42 replies to this topic

[Jkc73]

Where to start...

Ok, I backed up my c: drive(a full image using Macrium Reflect) on Thursday before bed...
woke on Friday to find that my c:drive just clicks a few times, appears like it is attempting to engage a read/write operation, a message appears, "SATA Primary hard disk drive failure Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility"

Hard drive diagnostics,
Drive0:WDC ROM MODEL-UNICORN--ERROR attempting diagnostics.
Drive1: -ERROR Attempting diagnostics
Drive2: HL-DT-STDVD+-RWGSA-H21N-Diagnostics not supported
Drive3: No Device

BIOS Displays
Drive0 details:
Drive ID - WDC ROM MODEL-UNICORN-
Capacity - 6.2GB

Actual
Drive0 details:
WD 800JD - Caviar SE
Capacity 80.0GB
interface SATA

--------------------------

To troubleshoot this clicking,

I have rebooted without data cable

I have changed the data cable with a known good cable

Removed all other drives, and tried the drive at all available SATA locations


Still no good, I am hoping the drive is still good enough to repair.


I am booting with puppy-linux from cd and saving the settings to my backup drive(Samsung 1000GB) which contains my Macrium Reflect full image backups that I don't yet have anywhere to restore them to.


Any suggestions on repair to the c:drive or how I can test it.

The drive is not under warranty, it came with the system from Dell with a 3yr warranty, the drive had I bought it myself would have come with a 5yr warranty, I bought the system 4 yrs ago.


Thanks for any help.

[Doug]

Hard drive diagnostics,
Drive0:WDC ROM MODEL-UNICORN--ERROR attempting diagnostics.
Drive1: -ERROR Attempting diagnostics

So far, doesn't sound real good.

Here are some resources for you to read and links to diagnostic software...

http://www.carrona.org/hddiag.html

[Doug]

If the diagnostic software finds that the HD is healthy, then we may be dealing with a corrupted Master Boot Record. If so, and you "fix" it. you may loose any automated restore from Macrium.... (I don't know this for sure) Hopefully you have created a bootable rescue disk with Macrium, in case you need to install a fresh HD and restore your .iso image to the fresh HD.

[Jkc73]

If the diagnostic software finds that the HD is healthy, then we may be dealing with a corrupted Master Boot Record.

If so, and you "fix" it. you may loose any automated restore from Macrium.... (I don't know this for sure)
Hopefully you have created a bootable rescue disk with Macrium, in case you need to install a fresh HD and restore your .iso image to the fresh HD.

I have created a bootable rescue disk with Macrium, If in fact I need to purchase a new HD, will this need to be the same size, partitioned to the same size....etc, etc ?

I did see that Macrium have what they call Windowless Recovery, not sure if the version(free) I have has it.?

On puppy-linux, I don't have much experience, so still feeling the water at the moment, very different OS then windows.
If someone has a few hints and tips, or another free, easy to use OS...

As to the diagnostic software...I will get back to you on that, I just noticed your 1st reply.

Edited by Jkc73, 16 January 2011 - 12:58 AM.

[paws]

As well as Doug's usual excellent advice, you might like to consider going here for diagnostics:

http://www.carrona.org/hddiag.html

Posted by gregrocker here: http://www.sevenforu...tml#post1184934
(These links were originally posted up here at WTT by Ztruker, so thanks to Rich for bringing it to our attention.)

If this job came into the workshop this is how I would proceed:
1 Fit new hard drive (they are less than £30) and take only 2 or 3 minutes to fit.
2 Reimage with your Macrium disc image
3 You now have a working system and its only taken you 2 or 3 minutes plus a few clicks and and then a wait for Macrium to reload everything. You can then do any updates needed and then install your troublesome drive on the next available SATA socket (SATA1 as most mobos will start with the boot drive on SATA0) you can play around with it to see if you can fix it.
4 This forum is not the place to discuss malware issues, but it would not hurt to run your resident (updated) antivirus application to scan the troublesome drive and try a reputable online scanner in addition. (IF you need further assistance in this area then the talented folks over in the malware removal forum should be consulted. I know that you are fully up to speed on those areas, so will say no more on that!
5 Once you have done the above then the hard drive diagnostics should be relatively easy to perform, and you can always start with a chkdsk /r on the troublesome drive..as it can often help.
6 Once you have your machine working well with its new hard drive and able to access the troublesome drive you will probably not need Linux Puppy...... but if you ever do (in the future, or just for fun!) its important to remember that to copy off stuff using Linux Puppy it's best to "drag and drop"...open a window for both the source drive (hard drive) and the destination drive (USB) and resize them so you can see both on screen and then just drag and drop stuff from one to the other. there's only 2 things you need to remember on this;
1 You should always plug in your USB storage device before booting into Puppy (that way Puppy will have no problems in "seeing" the USB device.
2 Only try to copy across ONE folder/directory at a time.
Otherwise its all pretty straightforward
Good luck and post back if you need a steer on anything.
Regards
paws

[Doug]

In addition to the consistently excellent recommendations and instructions from Paws, above...

Yes. Your new HD (if needed) must be at least the same size, but can be larger.
__________________

More on Puppy can be found here:

http://help.artaro.e...rd-disk-xp.html

[Jkc73]

Thanks for the great advice,


I have an update on the diagnosis,


DLGDIAG 5.19 - Data LifeGuard Diagnostics - WD HD Test

Selected Drive
Model:WDC ROM MODEL -UNICORN--
S/N:WDC -ROM SN# XYZ----
Firmware:10.01E04
C H S:12040 16 63
Capacity:6.21G
Drive:0
Port:0xFE00
LogFile:CLOSED
--------------------
Results:
BUSY TIMEOUT
ERROR/STATUS CODE:0134
Error codes
--------------------

Some research on WDC ROM MODEL -UNICORN-- (Enjoy the google translation from Polish to English in the 3rd link )

http://forum.hddguru...ized-t8094.html
http://www.dslreport...nicorn-vs-WD800
http://translate.goo...e...l&prmd=ivns

These links are all identical to my issue.

--------------------


Is it possible to delete some data from my 1TB drive using puppy, enough to fit the image data(50GB approx), then run the recover disk?
(possibly partition the drive to 50/250/700 approx.)

Is it recommended?
(I do need the contents asap, I wont be able to purchase another HDD for a while.)

I currently have about 400GB of image data(backing up twice weekly over the last month), last week I had intended on removing all but the last 3-4 images, though I never got around to it.

I understand that running the full image backup is not the most efficient way of backing up, specially twice a week, unluckily lucky in this case that I decided to start using this program 1 month ago.



Thanks again for your assistance.

[Doug]

This is not the time to be experimenting with whether or not an .iso can be resized by extracting various pieces of saved data. The "technology" is way beyond me, but keep in mind the metaphor that .iso imaging is like a photograph... a single-integrated-continuous-flowing unit. Imagine that you had an actual photograph, you pick the scene/image.... maybe a family picnic. Now suppose you wanted to reduce the size of that image by extracting all objects that are round, or all objects that have straight surfaces/perimeters, or all objects that are blue, etc. That would be metaphorically similar to removing certain types of files in order to make the overall .iso smaller. Could you reasonably expect that the result would still look like a family picnic? Even if it is theoretically possible, I doubt that Macrium has a software option for resizing .iso images in this fashion. Remember, you are up a creek! Your canoe and paddles are in the body of .iso images that you have sensibly saved over time, in case of catastrophic failure such as what you may be facing at this time. Don't be messing with your canoe and paddles! Concentrate on getting a new HD of equal or larger size.

[Doug]

BTW, let us know if you decide to purchase PC3000 UDMA. I think it's available for about $10,000 and about a years worth of study to learn how to use it. I may want to jump in my row boat and come visit you to borrow your PC3000. That would be great. Is it very far?

[Doug]

Re-read your question. If you already have a HD and wish to create a bootable partition on that HD that would accommodate your .iso image, then Yes!

[Jkc73]

BTW, let us know if you decide to purchase PC3000 UDMA.

I think it's available for about $10,000 and about a years worth of study to learn how to use it.

I may want to jump in my row boat and come visit you to borrow your PC3000.
That would be great.
Is it very far?

After purchasing a new hdd, I'm not sure if I will get enough change to afford the PC3000 UDMA, so...

Don't be messing with your canoe and paddles row boat!

However, the year it takes me to learn how to use it, should be long enough for you to paddle from the west coast of the USA to the east coast of Australia.
-----------------

If you already have a HD and wish to create a bootable partition on that HD that would accommodate your .iso image, then Yes!

This HDD that I speak of,

Is it possible to delete some data from my 1TB drive using puppy, enough to fit the image data(50GB approx), then run the recover disk?
(possibly partition the drive to 50/250/700 approx.)

This is the backup drive where the .iso images are. There is not enough space to accommodate the last known size of my c: drive (50GB). So my question is whether or not it is recommended to delete unwanted data using puppy linux, then boot from the restore disk to use that backup disk as my c:drive until I purchase another drive, external etc.

If this is recommended, is it possible to partition this drive(with data on it) prior to restoring the iso image data to a partition, I am wanting to set the partitions at approx. 50/250/700 if this is possible.??



This is how I see it working.
(If it is possible, and recommended)

• Boot puppy linux
• mount sda1 (backup drive 1TB) if not mounted
• search and delete unwanted data, (at least 300GB)
• seek partition manager?(I need help with this)
• use partition manager to set 50/250/700 (I may need help with this, also)
• power off computer
• reboot to BIOS, set boot order to cd drive, check settings for SATA drive
• boot from macrium restore disk, select lastest restore image

hope for best

[terry1966]

personally i don't think you want to be messing with a backup drive of iso images.... but.... what i would do is start puppy linux, mount the 1tb backup drive of your iso's. then use k3b to burn and verify the last backup iso image to dvd/s still using puppy linux, unmount the 1TB drive then create a new partition on the front of the 1tb drive that is at least the size needed to restore the iso image you just burned, and format it ntfs. you say 50GB is enough... shrugs.. don't know exactly how your old drive was partitioned etc when you made the iso or if it will restore all partitions and need the same space of your old drives data(like i think it would) leave the rest of drive as is, don't format it, that way you shouldn't corrupt/lose any more iso backups than absolutely necessary. now reboot the pc and boot the dvd/s to restore the iso image to the newly created first partition of the 1Tb drive. you should now have an exact copy of your old drive on the first 50GB of the 1TB drive which is bootable, the rest of the 1TB hard drive should still contain any backup data that was on it. you can then partition the rest of the 1Tb drive as you like using whatever software your used to from the windows os. there is a way to create the first partition and space needed on the front of the 1Tb drive and then boot and run the iso image directly from the 2nd partition using linux so you wouldn't need to burn any dvd's but my brains not working great at the minute and can't remember how.

Edited by terry1966, 17 January 2011 - 03:03 AM.

[Doug]

personally i don't think you want to be messing with a backup drive of iso images....

The above is the most important portion of the post from Terry1966.
________________________________

I recognize that you would like to see if there is a safe method to utilize the hardware that you already have on-hand, and avoid purchasing a new HD.

I don't recommend that course of action.

Get a new HD.

Sorry I don't have a more agreeable answer for you.

[Jkc73]

The final frontier,

I foraged through my old pc's and found a Seagate 20GB ide hdd.(along with a few 200MB hdd, great paper weights )

Formated & installed win xpsp3 HE (slipstreamed disk) to Seagate 20GB hdd.

Installed the following software, for this task!

• MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition 5.2
• Macrium Reflect
• ImgBurn

Finally,

Purchased new External hdd, 1TB (WDBAAU0010HBK-AESN).
Copied whole Samsung 1TB (internal) hdd that included Macrium image backups to WD(Ext) 1TB hdd using Partition Wizard.
~ I plan on using the Samsung 1TB (int)hdd as my c:\(boot)

Created 80GB Partition on Samsung 1TB hdd for restoration of Macrium image backup.

Here is a screen shot of all hdds, partition's details that Macrium Reflect display.



Now,
Do I need to make the 80GB Partition the primary, before I can restore the image backups to it?, or

Should I restore the image backup to the 80GB partition from the external hdd to see if it will actually restore the data, then delete the primary and set d: as the active/primary drive.

Then worry about removing the current c: drive, which I am planning to use the installed user profile from. That's another day, another topic.

Thanks for all your advice.

[Doug]

Hi Jkc73, Sorry, I don't follow the logic of your procedure. If it were me, I would create a boot partition on the New Hard Drive (you already did create 80gb <-- good) I would leave the rest of the New Hard Drive empty. I would then attempt to restore Macrium Image to the 80gb primary partition on the New hard drive. If successful, I would spend some time with that newly restored operating system to assure that all is working as expected. --- What does "spend some time" mean, you ask? ----- Run Windows Update ----- Update your Security utilities and run scans ----- Use various of your applications (office, media player, browsers, etc.) ----- Reboot to SAFE Mode and Run Windows Native Defrag utility ----- Run a PCPitstop OverDrive Full Test Now you know that your Restored Operating System is indeed functioning as expected.... (or not) Now is the time to create additional Partitions (via XP Administrative Tools - Storage - Disk Management) If you want only one large Partion... allow Windows to Format "all" of the unallocated space If you want more than one additional partition, instruct Windows to Format a portion of the unallocated space ---- then go back and have Windows format all or additional portions of the unallocated space ---- note: if this is going to be the "only" internal HD, then it would be handy to create a 20gb partition expressly for Paging File Then you are ready to copy various of your important information to that/those freshly created partitions. As I mentioned above, I may not be accurately understanding the logic of the procedure you have apparently already followed. What I've posted, is simply how I imagine I would approach the task. Best Regards