Reformat Old Computer

Hi again

Rockster: you got one thing wrong - it was St Catherine's not MIT; as for the rest...

there's a hidden clue here I think - right back to the top of the thread, the format ran out of bottle at 68%.

It's a 3.2GB drive, take 68% of that you get 2.176GB... classic old BIOS limits are 528MB, 2.1GB and 8.4GB

...which seems one heck of a coincidence! and a lot of the rest of the symptoms ring true as well.

The figures for cyl/sec/trk are from WD book I have here, it looks from the context as though they should apply to all WD drives with 10 pin jumper blocks. But they warn not to try if it's a 9 pin jumper block.

Jean: "ASCII art" is an attempt to draw a diagram with letters, numbers and punctuation marks, to get a diagram into a text box; I didn't do it very well 'coz I forgot that you can't put several spaces together in one of these posts. If I can work out a way I'll try to put a link to a better diagram or something after supper.

If you look at the hard drive you will that all the wiring plugs in at one end; that's the end I tried to draw...

there's a wide but thin (usually grey) ribbon cable which plugs in to the socket I called 40 pin IDE connector; and there's a bundle of 4 thicker wires (red, black, black, yellow) which go to the PSU connector (=Power Supply Unit)

between these are the 10 little pins. We hope there are 10, 'coz if there are only 9 this dodge doesn't work...

"jumpers" are little plastic things which slide over an adjacent pair of pins to connect them.

(thinking about it, this is where you may have trouble as you will need two - and there's probably only one there at the moment)(silly as they only cost a few groats)

will look in again a bit later, supper calls;

Good Luck to all, Hugh

 

Hi again Jean...

I've put some notes and a better picture here

...to try to enthuse you to have a go!

Best Wishes, Hugh

 

You are good dad ........ You might have nailed it.

Could well be that she's hit the wall at 2.1 gigs but we also have to assume it worked with all 3.2 at one time or another. I went back and reread between the lines a bit too and am wondering if the "error reading fixed disk" comes with compliments, congratulations and thank you's from a 3rd party drive overlay - either recently or historically installed. Its speculative, but this could have been used some time ago by another "friend who knows a lot about computers" to get past a 2.1 gig limitation.

Lets hope Jean is up to the challenge. Then we have to figure out how to get her another jumper without causing too much inconvenience. D_amn, I've only got a few hundred of em laying around.

 

Yo Rockster

thanks for the kind words! and for pointing out something I was overlooking...

indeed the whole caboodle must have been recognised at one time - and (presumably) with the jumpers set the way they are now.

I've re-read the WD book again:
I think Jean should try: using the 1023/63/16 figures (see earlier post) and having another go with the Data Lifeguard Tools without even doing the jumper thing - leave the jumpers as they are (Jean will breath a sigh of relief) and go through the Data Lifeguard Tools setup again.

but if that doesn't work -
one potential source for another jumper perhaps: unused links on the motherboard, or on expansion cards: there might be ones hanging around on only "one leg" if Jean's lucky -

of course if its a 9 pin block then this is all somewhat irrelevant BUT...

I'd like Jean to have a shot at this as when it happened to me the symptoms were oh so similar - I didn't have SMART involved to ?confuse the issue but all the rest rings true - the behaviour with FORMAT and FDISK; and then

SMART status failed before the media scan if it has failed before the media has been scanned how can we trust its results concerning the integrity of the media ?

also I have had no end of hassles fiddling to get EZ-BIOS to play

most of which were to do with having Maxtor drive and WD drive on the same PC, using WD supplied Data Lifeguard EZ-BIOS which (wait for it)...

...if you look at SystemInformation shows Seagate! (splutters into coffee)

any way of trying the drive in another PC? - preferably one with BIOS capable of seeing the whole thing without translation...

...might be able to rescue the user files like that perhaps...

oh well, bedtime for me Zzzzzzzzzzzz

sweet dreams all, Hugh

 

Hi Guys,
Well I haven't done anything with the computer today as I have been out and about helping my senior friends. I did hear from Western Digital and they told me this:
Quote: -
Discussion Thread Response (Reigneer)06/16/2003 11:04 AM Error 0207 means that you are using the wrong version of the Data Lifeguard Tools. Since the drive is an older model, you need to use the Data Lifeguard Tools version 2.8. The software is available for download from our web site.
Title: Where to download WD software, utilities, and drivers.
URL: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=7&p_created=1003423281
You need to use the extended test option in the Data Lifeguard Tools. If the drive has errors, you can try the repair option and retest. If the errors still come up, then the drive is bad and needs to be replaced.

For more information on error codes, please visit our web site.
Unquote

I then was very careful and downloaded Version 2.8 again, make my backup and ran the program. I wrote back to WD with the following:

Quote:
> [===> Please enter your reply below this line <===]
>
I just re-download the Data Lifeguard Tools Version 2.8 and still received the Error Message after running the Extended Test Option.

The drive has one or more errors that are not repairable and the final status is "Error 0207 ".

Does this mean the drive is bad and needs to be replaced?

Jean

> [===> Please enter your reply above this line <===]
Unquote

They replied very shortly after with the following reply:

Quote:
Discussion Thread Response (Reigneer)06/16/2003 12:47 PM
Error code 0207 using the Data Lifeguard Tools 2.8 means that the drive is bad and needs to be replaced. You have an option to replace the drive through our upgrade program. For more information on the upgrade program, please contact our Customer Service and Support staff. You can visit our web site for the phone numbers and hours of operation.
Title: WD support and services hours of operation.
URL: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=142&p_created=1008278318 Customer (Jean Larson)06/16/2003 11:53 AM
Unquote

OK, guys, I think I'm just going to give up on it. I really appreciate all the information you have sent but I don't think I feel like pursuing this since my friend should be getting the new computer in a day or two. OK???

Jean

 

oh well we tried!

I don't blame you for giving up, Jean...

...were it my drive I'd probably bung it into another PC and see if I can get it to play like that, preferably a PC which will take it without any of the DLG/EZ-BIOS stuff involved, it so often causes trouble

...and I still find it hard to believe that changing the software knackered the drive all of a sudden! This is hard to understand.

quote:
You have an option to replace the drive through our upgrade program. For more information on the upgrade program, please contact our Customer Service and Support staff. this, however, is not hard to understand...

Good Luck with the new PC, and best wishes, Hugh

 

Very interesting logic - It goes a long way towards building one's confidence in Data Lifeguard Tools V2.8

I certainly don't want to "push" you any further, but I too, find it difficult to rationalize how "Bro's" well intentioned, somewhat misguided clean-up trashed this puppy.

There's a lot to be said for knowing when is the right time to walk away from something. I respect both your decision and your wisdom.