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This document lists troubleshooting tips if you experience problems with the hard disk drive in your system.
The drive does not spin up and the drive light doesn't illuminate during power-up.
- Make sure the hard drive power connector and ribbon cable are connected.
- Swap the hard drive.
You see drive activity, but the computer will not boot from the hard drive.
- Make sure that the hard drive power connector and ribbon cable are connected.
- Run the BIOS setup program and make sure the drive and the controller are enabled. Also, make sure the drive has the correct parameters; most likely you can try the auto detect feature.
- For IDE drives, check the jumper settings of all of the IDE devices, especially the master, slave or stand-alone jumpers.
- For SCSI drives, check the jumper settings of all SCSI devices. Make sure the primary hard disk is set to SCSI ID 0. Check during POST to see if the SCSI BIOS is loading and finding any SCSI devices. If not, check the host adapter installation including IRQ, DMA and I/O settings.
- Make sure all device drivers have been installed correctly.
- Swap the controller card, cable and hard drive, one at a time.
If the drive spins up, but the system fails to recognize the drive. Or if there is a "No Fixed Disk Present" or "Error reading fixed disk" error message on the monitor. Or if the following error messages indicate the computer cannot find an operating system to boot:
- Non-System disk or disk error, Replace and strike any key when ready
- No ROM Basic
- Disk Boot Error, Replace and Strike Key to Retry
- DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER
- BOOT: Couldn't find NTLDR, Please insert another disk
- If you are trying to boot from the hard drive, make sure there is no disk in drive A.
- If you are trying to boot from the floppy disk drive, try to boot from the hard drive and try to access the floppy disk. Then try to make sure that the disk has the necessary boot files and that the necessary boot files are not corrupt.
- If you are trying to boot from the floppy disk drive, try to boot from another bootable floppy disk.
- Make sure the hard drive power connector and ribbon cable are connected.
- For hard drives, verify the primary partition is active.
- If you cannot access the drive, enter the BIOS setup program and make sure the correct CMOS settings are chosen for the drive and make sure the hard drive and floppy controllers are enabled. Also check the boot order. Note: on most systems, you can use the auto detect feature to determine the correct CMOS parameters and to see if it can see the drive.
- If you have two drives on the same IDE cable, try swapping the master/slave.
- For IDE drives, check the jumper settings of all of the IDE devices, especially the master, slave or stand-alone jumpers.
- For SCSI drives, check the jumper settings of all SCSI devices. Make sure the primary hard disk is set to SCSI ID 0. Check during POST to see if the SCSI BIOS is loading and finding any SCSI devices. If not, check the host adapter installation including IRQ, DMA and I/O settings.
- For Windows* NT, 2000 and XP, start the Windows installation program and choose R to repair. You will then be asked for an emergency repair disk. If you don't have one, don't repair the Registry when asked to do so. When you are in the Repair utility, the repair utility will detect the system file and reinstall it in the correct place.
- If using a removable/mobile IDE rack for the hard drive, verify the drive tray has been locked.
- For DOS, Windows* 95, Windows* 98 and Windows* Me, try to reinstall the necessary boot files.
- For DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me, try to run the FDISK /MBR command.
- Make sure all device drivers have been installed correctly.
- Swap the controller card, cable and hard drive, one at a time.
The following error messages indicate that the computer cannot communicate with the hard drive:
- Hard Disk Failure
- Hard Disk Controller Failure
- HDD Controller Failure
- Make sure the hard drive power connector and ribbon cable are connected.
- If you cannot access the drive, enter the BIOS setup program and make sure that the correct CMOS settings are chosen for the drive and make sure that the hard drive and floppy controllers are enabled. Also check the boot order. Note: on most systems, you can use the auto detect feature to determine the correct CMOS parameters and to see if it can see the drive.
- If you have no IDE drives, select no hard drives installed in the BIOS setup program.
- For IDE drives, check the jumper settings of all of the IDE devices, especially the master, slave or stand-alone jumpers.
- For SCSI drives, check the jumper settings of all SCSI devices. Make sure the primary hard disk is set to SCSI ID 0. Check during POST to see if the SCSI BIOS is loading and finding any SCSI devices. If not, check the host adapter installation including IRQ, DMA and I/O settings.
- Swap the controller card, cable and hard drive, one at a time.
You get an "Error reading drive C:" error message.
- Make sure the hard drive power connector and ribbon cable are connected.
- Enter the BIOS setup program and make sure that the correct CMOS settings are chosen for the drive. Note: on most systems, you can use the auto detect feature to determine the correct CMOS parameters and to see if it can see the drive.
- Check for viruses.
- Run ScanDisk or some other similar utility.
- For DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me, try running the FDISK /MBR command.
- For Windows NT, 2000 and XP, start the Windows installation program and choose R to repair. You will then be asked for an emergency repair disk. If you don't have one, don't repair the Registry when asked to do so. When you are in the Repair utility, the repair utility will detect the system file and reinstall it in the correct place.
- Swap the controller card, cable and hard drive, one at a time.
- Try to reformat the drive and make the drive bootable again.
- Try a low-level format. Then partition, format and add the system files to the hard drive.
The drive will work as a primary drive, but not as a secondary (or vise-versa)
- Make sure the hard drive power connector and ribbon cable are connected.
- If you cannot access the drive, enter the BIOS setup program and make sure that the correct CMOS settings are chosen for the drive and make sure that the hard drive and floppy controllers are enabled. Also check the boot order. Note: on most systems, you can use the auto detect feature to determine the correct CMOS parameters and to see if it can see the drive.
- For hard drives, verify the primary partition is active.
- For IDE drives, check the jumper settings of all of the IDE devices, especially the master, slave or stand-alone jumpers.
- Swap the controller card, cable and hard drive, one at a time.
Hard drive seems to be running slow
- Check for viruses.
- Defrag the hard drive.
- Check to see if you have a slow device on the cable.
- For SCSI drives, check the jumper settings of all SCSI devices. Make sure the primary hard disk is set to SCSI ID 0
- For IDE drives, enter the BIOS setup program and check to see if it is set to Ultra DMA or PIO mode. For SCSI drives, enter the
- SCSI BIOS and check the settings.
- Check if anyone did a low-level format on the drive. If they don't use the proper low-level format program, essential tracking information could have been erased.
You experience frequent drive failures
- Make sure all fans are working properly.
- If you have several drives running, check to see how warm the case is and how warm the exhaust is coming from the fan.
- Make sure you are using the proper screws in mounting the drives in the case.
- Check for low-level vibrations.
- Check for power fluctuations. Make sure you have a reliable surge protector.
- Use a voltmeter to verify that each output from the power supply is correct. If any output is very low (especially the +5 volt output), replace the power supply.
- Check other environment factors such as smoke, heavy dust, high humidity and anything that may generate a strong electromagnetic field such as heavy machinery and motors.
This applies to:
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Solution ID: CS-010355
Date Created: 25-Mar-2004
Last Modified: 26-May-2008
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