[dba-Tech] Almost dead hard disk

Scott,

Well, I'm primarily interested in getting the data off of it.  Perhaps
I didn't make it clear, but I can't seem to get at the data with that
catty-wampus 2nd partition gumming up the works.

Steve Erbach

On 1/24/06, Scott Marcus <marcus at tsstech.com> wrote:
> Steve,
>
> If you have an external enclosure, use it to back up all the data. I
> believe the second small partition is used by windows for dual booting
> purposes even if you don't dual boot. Sounds like the drive may be going
> bad. I wouldn't risk using the drive when new HD's are so cheap.
>
> Scott Marcus
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Steve Erbach
> Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 1:53 PM
> To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
> Subject: [dba-Tech] Almost dead hard disk
>
> Dear Group,
>
> I've dealt with a fair number of dying hard disks over the years, but
> this one behaves differently.
>
> It's a 20GB drive from a Gateway PC, vintage 2001 or so.  It's loaded
> with Windows XP -- only 128 MB of RAM, though -- and it's pretty slow.
>  But that isn't the problem.
>
> The problem comes when it starts.  The POST will not appear on-screen
> and the system hangs.  No drive activity.
>
> I plugged it into another system as a slave drive on an add-on IDE
> controller.  When I turn on the system I get just so far in the
> Windows start up sequence and it hangs.  When I disconnect the drive,
> everything's fine.
>
> I booted up the second system with my copy of Gibson's Spin Rite 6 and
> ran a level 4 routine on the drive.  Apparently the drive is segmented
> into two pieces, one 20 GB, and the other maybe a few megabytes.  The
> 20 GB drive sailed right through Spin Rite's tests, but when testing
> began on that second small partition, Spin Rite hung.  The screens in
> Spin Rite still worked, I could flip back and forth between the
> different screens; but I could not Esc out and terminate.  The Spin
> Rite menus would co-operate with my keystrokes, but cancelling the
> session simply had no effect.  I could not terminate Spin Rite's tests
> in mid-stream.
>
> So, it looks like the second partition is hosed in some way and that
> affects the hardware's ability to boot the PC normally.  Any of you
> have any ideas?  I have not yet tried fdisk to erase that small
> partition.  That's my next step.
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Steve Erbach