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Hard Drive Failure!
Arethusa
Universal Cathode
in Zocalo v2.0
So, first my power supply died. Antec, I shall curse you from my grave. I waited a week for a replacement to arrive. A day after I got my power supply installed, I started having serious speed problems with my computer. Everything got extremely slow and choppy. I assumed this was software related, and figured I'd just live with it for a few days before reformatting. The next day, it failed to boot, saying that hard drive failure was imminent and that I should back up immediately— impossible for obvious reasons. So this rocks! Good bye, 36 gigs of music! Good bye, writing! Good bye, some digital work I've done! Good bye, gig of CS:S models!
But just for the hell of it, I dropped the drive off with a friend of mine to see what she could do with it. She ran some diagnostics and came up with this. I can't afford a clean room rebuild for data revoery (prices start and $400 and fly upwards rather quickly), so I probably lost everything, but just in case, let me know if you think I can salvage anything without dropping half a grand on data recovery.
[quote] -Hooked up the apparently defective Fireball HDD as the secondary
master (primary master is a Western Digital 1200JB)
-Computer was set to boot from the WD HDD. The Fireball was
recognized, but the system would not boot.
-The Fireball was also recognzied in the BIOS but repeated restarts
still would not allow the system to boot, even though it was set to
boot off of the WD HDD.
-Upon another restart, when the system displayed the error message to
insert the system disk and press enter, I attempted to switch the
jumper on the Fireball - it was originally set to Master (not a good
idea, but anyway) - with a pair of tweezers. As soon as the tweezers
touched the jumper (and simultaneously the pins), a green LED lit up
on the underside of the Fireball. I thought that it might be a power
problem that had just needed jump-starting, but the system still
wouldn't boot.
-A diagnostic program for the Fireball came up with the following:
MAXTOR POWERMAX LOG FILE
-------------------------
Maxtor PowerMax 4.21
Date Tested: 07/10/2005
Serial Number: 196103039660
Model Number: QUANTUM FIREBALLP AS60.0
FirmWareRev: A1Y.1300
Cylinders per Drive: 28741
Heads per Cylinder: 16
Max LBA: 117266688
SPT: 255
FE: S01
Installation Confirmation: FAILED
Diagnostic Code: 64696968
MAXTOR POWERMAX LOG FILE
-------------------------
Maxtor PowerMax 4.21
Date Tested: 07/10/2005
Serial Number: 196103039660
Model Number: QUANTUM FIREBALLP AS60.0
FirmWareRev: A1Y.1300
Cylinders per Drive: 28741
Heads per Cylinder: 16
Max LBA: 117266688
SPT: 255
FE: UK0E02
Advanced Test Result: FAILED
Diagnostic Code: 64696978
MAXTOR POWERMAX LOG FILE
-------------------------
Maxtor PowerMax 4.21
Date Tested: 07/10/2005
Serial Number: 196103039660
Model Number: QUANTUM FIREBALLP AS60.0
FirmWareRev: A1Y.1300
Cylinders per Drive: 28741
Heads per Cylinder: 16
Max LBA: 117266688
SPT: 255
FE: S01
Burn Test Result: FAILED
Diagnostic Code: 64696968
The codes indicated that the drive was "failing" and that I should
back up any information on them as soon as possible, if possible.
Also, an install confirmation on the same diagnostic program gave the following:
Power connection: pass
Interface cable connection: pass
Master/Slave jumper: pass
BIOS extention support: pass
Partition info: read fail
SMART enable function: fail
-I also noticed that the Fireball took a very long time to slow down
after the computer was turned off.
-The green LED did not consistently remain on; it was on for a little
while but ano more than a couple of minutes, and then not at all
afterwards.
-After finishing the diagnostic tests I disconnected the Fireball and
stored it in a static bag.[/quote]
But just for the hell of it, I dropped the drive off with a friend of mine to see what she could do with it. She ran some diagnostics and came up with this. I can't afford a clean room rebuild for data revoery (prices start and $400 and fly upwards rather quickly), so I probably lost everything, but just in case, let me know if you think I can salvage anything without dropping half a grand on data recovery.
[quote] -Hooked up the apparently defective Fireball HDD as the secondary
master (primary master is a Western Digital 1200JB)
-Computer was set to boot from the WD HDD. The Fireball was
recognized, but the system would not boot.
-The Fireball was also recognzied in the BIOS but repeated restarts
still would not allow the system to boot, even though it was set to
boot off of the WD HDD.
-Upon another restart, when the system displayed the error message to
insert the system disk and press enter, I attempted to switch the
jumper on the Fireball - it was originally set to Master (not a good
idea, but anyway) - with a pair of tweezers. As soon as the tweezers
touched the jumper (and simultaneously the pins), a green LED lit up
on the underside of the Fireball. I thought that it might be a power
problem that had just needed jump-starting, but the system still
wouldn't boot.
-A diagnostic program for the Fireball came up with the following:
MAXTOR POWERMAX LOG FILE
-------------------------
Maxtor PowerMax 4.21
Date Tested: 07/10/2005
Serial Number: 196103039660
Model Number: QUANTUM FIREBALLP AS60.0
FirmWareRev: A1Y.1300
Cylinders per Drive: 28741
Heads per Cylinder: 16
Max LBA: 117266688
SPT: 255
FE: S01
Installation Confirmation: FAILED
Diagnostic Code: 64696968
MAXTOR POWERMAX LOG FILE
-------------------------
Maxtor PowerMax 4.21
Date Tested: 07/10/2005
Serial Number: 196103039660
Model Number: QUANTUM FIREBALLP AS60.0
FirmWareRev: A1Y.1300
Cylinders per Drive: 28741
Heads per Cylinder: 16
Max LBA: 117266688
SPT: 255
FE: UK0E02
Advanced Test Result: FAILED
Diagnostic Code: 64696978
MAXTOR POWERMAX LOG FILE
-------------------------
Maxtor PowerMax 4.21
Date Tested: 07/10/2005
Serial Number: 196103039660
Model Number: QUANTUM FIREBALLP AS60.0
FirmWareRev: A1Y.1300
Cylinders per Drive: 28741
Heads per Cylinder: 16
Max LBA: 117266688
SPT: 255
FE: S01
Burn Test Result: FAILED
Diagnostic Code: 64696968
The codes indicated that the drive was "failing" and that I should
back up any information on them as soon as possible, if possible.
Also, an install confirmation on the same diagnostic program gave the following:
Power connection: pass
Interface cable connection: pass
Master/Slave jumper: pass
BIOS extention support: pass
Partition info: read fail
SMART enable function: fail
-I also noticed that the Fireball took a very long time to slow down
after the computer was turned off.
-The green LED did not consistently remain on; it was on for a little
while but ano more than a couple of minutes, and then not at all
afterwards.
-After finishing the diagnostic tests I disconnected the Fireball and
stored it in a static bag.[/quote]
Comments
Of course you will have to buy a new hard drive anyway if your sticking with that computer system.
I had that happen to me. Since I am have no RAID hooked up yet(4 hardrives are expensive) I use a USB external Maxtor hard drive for my backups (160 dollars). I use a program called Casper XP. It is good for making an exact copy back up.
Hope all you data gets back together
back up
then back up again
burn copies of the backups
I've got copies of everything thats important to me.
I did buy a new drive. Found a 160 gig WD for 40 (47 with tax) after rebate at Best Buy. Once I build a new system, I may get an enclosure for it and turn it into an external USB drive for backup.
In any case, trying to boot off my new drive doesn't matter because my friend tried the same thing with her system and couldn't get it to boot. I may give it a shot anyway (it'll damage my chances of recovery, but since I can't afford that regardless...), but chances of success are quite slim. She only was able to run the diagnostics because they ran off a boot floppy.
It "might" be possible to get the data if somehow you could replace the control board for it, as long as the motor and stuff still works.
I wonder if your old PS was surging to the system and causing compontent damage. Might want to check other parts of your system too.
I'm going to try grabbing a couple of Quantum Fireball AS60.0s and swapping out the logic boards. I don't have much hope, but it's worth a shot, and the drives are $6 on eBay. I have not ever done this before, however, so if you have any advice on how to do this, I'd appreciate it a lot.