Can a hard drive be physically damaged due to power loss at startup?

"DJW" wrote in message
...
On Feb 28, 5:36 pm, "philo" wrote:
"DJW" wrote in message


...



On Feb 28, 3:02 pm, "philo" wrote:
"DJW" wrote in message


...

I have a laptop whose battier is dead. During booting up the power
cord became unplugged from the transformer. When I tried to reboot
I
got a message about a second partition, which I did not have on
the
hard drive. I assumed scandisk would run automatically and things
would straighten out. In my early try at getting the hard drive to
boot I also got a message that WINDOWS 98 HAS DECTECTED THAT DRIVE
C
DOES NOT CONTAIN A VALID FAT or FAT32 PARTITION.
Here are some of the things I have tried and the messages I then
got:
When I tried to install windows 98SE from the CD I got. SET UP
CANNOT
INSTALL WINDOWS 98ON YOUR COMPUTER AN ERROR WAS DETECTED WHILE
TRYING
TO READ OR WRITE TO YOUR HARD DISK

I tried at the a and then at the D and the C prompt FDISK I got
one
set in where it asks to enable large disk support (my HD is 6.5
GB) I
tried yes first then no but both times it said ERROR READING FIXED
DISK Tried A:\format c:/s still no luck.
Winbook the laptop manufacturer had some instructions on
reinstalling
the OS. I tried with the CD in D:\win98 C: and get INVALID DRIVE
SPECIFICATIONS. When D was in and booted from I no longer could
get a
C prompt to come up at all. Could get an A prompt then typed C:
after
it but got the same error message. Got to an A prompt an again and
tried C:\windows\command\deltree.exe and got same error message as
above. I booted with the floppy and tried all the above still no
use.
I got BAD COMMAND OR FILE NAME. Then tried C:\windows and got
CDR101:
not ready reading drive D abort retry. I put the CD in and hit
retry
and got BAD COMMAND OR FILE NAME. I am using a boot floppy that
makes
a Ramdisk and at start up it does say THE DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS WERE
SUCCESSFULLY LOADED TO DRIVE C. Does this really mean that they
were
loaded in RAM and not on the C drive since it seems I can't read
or
write to it?

I have run scandisk and it reports no problem with C drive.
In the start up I see that my primary master IDE drive shows and
in
the blue screen BIOS under Auto detect hard disk it shows and all
seems ok as far as the specs only the serial number does not show
anything. At startup the drive access light flashes and I can here
it.
At start up it says pri master hard drive S.M.A.R.T. Command
failed. I
think this is the first roadblock problem why I can't boot. I
changed
it from auto in the advanced setup to disabled still no luck. What
exactly is S.M.A.R.T.?

That's a bios monitor for your HD.

It has at least partially failed

I then got a diagnostic bootable CD from Hitachi the hard drive
maker
and ran their DRIVE FITNESS TEST. It reported one or more
corrupted
sectors found. When I said fix the sector it failed. I then tried
to
erase the disk using their program and also got a failed.
My question from above is how can a hard drive that I never had a
problem with go bad because of the power going off but still
appear to
the computer as being there with drive lamp working? Is there code
always on the hard drive that is not in its ROM that is screwed up
and
I will never be able to right that. Could I have done in some RAM
(firmware setting) contained and set in its circuit board that I
will
never be able to fix? My last information in this novel I have
posted
here is that the Hitachi utility reported FAILURE CODE 0x75
DEFECTIVE
DEVICE COMPONENT FAILED TECHNICAL RESULT CODE 7573DCF0. Again how
can
scan disk say no problem and the manufacturer's utility says
failure
with hardware?

I have plugged and unplugged it four times already. If the CMOS
battery was dead would if had not keep the time could this be the
problem. No it did not get moved at all and I think I do hear the
thing spin and the actuator move when I see the access lamp flash..
The scandisk did happen very fast. So if I boot with a floppy A what
would be the command line to try the scan disk? I saw on bootdisk.com
a floppy maker that had no ramdisk should I make it and try it and see
what happens would that be easier for me to scandisk with out
confusion? Could the firmware be screwed up? I never had a problem
before the plug got pulled out at startup.

Though you can run scandisk C: from the floppy
it will only repair logical errors ***which could possibly make things
worse***

scandisk will correct logical errors, it could possibly write any data
you
have into chk files.

at any rate, if a drive registers a SMART error it *must* be replaced

Your best chance to at least recover your data would be to slave the
drive
into
another computer...
laptop to IDE adaptors are only a few $$$ and avail at most any computer
parts vendor

Well if the drive is dead I still wonder why a working drive went to
hell because of a power failure during booting. I tried the boot
floppy with out a ram disk maker on it and now a scandisk of C returns
errors that it cannot be done. As far as an adaptor for putting this
in my desktop machine I think my money would be best spent getting a
different drive from ebay. I am worried that could be a waste of
money. What if the problem here is with the computer and the IDE bus
in some way? What about this CMOS battery I heard of. What exactly
does it do and could it being dead or weak cause a problem? I see
nothing in my computers manual about it and have had all but the ram
access panels open and never saw what I assume may be a button or
camera style of battery. Does the average laptop have to have a major
crake it open to get to it?


I suggested the adaptor *only* as a way of retrieving any data you need...
I think they cost about $3 or so. It would not be a major expense.

On Feb 29, 2:38 pm, "philo" wrote:
"DJW" wrote in message

... On Feb 28, 5:36 pm, "philo" wrote:
"DJW" wrote in message

...





On Feb 28, 3:02 pm, "philo" wrote:
"DJW" wrote in message

...

I have a laptop whose battier is dead. During booting up the power
cord became unplugged from the transformer. When I tried to reboot
I
got a message about a second partition, which I did not have on
the
hard drive. I assumed scandisk would run automatically and things
would straighten out. In my early try at getting the hard drive to
boot I also got a message that WINDOWS 98 HAS DECTECTED THAT DRIVE
C
DOES NOT CONTAIN A VALID FAT or FAT32 PARTITION.
Here are some of the things I have tried and the messages I then
got:
When I tried to install windows 98SE from the CD I got. SET UP
CANNOT
INSTALL WINDOWS 98ON YOUR COMPUTER AN ERROR WAS DETECTED WHILE
TRYING
TO READ OR WRITE TO YOUR HARD DISK

I tried at the a and then at the D and the C prompt FDISK I got
one
set in where it asks to enable large disk support (my HD is 6.5
GB) I
tried yes first then no but both times it said ERROR READING FIXED
DISK Tried A:\format c:/s still no luck.
Winbook the laptop manufacturer had some instructions on
reinstalling
the OS. I tried with the CD in D:\win98 C: and get INVALID DRIVE
SPECIFICATIONS. When D was in and booted from I no longer could
get a
C prompt to come up at all. Could get an A prompt then typed C:
after
it but got the same error message. Got to an A prompt an again and
tried C:\windows\command\deltree.exe and got same error message as
above. I booted with the floppy and tried all the above still no
use.
I got BAD COMMAND OR FILE NAME. Then tried C:\windows and got
CDR101:
not ready reading drive D abort retry. I put the CD in and hit
retry
and got BAD COMMAND OR FILE NAME. I am using a boot floppy that
makes
a Ramdisk and at start up it does say THE DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS WERE
SUCCESSFULLY LOADED TO DRIVE C. Does this really mean that they
were
loaded in RAM and not on the C drive since it seems I can't read
or
write to it?

I have run scandisk and it reports no problem with C drive.
In the start up I see that my primary master IDE drive shows and
in
the blue screen BIOS under Auto detect hard disk it shows and all
seems ok as far as the specs only the serial number does not show
anything. At startup the drive access light flashes and I can here
it.
At start up it says pri master hard drive S.M.A.R.T. Command
failed. I
think this is the first roadblock problem why I can't boot. I
changed
it from auto in the advanced setup to disabled still no luck. What
exactly is S.M.A.R.T.?

That's a bios monitor for your HD.

It has at least partially failed

I then got a diagnostic bootable CD from Hitachi the hard drive
maker
and ran their DRIVE FITNESS TEST. It reported one or more
corrupted
sectors found. When I said fix the sector it failed. I then tried
to
erase the disk using their program and also got a failed.
My question from above is how can a hard drive that I never had a
problem with go bad because of the power going off but still
appear to
the computer as being there with drive lamp working? Is there code
always on the hard drive that is not in its ROM that is screwed up
and
I will never be able to right that. Could I have done in some RAM
(firmware setting) contained and set in its circuit board that I
will
never be able to fix? My last information in this novel I have
posted
here is that the Hitachi utility reported FAILURE CODE 0x75
DEFECTIVE
DEVICE COMPONENT FAILED TECHNICAL RESULT CODE 7573DCF0. Again how
can
scan disk say no problem and the manufacturer's utility says
failure
with hardware?

I have plugged and unplugged it four times already. If the CMOS
battery was dead would if had not keep the time could this be the
problem. No it did not get moved at all and I think I do hear the
thing spin and the actuator move when I see the access lamp flash..
The scandisk did happen very fast. So if I boot with a floppy A what
would be the command line to try the scan disk? I saw on bootdisk.com
a floppy maker that had no ramdisk should I make it and try it and see
what happens would that be easier for me to scandisk with out
confusion? Could the firmware be screwed up? I never had a problem
before the plug got pulled out at startup.

Though you can run scandisk C: from the floppy
it will only repair logical errors ***which could possibly make things
worse***

scandisk will correct logical errors, it could possibly write any data
you
have into chk files.

at any rate, if a drive registers a SMART error it *must* be replaced

Your best chance to at least recover your data would be to slave the
drive
into
another computer...
laptop to IDE adaptors are only a few $$$ and avail at most any computer
parts vendor

Well if the drive is dead I still wonder why a working drive went to
hell because of a power failure during booting. I tried the boot
floppy with out a ram disk maker on it and now a scandisk of C returns
errors that it cannot be done. As far as an adaptor for putting this
in my desktop machine I think my money would be best spent getting a
different drive from ebay. I am worried that could be a waste of
money. What if the problem here is with the computer and the IDE bus
in some way? What about this CMOS battery I heard of. What exactly
does it do and could it being dead or weak cause a problem? I see
nothing in my computers manual about it and have had all but the ram
access panels open and never saw what I assume may be a button or
camera style of battery. Does the average laptop have to have a major
crake it open to get to it?

I suggested the adaptor *only* as a way of retrieving any data you need...
I think they cost about $3 or so. It would not be a major expense.

I will think about the adapptor what is it called? Also could I spread
the problem to the other (desktop ) computer?

I wrote Hitachi about the error message and got this reply with the
0x75 error there isn't much more that can happen with that hard drive.
If the hard drive was in the process of booting up and the power was
cut it could have caused issues with the hard drive with the read/
write head. It could have also cause a power corruption error."
Well that's a new one for me. So I guess they are saying give up
getting the drive to work! I guess that the head was not allowed to
park or something like that and now it's had it? Any way I was hoping
I would get some advice on how to fix it by a firmware update or
sending the drive back to them to have them work some magic. I will
replace the drive but my worry is that it was not the hard drive but
the computer in some way as in the IDE controller was damaged and a
new hard drive might have the same problem. Any thoughts from you if
that could be possible.

cleaned it up a bit

I will think about the adapptor what is it called? Also could I spread
the problem to the other (desktop ) computer?

Not likely

I wrote Hitachi about the error message and got this reply with the
0x75 error there isn't much more that can happen with that hard drive.
If the hard drive was in the process of booting up and the power was
cut it could have caused issues with the hard drive with the read/
write head. It could have also cause a power corruption error."
Well that's a new one for me. So I guess they are saying give up
getting the drive to work! I guess that the head was not allowed to
park or something like that and now it's had it? Any way I was hoping
I would get some advice on how to fix it by a firmware update or
sending the drive back to them to have them work some magic. I will
replace the drive but my worry is that it was not the hard drive but
the computer in some way as in the IDE controller was damaged and a
new hard drive might have the same problem. Any thoughts from you if
that could be possible.
Check here and find your disk
http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/sit...b11f0aac4f0a0/
download the file and try to re-install the disk. If you controller is
gone you can't open a floppy either.

Good luck

"DJW" wrote in message
...
On Feb 29, 2:38 pm, "philo" wrote:
"DJW" wrote in message


...
On Feb 28, 5:36 pm, "philo" wrote:
"DJW" wrote in message


...

snip


is that the Hitachi utility reported FAILURE CODE 0x75
DEFECTIVE
DEVICE COMPONENT FAILED TECHNICAL RESULT CODE 7573DCF0. Again
how
can
scan disk say no problem and the manufacturer's utility says
failure
with hardware?

I have plugged and unplugged it four times already. If the CMOS
battery was dead would if had not keep the time could this be the
problem. No it did not get moved at all and I think I do hear the
thing spin and the actuator move when I see the access lamp
flash..
The scandisk did happen very fast. So if I boot with a floppy A
what
would be the command line to try the scan disk? I saw on
bootdisk.com
a floppy maker that had no ramdisk should I make it and try it and
see
what happens would that be easier for me to scandisk with out
confusion? Could the firmware be screwed up? I never had a problem
before the plug got pulled out at startup.

Though you can run scandisk C: from the floppy
it will only repair logical errors ***which could possibly make
things
worse***

scandisk will correct logical errors, it could possibly write any
data
you
have into chk files.

at any rate, if a drive registers a SMART error it *must* be
replaced

Your best chance to at least recover your data would be to slave the
drive
into
another computer...
laptop to IDE adaptors are only a few $$$ and avail at most any
computer
parts vendor

Well if the drive is dead I still wonder why a working drive went to
hell because of a power failure during booting. I tried the boot
floppy with out a ram disk maker on it and now a scandisk of C returns
errors that it cannot be done. As far as an adaptor for putting this
in my desktop machine I think my money would be best spent getting a
different drive from ebay. I am worried that could be a waste of
money. What if the problem here is with the computer and the IDE bus
in some way? What about this CMOS battery I heard of. What exactly
does it do and could it being dead or weak cause a problem? I see
nothing in my computers manual about it and have had all but the ram
access panels open and never saw what I assume may be a button or
camera style of battery. Does the average laptop have to have a major
crake it open to get to it?

I suggested the adaptor *only* as a way of retrieving any data you
need...
I think they cost about $3 or so. It would not be a major expense.

I will think about the adapptor what is it called? Also could I spread
the problem to the other (desktop ) computer?

I wrote Hitachi about the error message and got this reply with the
0x75 error there isn't much more that can happen with that hard drive.
If the hard drive was in the process of booting up and the power was
cut it could have caused issues with the hard drive with the read/
write head. It could have also cause a power corruption error."
Well that's a new one for me. So I guess they are saying give up
getting the drive to work! I guess that the head was not allowed to
park or something like that and now it's had it? Any way I was hoping
I would get some advice on how to fix it by a firmware update or
sending the drive back to them to have them work some magic. I will
replace the drive but my worry is that it was not the hard drive but
the computer in some way as in the IDE controller was damaged and a
new hard drive might have the same problem. Any thoughts from you if
that could be possible.


If you got a SMART error, then the drive is simply bad...
not likely there would be any other problems with the machine.
It's rare enough for a power loss to cause any physical damage...
my guess is that the drive was probably about to fail anyway


Here is a link to that adaptor I mentioned

http://www.cjcps.com/cables-laptop-a...-10015524.html


I use mine from time to time and it's easy to do.

I was wrong about the price...it's $6 (but still no fortune)
but maybe if you google a bit you can find a cheaper one...
but it's your best chance for recovering any data on your old drive.
Hopefully you can retrieve it all

On Mar 1, 1:06 pm, "philo" wrote:
"DJW" wrote in message

... On Feb 29, 2:38 pm, "philo" wrote:
"DJW" wrote in message

...
On Feb 28, 5:36 pm, "philo" wrote: "DJW" wrote in message

...

snip

is that the Hitachi utility reported FAILURE CODE 0x75



DEFECTIVE
DEVICE COMPONENT FAILED TECHNICAL RESULT CODE 7573DCF0. Again
how
can
scan disk say no problem and the manufacturer's utility says
failure
with hardware?

I have plugged and unplugged it four times already. If the CMOS
battery was dead would if had not keep the time could this be the
problem. No it did not get moved at all and I think I do hear the
thing spin and the actuator move when I see the access lamp
flash..
The scandisk did happen very fast. So if I boot with a floppy A
what
would be the command line to try the scan disk? I saw on
bootdisk.com
a floppy maker that had no ramdisk should I make it and try it and
see
what happens would that be easier for me to scandisk with out
confusion? Could the firmware be screwed up? I never had a problem
before the plug got pulled out at startup.

Though you can run scandisk C: from the floppy
it will only repair logical errors ***which could possibly make
things
worse***

scandisk will correct logical errors, it could possibly write any
data
you
have into chk files.

at any rate, if a drive registers a SMART error it *must* be
replaced

Your best chance to at least recover your data would be to slave the
drive
into
another computer...
laptop to IDE adaptors are only a few $$$ and avail at most any
computer
parts vendor

Well if the drive is dead I still wonder why a working drive went to
hell because of a power failure during booting. I tried the boot
floppy with out a ram disk maker on it and now a scandisk of C returns
errors that it cannot be done. As far as an adaptor for putting this
in my desktop machine I think my money would be best spent getting a
different drive from ebay. I am worried that could be a waste of
money. What if the problem here is with the computer and the IDE bus
in some way? What about this CMOS battery I heard of. What exactly
does it do and could it being dead or weak cause a problem? I see
nothing in my computers manual about it and have had all but the ram
access panels open and never saw what I assume may be a button or
camera style of battery. Does the average laptop have to have a major
crake it open to get to it?

I suggested the adaptor *only* as a way of retrieving any data you
need...
I think they cost about $3 or so. It would not be a major expense.

I will think about the adapptor what is it called? Also could I spread
the problem to the other (desktop ) computer?

I wrote Hitachi about the error message and got this reply with the
0x75 error there isn't much more that can happen with that hard drive.
If the hard drive was in the process of booting up and the power was
cut it could have caused issues with the hard drive with the read/
write head. It could have also cause a power corruption error."
Well that's a new one for me. So I guess they are saying give up
getting the drive to work! I guess that the head was not allowed to
park or something like that and now it's had it? Any way I was hoping
I would get some advice on how to fix it by a firmware update or
sending the drive back to them to have them work some magic. I will
replace the drive but my worry is that it was not the hard drive but
the computer in some way as in the IDE controller was damaged and a
new hard drive might have the same problem. Any thoughts from you if
that could be possible.

If you got a SMART error, then the drive is simply bad...
not likely there would be any other problems with the machine.
It's rare enough for a power loss to cause any physical damage...
my guess is that the drive was probably about to fail anyway

Here is a link to that adaptor I mentioned

http://www.cjcps.com/cables-laptop-a...-10015524.html

I use mine from time to time and it's easy to do.

I was wrong about the price...it's $6 (but still no fortune)
but maybe if you google a bit you can find a cheaper one...
but it's your best chance for recovering any data on your old drive.
Hopefully you can retrieve it all

On 28 Feb, 18:33, DJW wrote:
I have a laptop whose battier is dead. During booting up the power
cord became unplugged from the transformer. When I tried to reboot I
got a message about a second partition, which I did not have on theharddrive. I assumed scandisk would run automatically and things
would straighten out. In my early try at getting theharddriveto
boot I also got a message that WINDOWS 98 HAS DECTECTED THATDRIVEC
DOES NOT CONTAIN A VALID FAT or FAT32 PARTITION.
Here are some of the things I have tried and the messages I then got:
When I tried to install windows 98SE from the CD I got. SET UP CANNOT
INSTALL WINDOWS 98ON YOUR COMPUTER AN ERROR WAS DETECTED WHILE TRYING
TO READ OR WRITE TO YOURHARDDISK

I tried at the a and then at the D and the C prompt FDISK I got one
set in where it asks to enable large disk support (my HD is 6.5 GB) I
tried yes first then no but both times it said ERROR READING FIXED
DISK Tried A:\format c:/s still no luck.
Winbook the laptop manufacturer had some instructions on reinstalling
the OS. I tried with the CD in D:\win98 C: and get INVALIDDRIVE
SPECIFICATIONS. When D was in and booted from I no longer could get a
C prompt to come up at all. Could get an A prompt then typed C: after
it but got the same error message. Got to an A prompt an again and
tried C:\windows\command\deltree.exe and got same error message as
above. I booted with the floppy and tried all the above still no use.
I got BAD COMMAND OR FILE NAME. Then tried C:\windows and got CDR101:
not ready readingdriveD abort retry. I put the CD in and hit retry
and got BAD COMMAND OR FILE NAME. I am using a boot floppy that makes
a Ramdisk and at start up it does say THE DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS WERE
SUCCESSFULLY LOADED TODRIVEC. Does this really mean that they were
loaded in RAM and not on the Cdrivesince it seems I can't read or
write to it?

I have run scandisk and it reports no problem with Cdrive.
In the start up I see that my primary master IDEdriveshows and in
the blue screen BIOS under Auto detectharddisk it shows and all
seems ok as far as the specs only the serial number does not show
anything. At startup thedriveaccess light flashes and I can here it.
At start up it says pri masterharddriveS.M.A.R.T. Command failed. I
think this is the first roadblock problem why I can't boot. I changed
it from auto in the advanced setup to disabled still no luck. What
exactly is S.M.A.R.T.?

I then got a diagnostic bootable CD from Hitachi theharddrivemaker
and ran theirDRIVEFITNESS TEST. It reported one or more corrupted
sectors found. When I said fix the sector it failed. I then tried to
erase the disk using their program and also got a failed.
My question from above is how can aharddrivethat I never had a
problem with go bad because of the power going off but still appear to
the computer as being there withdrivelamp working? Is there code
always on theharddrivethat is not in its ROM that is screwed up and
I will never be able to right that. Could I have done in some RAM
(firmware setting) contained and set in its circuit board that I will
never be able to fix? My last information in this novel I have posted
here is that the Hitachi utility reported FAILURE CODE 0x75 DEFECTIVE
DEVICE COMPONENT FAILED TECHNICAL RESULT CODE 7573DCF0. Again how can
scan disk say no problem and the manufacturer's utility says failure
with hardware?

Power failures or cycling to all HDD media is a major issue in causing
data loss and HDD damage.
The head stack assembly can impact on to the surface(s) of the media
thus causing damage to sector(s) which is probably what has happend
here this in turn has affected the logical integrity of the file
system and your inability to access your user data area.
Heat realted issues and power cycling are amongst the highest
premature failure of HDD media without doubt with damaged firmware
also causing problems.
Never work directly on the media somehow you must hook the media to a
stable system either via a USB caddy or or adapter you then must
adjust set the registry to disable writing enable to the media then
you must clone the the media from LBA0 to the end to a another
relaible HDD of the same capacity or greater.
If the media is not detected via the BIOS then you will have to work
much harder as either there are SMART issues or damage to the
firmware.
If you can copy all the data to another HDD then install that as a
secondary and do an intensive scan with that using some decent
software.

I hope this helps you.

All the best.