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Windows Forum / Windows Me / Hardware / August 2004Disk write error???
Ive installed a hard drive that was beeing used in another computer but i started having problems with it. However I then installed it in my computer and with the CD installation disk I thought I had corrected all the problems as it seemed to be working fine. Now after installing some software on it I get getting error messages and the most common message says, Disk write error Unable to write to disk in drive C: Data or files may be lost. Press any key to continue_ Therefore I had to keep rebooting the system and now I'm unable to use it because when the computer is turned on I get a message saying that there is no hard drive found! Whats wrong? Is it permanent or can it be fixed somehow? Thanks a lot. Katie Maybe your HD really is dying! As you re-installed WinMe on it, did scandisk find any errors and correct them? Have you tried running scandisk in Real Mode DOS - using the Startup (floppy) Disk? You could try you HD manufactures web site to see if you can download a test utility for their drives and see if that reveals anything. Mart > Ive installed a hard drive that was beeing used in another > computer but i started having problems with it. However I [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > Thanks a lot. > Katie > Ive installed a hard drive that was beeing used in another > ((..omitted..)) [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Whats wrong? Is it permanent or can it be fixed somehow? My first take would be that the drive is actually failing. On the other hand, I've had this problem on two healthy drives in two cases. First time the connector in the drive had become, I don't know, weird some how and the cable just wouldn't seat correctly. I couldn't SEE anything wrong with it, but I'd have to open the case up and pull it out and put it back in about once every two months whenever this problem occurred then it would go away for a couple more months. Second time (different drive) the BIOS just kept thinking the drive was capable of Multiword DMA mode 2 when it really wasn't. I had to take it out of MW-DMA-2 and manually set it to MW-DMA-0 and it worked fine. I've also heard of people getting problems if the drive is Ultra DMA capable but they've put it on a non-ultra interface or used it with a non-ultra cable. Solution, again, was to manually set it to something it could actually do correctly. But I don't recall ever seeing myself, or hearing, of the drive disappearing altogether in those cases. The ID sequence is done at lower performance so even if the drive won't work it shouldn't disappear. If you tried any of these and it appears to work, I'd run a scandisk in "thorough" mode to fix the errors already created, and then again to get a clean run and then I'd still treat it as suspect for a while. - Bill Off OP's topic, but Bill wrote:- > First time the connector in the drive had become, I don't know, weird some > how and the cable just wouldn't seat correctly. Bad crimp on the 40-w IDE connector perhaps? Mart <snip> > Off OP's topic, but Bill wrote:- > > First time the connector in the drive had become, I don't know, weird some > > how and the cable just wouldn't seat correctly. > > Bad crimp on the 40-w IDE connector perhaps? By "crimp" I'd take it you mean the cable. The connector on the drive was soldered on. I replaced the cable and thought I'd solved it the first time, but it came back about two months later. That's when I arrived at the idea it had to be the drive itself. Basically, what I ended up doing was reseating the connector every time it acted up. I also put a note inside the case to remind me to reseat the connector so I'd do it if I had it open for anything else. If I did that, it put the problem off that much longer. I just re-read my message, and I suppose if the connector was going weird you could say that drive wasn't really completely "healthy" either. But it never gave me any problems EXCEPT the connector coming unseated every once in a while. - Bill Bill wrote:- > By "crimp" I'd take it you mean the cable. The connector on the drive > was > soldered on. Well, yes. The 40w (female) connector is 'usually' crimped or more accurately 'clamped' to the cable by means of the back-strip' of plastic. The metal tags of each pin 'bites' into each conductor of the cable as the back-strip is 'pressed' home. I was therefore wondering if the back-strip was not pressed home tightly enough - end retention clip snapped - or just a bad connection between conductor and tag. But a soldered version (unusual?) or replaced cable would eliminate that theory <g> It was just a thought. However, > - EXCEPT the connector coming unseated > every once in a while. Was the IDE cable pretty tightly stretched between the drive and the m/board. If so, vibration from the drive itself *may* have gradually 'pulled' itself loose - just another though <bg> Mart >> Off OP's topic, but Bill wrote:- >> > First time the connector in the drive had become, I don't know, weird [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > > - Bill > Well, yes. The 40w (female) connector is 'usually' crimped or more > ((..omitted..)) > But a soldered version (unusual?) or replaced cable would eliminate that > theory <g> It was just a thought. No, you're correct. The cables (I tried two) were exactly as you say. It's the connector on the drive that was soldered. > However, > > - EXCEPT the connector coming unseated [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > m/board. If so, vibration from the drive itself *may* have gradually > 'pulled' itself loose - just another though <bg> No, it wasn't as tight as I'd have liked, nor as I was used to on most other drives. I believe it was "walking" loose due to fan and/or drive vibration over time, just like the memory and BIOS chips in the older PC/XT's used to sometimes work just a bit loose and have to be re-seated. - Bill |
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