, 2001 3:31 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [newbie] Primary master hard disk fail > > > Dear ALL, > Thank you for the advice. I wonder about the possibility of correcting > this hard drive problem. Oddly I can get my Northon Utilities 5.00 CD up > and I am viewing things but I do not how to use Disk Editor. I am > browsing with it but there do not seem to be extensive directions on how > to use it. Is there anyway that I can reformat my disk either with > Norton or using the HDD low level format in the BIOS? I have a feeling > this hard drive is not dead but could have been hit with a virus? > Strange characters show up with the boot up messages for hdb drive. I do > not care about saving files at this point. I just want to be able to use > my computer again and do a fresh install of LM8 again. Any advice will > be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Sincerely, Marcia
Re: [newbie] Primary master hard disk fail
- Original Message - > hours at least usually. I had one maxtor drive that I tried to convert back > to fat after running ext2 filesystem and it just wouldn't properly run > format, fdisk until after I did the low levelthat was a couple of years > ago and the drive is still in service and nevered erred since. > > Best of luck > Tazmun Tazmun, I recently had the same problem.Dos kept reporting bad sectors and eventually said it couldn't read from the disk. Just thought others might be interested to know that a boot/partition manager that I was using at the time (BootIt Next Generation), easily recognised the ext2 filesystem and just as easily converted it to FAT32. I *was* about to do a low-level format . Also, some might be interested to know that BootIt NG can copy entire partitions/drives to CD-RW (or other partition/drive) as an image file which can be restored any time. Although I must say, that I haven't tried it with Linux YET (it works with Win98). It handled resizing ext2 and swap partitions without any problems and supports Reiser. Just some useless information (as if you don't have enough email to read) :-) Cheers skinky _ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: [newbie] Primary master hard disk fail
Hi Marcia I agree with Tazmun, you need to go the the drive manufacturers website and download the utility made specifically for your drive to do the low-level format. However, I would also search the manufacturer's site for a drive-testing utility and run the diagnostics test first. The test should tell you whether or not the drive is kaput and if so, as a last resort perfom the low-level format. As Civileme pointed out, low-level formats can totally finish off the drive. Good luck skinky - Original Message - From: "tazmun" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > probably a long shot though. The low format utilities are not found in your > bios, or at least I've never seen such a thing. I would suggest > downloading the utilities offered by the hard drive manufacturer on line. > The ones I've used are quite helpful and offer the proper low level format > for your drive if necessary. They normally offer to help you make a > bootable disk to boot on your floppy drive. The low level format is > sometimes called the "write test"(specifically maxtor), but remember this > wipes your drive completely clean and requires a fdisk and normal format > afterwards. Sorry I don't know the Linux equivalents. I have had drives > testing bad after a low level format test out ok. Depending on why the > > Tazmun > _ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
RE: [newbie] Primary master hard disk fail
This message is -NOT- caused by a virus! It is caused by the drive's own seek mechanism being unable to recalibrate and locate the first track and sector at a "low" level. This is not the same as corrupted a boot sector which a virus can cause. You can have a corrupt boot sector & track yet the drive will not issue the hard disk fail error message. Rather the system will hang or fail to boot. Low level formatting (which it is NOT!) merely re-initializes the data in the sectors on an ide drive while checking for bad spots. Unlike older MFM drives, this is performed at a much higher level than IDE. For the most part, unless you have a special hardware device which can lay down the timing marks, you cannot really "low level format" an IDE drive, even via the bios. One thing though. If something screwed up the settings on your BIOS, you may get this error, even though the drive is fine. This is because the BIOS is being told to look for the first track somewhere it's not. Check that the settings are set to how they used to be, or for AUTO detection of the drive and AUTO for block mode. -JMS -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Marcia L Waller Sent: Monday, July 23, 2001 3:31 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [newbie] Primary master hard disk fail Dear ALL, Thank you for the advice. I wonder about the possibility of correcting this hard drive problem. Oddly I can get my Northon Utilities 5.00 CD up and I am viewing things but I do not how to use Disk Editor. I am browsing with it but there do not seem to be extensive directions on how to use it. Is there anyway that I can reformat my disk either with Norton or using the HDD low level format in the BIOS? I have a feeling this hard drive is not dead but could have been hit with a virus? Strange characters show up with the boot up messages for hdb drive. I do not care about saving files at this point. I just want to be able to use my computer again and do a fresh install of LM8 again. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Sincerely, Marcia
Re: [newbie] Primary master hard disk fail
Thank you for your reply. I will try to find how to do the low-level format. If I do need a new hard drive what would be a good and inexpensive one that will handle Linux just fine? Thanks. Marcia On Mon, 23 Jul 2001 13:48:48 -0500 "tazmun" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Is there anyway that I can reformat my disk either with Norton > > or using the HDD low level format in the BIOS? I have a feeling > this hard > > drive is not dead but could have been hit with a virus? Strange > > characters show up with the boot up messages for hdb drive. I do > not care > > about saving files at this point. I just want to be able to use my > > computer again and do a fresh install of LM8 again. Any advice > will be > > greatly appreciated. Thank you. Sincerely, Marcia > > > > I suspect that Civileme and the others are correct and this drive is > toasted, but a couple of thoughts come to me to check possibly. > Regarding a > possible virus, it's possible if it was dual booting windoze, but > unlikely > if running only MD 8.0. I find that to cause failure to the point > your > describing even in windoze it would be unlikely. I have however saw > the > bios spit out some weird machine language before when running > systems that > are overclocked too far. Are you sure your bios is set right for > the > processor your running etc. If the onboard clock has not been > keeping time > correctly this is a hint towards a failing battery. If your battery > died or > is weak on the motherboard your bios would lose all the settings > upon > shutdown and a normal boot after would not be likely. The latter > was > probably a long shot though. The low format utilities are not found > in your > bios, or at least I've never seen such a thing. I would suggest > downloading the utilities offered by the hard drive manufacturer on > line. > The ones I've used are quite helpful and offer the proper low level > format > for your drive if necessary. They normally offer to help you make a > bootable disk to boot on your floppy drive. The low level format is > sometimes called the "write test"(specifically maxtor), but remember > this > wipes your drive completely clean and requires a fdisk and normal > format > afterwards. Sorry I don't know the Linux equivalents. I have had > drives > testing bad after a low level format test out ok. Depending on why > the > drive got messed up it might be actually damaged and even though > temporarily > running right will not last for long. If this happened because of a > local > power outtage though I'd say the odds are in your favor of a > complete > permanent recovery. But worst case scenario...new hard drives are a > better, > cheaper buy then I've ever seen before! > > Tazmun > >
Re: [newbie] Primary master hard disk fail
Is there anyway that I can reformat my disk either with Norton > or using the HDD low level format in the BIOS? I have a feeling this hard > drive is not dead but could have been hit with a virus? Strange > characters show up with the boot up messages for hdb drive. I do not care > about saving files at this point. I just want to be able to use my > computer again and do a fresh install of LM8 again. Any advice will be > greatly appreciated. Thank you. Sincerely, Marcia > I suspect that Civileme and the others are correct and this drive is toasted, but a couple of thoughts come to me to check possibly. Regarding a possible virus, it's possible if it was dual booting windoze, but unlikely if running only MD 8.0. I find that to cause failure to the point your describing even in windoze it would be unlikely. I have however saw the bios spit out some weird machine language before when running systems that are overclocked too far. Are you sure your bios is set right for the processor your running etc. If the onboard clock has not been keeping time correctly this is a hint towards a failing battery. If your battery died or is weak on the motherboard your bios would lose all the settings upon shutdown and a normal boot after would not be likely. The latter was probably a long shot though. The low format utilities are not found in your bios, or at least I've never seen such a thing. I would suggest downloading the utilities offered by the hard drive manufacturer on line. The ones I've used are quite helpful and offer the proper low level format for your drive if necessary. They normally offer to help you make a bootable disk to boot on your floppy drive. The low level format is sometimes called the "write test"(specifically maxtor), but remember this wipes your drive completely clean and requires a fdisk and normal format afterwards. Sorry I don't know the Linux equivalents. I have had drives testing bad after a low level format test out ok. Depending on why the drive got messed up it might be actually damaged and even though temporarily running right will not last for long. If this happened because of a local power outtage though I'd say the odds are in your favor of a complete permanent recovery. But worst case scenario...new hard drives are a better, cheaper buy then I've ever seen before! Tazmun
Re: [newbie] Primary master hard disk fail
Dear Civilme, Thank you for the information. I have the Award Bios. How exactly do I do a low-level format? Thanks for the help. Sincerely, Marcia On Mon, 23 Jul 2001 20:07:25 + civileme <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On Monday 23 July 2001 19:30, Marcia L Waller wrote: > > Dear ALL, > > Thank you for the advice. I wonder about the possibility of > correcting > > this hard drive problem. Oddly I can get my Northon Utilities 5.00 > CD up > > and I am viewing things but I do not how to use Disk Editor. I am > > browsing with it but there do not seem to be extensive directions > on how > > to use it. Is there anyway that I can reformat my disk either with > Norton > > or using the HDD low level format in the BIOS? I have a feeling > this hard > > drive is not dead but could have been hit with a virus? Strange > > characters show up with the boot up messages for hdb drive. I do > not care > > about saving files at this point. I just want to be able to use my > > computer again and do a fresh install of LM8 again. Any advice > will be > > greatly appreciated. Thank you. Sincerely, Marcia > > > Low-level format will either fix the drive or break it totally. But > if you > have no retrievable data on it, it might extend the life of the > drive by a > little whiile while you start saving for a new drive. > > Civileme > >
Re: [newbie] Primary master hard disk fail
On Mon, 23 Jul 2001 07:03, civileme wrote: > On Sunday 22 July 2001 04:00, Marcia L Waller wrote: > > Dear All, > > > > I have had LM8 installed and running for awhile and tonight my screen > > went black so I rebooted and got a very unwelcome message during boot > > up-Primary master hard disk fail. I was sure I had made a boot disk when > > installing LM8 but now of course I cannot find it. I am freaking. I have > > no idea what I can do. Does anyone have any suggestions? I have 2 hard > > disks. The larger disk which has about 5 gigs is the one in trouble. Any > > help will be greatly appreciated. Also, I only have Linux on this > > machine.I tried rescuing from the CDrom but I do not know how to use the > > rescue. > > Sincerely, > > Marcia > > Dear Marcia, > > I am very sorry to hear that. A "primary Master hard disk fail" is not a > message from the linux kernel. > > It is from your BIOS. > > Check all cables, remove and reseat them, cool the disk if you have cooling > spray, then boot and backup as fast as you can. You have a catastrophic > hardware failure. > > THe method of using your CD for rescue is to hit F1 then type "rescue" > without the quotes. It gives you a simple shell in root mode. You can > > fdisk -l /dev/hda > > But if it complains, don't be surprised. The heads have crashed on the > surface of the platters, or the bearings are gone, or the platters are off > spindle or the on-board electronics have failed. In the last case, you > might get a window of a few minutes at a time with the spray frost TV > repairmen use, but that is a long shot. Possibly a cable has worked partly > loose or the power supply is not well-connected... Which is why I say check > cables. > > Civileme In other words, BACK UP WHAT YOU CAN -- RIGHT NOW! Otherwise, you could easily lose all your data. I had this problem once. I only managed to back up about half my stuff before the drive died :-( -- Sridhar Dhanapalan. "There are two major products that come from Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence." -- Jeremy S. Anderson
RE: [newbie] Primary master hard disk fail
Some hard drives take a little longer to initialize or do not gracefully recover from power outages. Try shutting off you system fully, then turn it on and make sure that the BIOS is as it should be. You may find that your IDE controller has been disabled, etc. Note: that often this is a sign of imminent hard disk failure and is not likely to be a Linux issue... (unless you have the UDMA/33/66/100 problem and Seagate drives)... -JMS -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Marcia L Waller Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2001 12:00 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [newbie] Primary master hard disk fail Dear All, I have had LM8 installed and running for awhile and tonight my screen went black so I rebooted and got a very unwelcome message during boot up-Primary master hard disk fail. I was sure I had made a boot disk when installing LM8 but now of course I cannot find it. I am freaking. I have no idea what I can do. Does anyone have any suggestions? I have 2 hard disks. The larger disk which has about 5 gigs is the one in trouble. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Also, I only have Linux on this machine.I tried rescuing from the CDrom but I do not know how to use the rescue. Sincerely, Marcia
[newbie] Primary master hard disk fail
Dear All, I have had LM8 installed and running for awhile and tonight my screen went black so I rebooted and got a very unwelcome message during boot up-Primary master hard disk fail. I was sure I had made a boot disk when installing LM8 but now of course I cannot find it. I am freaking. I have no idea what I can do. Does anyone have any suggestions? I have 2 hard disks. The larger disk which has about 5 gigs is the one in trouble. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Also, I only have Linux on this machine.I tried rescuing from the CDrom but I do not know how to use the rescue. Sincerely, Marcia
