disk read error...plz help!

[felony]

hey guys, i have searched google, dslreports and hardforums but am still at a loss for my data and for a fix here.

My main computer ->
barton 2500+
seagate barracuda 160gb sata (master, xp and back up for gaming and regular software)
wd 80gb ide (slave 2 partitions, xp and backup, primarly for flight sim 2004)
asus mobo
it is a dual boot system with two XPs and usually I have the option to chose during the boot sequence.

This is what happened ->

1. Everything was fine for months and then last night, like alot of nights, I left my PC on. I woke up and turned my lcd on and my pc had rebooted and was stuck @ "disk read error, please reboot". of course this did not help the situation.

2. I am no stranger to reformatting and decided to try that. My files are backed up, on the second partitions, so that is no big deal. I tried this with my windows disk, and the setup would not get past "initializing" the seagate.

3. I try rebooting again and I do not even get to the point where I can pick my boot drive/partition

4. I try each drive serperatly as master, or at least to the best of my knoweldge, but I get no where. Each drive tells me that I have a disk read error.

Ok, now my second, working computer (which i use as a i type)
old dell 4100
wd 40gb ide

1. I try and swap the wd40 over to my main pc and boot, it worked once or twice, but now i get a boot error and can't start

2. try the wd80 from my main system in my dell, and get the same "disk read error...."

It is obvious I am in some trouble here. I know some about computers, or at least think I do. usually my end all fix is to reformat which is no thing to me, but I can't even do it in this situation, and am at loss.

What i have tried.

1. seagate tools, but I get a error "dos not found" or soemthing to that effect.
2. reformatting, but setup doesnt get past initial drive location etc and just hangs.
3. swaping known working drive into non working computer, and vice versa.
4. i have tried booting with my good drive as master and bad drives as slave but get no where.
5. flashed mobo bios to new version.

whats wierd to me..
1. not able to format the bad drives.
2. 2 drives went bad at once.
3. happened out of the blue.


Please help, ill paypal someone 5 bucks lol!!! at this point I would have no problem losing the majority of my data if i could at least get this up and running again. I have easy recovery which lets my view my data but only copy to a floppy which isnt enough space for my data.

any help is greatly appreciated!!!!!!

thanks in advance,
dan h

 

[nilness]

Have you tried clearing the CMOS via the reset jumper? I've seen old boards with run-down batteries have the Bios settings suddenly get corrupted and lose access to the hard drives. If you're still intent on nuking the installation then try downloading Ultimate Boot CD from http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ - all the low level tools you could possibly want or need.

 

[Steaksauce]

What PSU do you have?

I would have reset the jumper first but it doesn't really sound like something that resetting would fix. Sounds like the drives are dead from bad currents.

 

[Bozo Galora]

you didnt mention the most important thing, whether the old 40GB that only booted twice, when put back in old Dell if it worked again, or was it permanently fubared? Note that the fact that this also happened to another working drive after 2 boots eliminates a lot of possibilities. (like a virus)
But being able to see data with easy recov sw means HDD works. Crazy stuff.

Also seagate 160 SATA "master" 80GB IDE "slave" makes no sense.

Sounds like mobo or PSU took a crap - you didnt specify either by model
Of course the first/easiest thing to test is RAM - boot to memtest 86+ floppy and run series
Also changing to new cable is easy

Additionally, while ASUS usually uses good brand filter caps, I would still look for bulged or leaking caps around CPU

Have you tried fdisk/mbr (twice) from win98 boot floppy?

I would also like to see what ptedit shows about your Partition table
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/ptedit.zip
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip

Loooong thread on "disk error"
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/19004/

 

[felony]

for clarification.

mobo is asus a7v600-x.
power supply is antec trupower 430.


bozo-
THe wd 40 hb works fine once brought back, and is how I type as we speak.

I had said sata was master and ide was slave because i thought that was how it worked and in fact that was how the ide was set up jumper wise. i know some about computers, but apparently not that much.

i have not tried fdisk or mbr as i have no idea how.

i will look into doing it with a boot floppy.

Thanks in advance for any additional help!
dan

 

[felony]

an update.

i tried to clear bios and i did. got past bios, it noted the ESCD had been created and then I got the disk read error.

 

[Bozo Galora]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q69013/

put in win 98 setup floppy, boot to bios , make sure floppy is first boot device, save and exit from bios, allow computer to reboot
after floppy boots you will get
A:>
type on fdisk_/mbr
A:>fdisk_/mbr
hit enter
do it again (retype/enter)
thats fdisk, space, foward slash, mbr
take out floppy and try formatting/partitioning again with seagate drive wizard

SATA has no master slave - its a serial connection, one per channel

Edit: This tries to repair the master boot record - you perhaps may not boot to drive after this is done - its best for starting fresh without corrupt/mixed up partition table, but it may also make drive bootable - worth a try.

 

[Bozo Galora]

you can look on partition table, if it still exists, on bad drive from floppy (if you wish to try this - dunno)

Take the following off win98 boot floppy
IO.sys
msdos.sys
drivespace.bin
command.com

and put them on another floppy (naked - no folder)
then download PTedit (not PTedit32) from my link
extract it to the floppy also

boot to floppy and type in ptedit
you now can see your Part Table and navigate with tab and arrow keys
It will first show boot part primary (parent)
By hitting enter after going to EPMB you can see the extended parts also (but not important here)

 

[Bozo Galora]

You can also take a power meter set on DC Volts and put needle probes in HDD molex you are using (unplugged), black (grd) and yellow (+) should be 12V

 

[Bozo Galora]

sata 1 jump setting for sata2 drives

http://www.benmacre.com/images/sata_ii_jumpers.jpg

 

[felony]

thanks for all your help so far bozo.

I tried fdisk /mbr.. twice.. rebooted w/ seagate tools and w/o and still no dice. same errors.

i used a unbunto live cd to get boot on my main computer which worked obviously.
i was thinking maybe just instal linux, but that is something i am really not familiar with.

thanks for the jumper settings picture, i have changed my seagate to represent that, but again, it did not work

dan

 

[felony]

well i have booted my two wd drives in my dell and here i am.. i can read the data on the one bad wd 80 and am gonna get some data off it..

i only wish my dell had a sata connection so i could get the data off that.

dan

 

[Bozo Galora]

i am still unclear - after fdisk/mbr the xp cd install routine wont start?
You still definitely want to recover data from Seagate?? Why did you mention you tried "reformatting"??
You know you can partition and format seagate from booted to drive wizard floppy, right?
Are you using XP CD with SP2 already in it for the SATA drivers - no drivers, no install.
can you get to f6 option to add sata drivers?
Ubuntu is an O/S that runs from CD - has little to do with hdd booting. I think you can unplug HDD and ubuntu will still boot and run.

I see you have a socket a via chipset mobo with via sata controller.
There are real issues with that situation

which sata power connector are you using - 4 pin molex or SATA 15 pin?

dont give up and run linux (which most prob will install because it has its own MBR (GRUB) and SATA
avoid grief and go to hot deals forum here and buy seagate IDE 160GB drive going for about $40. If you cant install on that, you def have mobo prob.
And change the darn fragile SATA cables - power and data.

 

[Bozo Galora]

getdataback is the preferred utility for recov data from unbootable drives

getdataback 3.03 for fat
getdataback for NTFS 3.03

http://www.runtime.org/

 

[Bozo Galora]

SATA to IDE converter

http://www.addonics.com/products/io/adsaide.asp

 

[felony]

bozo, thanks so much for your responses! they are greatly appreciated.

well, i finally got the WD80 drive working on my main PC.

I booted both WD drives .. and formatted the partition that contained windows on the bad drive.

i have since gone through a installation of windows on that drive and am now up and running, but only with the WD..

Once i am done installing what i need to operate properly, i am gonna try and boot with the SATA and try and do the same thing.

i havent read the about posts cause i am in the middle of d/l vid drivers and my screen is real laggy.

ill get back to you ..thanks
dan

 

[felony]

ok here is where i am.

successfully using wd80 ide drive as my main drive and booting w/ it w/ fresh windwos install.

I am also able to see and bring files over from my sata barracuda (2nd partition , backup)

i am NOT able to delete the first partition (xp) and format the cuda there though. i get a message saying windows cannot complete the format. i get the same message when trying from windows setup.

any ideas here?

if worse comes to worse i guess the cuda is the drive that is messed up.. thankfully i will be able to get as much data as i can off of it that is on the backup partition.

any ideas?

tahnks
dan

edit, seagate tools also failed to format.

 

[Bozo Galora]

well, after all that, it looks like at first glance you may have developed bad sectors in some areas. But this does not explain other drives, not even SATA. crapping out in same computer, then working. Very very strange stuff.

If it was virus, it would only be on seagate - it wouldnt transfer to others, unless you used same floppy along the way on all.

As far as deleting the undeletable partition, you might scare up a copy of Partition Magic 8.

And I hope you are using Seagate floppies only to do things in PC Dos mode, nothing with a CD.

If the seagate tool on floppy cant even format its drive. how can you get data off it from IDE drive, except if only O/S partition area is damaged.

Guess you know that when you cleared CMOS, you put all settings in BIOS on default.
Any and all IDE and SATA related options. When booting to SATA do you have ATA onboard first set to "disabled", page 56 your manual
http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socka/kt600/a7v600-x/e1873_a7v600-x.pdf

After recovering data, I would low level format (might take a whole day). The XP install will do a chkdsk, and put aside bad sectors. If it wont LLF from floppy, you know you have bad sectors, trash time.

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/faq/ata_llfmt_what.html

Then theres the famous "Large - AUTO" BIOS setting bug. There was a great AT thread on this but its in the archives I guess. Stopped XP from installing on SATA
http://www.shacknews.com/ja.zz?id=11113579
Page 48 - your manual "translation method"






.

 

[axemanrio]

felony, I ran into the same issue with an 80GB barracuda drive.... surprisingly, a windows repair worked. If you haven't already, you may want to try that.

 

[felony]

Bozo... thank you so much for your help, it is greatly appreciated.

Last night I let seatools disk wizard run a zero fill on my drive, of course after backing everything i wanted up on the working drive. I woke up this morning and it had finished, actually right when i was done with breakfast.

i then rebooted and add the winxp disk and began it install windows with no problems on the sata cuda!!! i have not yet finished install and am at class right now, but it has gone through one of the routine reboot process and during the boot it game me two options to boot from
"windows xp"
"windows xp"

it chose one as the delay was not set and then continued to install windows with out a hitch.

doing some searching this is what i found as a dual boot setup for two xp's.. any suggestions?

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP on primary drive" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP on backup drive" /fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

i took that from http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic9371.html

i have not implemented that yet, but i that is the idea of what i want, sata cuda as my main and wd80 as my backup. any suggestions here?

few more questions.

1) what really happened with my seagate drive? is it likely to crap out again? i am not really against buying a new drive but not totally for it if nothing is going to fail again.
2) what is the best way to partition, not physically (i understand how), but not sure the best way to decide on sizes and stuff.
one site, dslreports recommends a small partition for windows, and two larger ones. one for programs to install to windows, and one for backups.
what i currently do is make a partition for windows @ about 50 gigs and the rest is a backup where docs and downloads go.
3)how should i set up my drives? should my sata or ide boot first?

thakns again
dan