No valid FAT or FAT32 partition

TopFarmer,

I did think about putting the hard drive on the second IDE channel, but after the one test came back saying that the cable connection was fine, I didn't think it would help. Then again, at this point, I have nothing to lose. I'll give it a try tomorrow. No worries about the space being too tight. The drive is actually outside the case right now. I hate to keep putting everything back together for each test. I'll try testdisk if I can get the drive to show up in BIOS. Thanks for the link! I did check the jumper on the XP drive and did change it. No luck with the change.

Mike

 

Pls do! Something not quite right there.

Will post back after ZZZZZ's

EDIT: I have just noticed the last few responses. I will read in the morrow

Matt

 

there is something flakey going on.
It may not help but again, run a memory test program just to be sure.

I do lean toward a intermittent hdd problem, motherboard, power supply, but have seen hdd's not being detected correctly if the master partition table ,volume partiton tables or the volume boot records are at odds with each other listting different partition sizes, 'testdisk' may correct or show the problem.

 

Top Farmer,

I tried the TestDisk program but I couldn't get it to boot up. Without the drive running, I can't run the program. I was hoping it would be a bootable, unless I'm missing something.

Update- This morning when I started the system, I was able to get to the desktop again. Once there, I heard the drive stop spinning and it froze up. I rebooted and tried to get into SAFE mode, but once again, the system froze when the hard drive stopped spinning. Not sure if that helps any, but I thought I would mention it. If only I could get it to run for a couple hours, I could copy everything off of it that I need. Unfrotunately, that may not happen. I appreciate the continued help!

Mike

 

Looks like it's freezer trick time. Put the drive into an airtight bag. Put it into the freezer of a refrigerator for several hours. Be ready for transferring the data when you connect it straight from the freezer.

The drive is being "lost" by the BIOS, so it may be more of an electronics problem rather than a mechanical problem which the freezer technique, I would expect, works on. I have seen some very gratified people that used it when they thought they had lost their data.

Are you going to replace the drive? It may be better to get another drive and Windows system working and connect the faulty drive as slave, rather than trying to run Windows from it.

Matt

 

Just a thought but have you tried a different 4-pin power plug on that drive? I had one that would fit loose and cause the drive to stop. It drove me nuts until I switched plugs.

 

Matt,

I had thought about the freezer trick and plan to try that. If I can not get any drive tests run on it, or format and reload then test, I will replace it. As far as using as a slave drive, do you mean after I clean it (if possible) or now? I have put the drive into my XP systems with no luck of seeing anything.

Whiskeyman,

I have tried different plugs without it helping. That would have been nice.

Update-- For a couple times this afternoon, I have been able to get to my desktop again. As the desktop loads, I have been doing CAD and closing all programs except Explorer. That has seemed to help a little. The drive will run for 10-15 minutes at a time before freezing up. In that time, I have been able to copy some files. It's a little progress at least! Now it won't let me back in. I'll try later and then again tomorrow. Maybe it just gets tired easily and needs a nap. Can I assume that it is a software issue now?

Mike

 

It definitely sounds like the drive is dying. It is freezing up once it gets warm. Put the hard drive in a ziplock bag then wrap that in a towel. Place it in the freezer for about 20 minutes then reattach it to the computer and try to save your files. It may be a good idea to leave the IDE cable attached to the drive and have it stick out of the ziplock. Seal the opening with tape. You want to try and prevent moisture buildup. You might get a couple of tries this way before it locks up completely.

 

A note on testdisk- you must use a bootable floppy and once booted put in the floppy with testdisk copyed to it.

I agree with the freezer but it will likely only work a couple times and then the hdd is a doorstop, I would get a new drive and install windows first.

 

There are some good points. I seem to recall that as well, after freezing the drive don't expect any further life from it.

Since it is operating intermittently, if you were to connect it as slave (and I would probably configure it as secondary master, since it is working occasionally set as master), it would not have to load Windows which, as has been mentioned, is lot of work and causes it to heat up, etc. If and when it showed up as a secondary drive get the data then.

If you cannot get the data that way, use the freezer technique.

I always look to upgrade when I get new hardware. If the Win XP system is your main system, get the new drive for that (best measure of value is to calculate Gb per $). Copy the Win XP system to the new drive using the drive's utilities and format the Win XP drive for this system.

I think we all agree that there does not seem to be much future for the problem drive.

Matt
Edits: If you get the data and can get the Maxtor utilities to access the drive. Do a low-level (zero) format on it. That will either rejuvenate the drive or sound the death knell.

The "very" old drive: Maxtor utilities will say that the drive is faulty if it only finds one bad sector on the disks. I am working on my old drive at the moment (now my daughter's) that got some bad sectors back in 1999.

 

The drive must like weekends. I booted the system and was able to close all programs again. Surprisingly, I was able to transfer data for about an hour before it froze up on me. That gave me time to get some important data and half of my music files. I tried rebooting and got the error messages again. I will let it sit a few hours and try again. If I can get another hour out of it, I should have all the data I need off of it. I "ll save the freezer suggestion for when it stops all together. Once I get everything off, I'll see if I can run the hard drive tests again.

Whiskeyman,

I did find another power plug, it was buried and I didn't see it before. When things worked so long this morning, I was hoping that was the problem. Who knows, maybe it helped a little.

Mike

 

Over the weekend, I was able to get all my music files transferred over and a couple other files. I am trying to get through the other partitions to see what else I need. Slow going since yesterday I was only able to get it going for about 20 minutes total. After I get everything off, I'm thinking about FDISK, format and reload. If I can't do that in the current system, can I FDISK and format in one of my XP systems first? I was thinking of just putting Win98 back on the drive. This is if the drive passes any tests that I can run on it. Any thoughts for that process, or things to try before that process? Thanks!

Mike

 

Once you have retrieved all the info you can try running KillDisk on the drive first before FDISK and formatting it with your bootdisk. Make sure no other drives are hooked up when running Killdisk. You don't want to chance wiping the wrong drive. You can then run the hard drive utilities on it to see if it is worth using.

 

Whiskeyman,

Thanks for the link. I will keep that handy for when I do get everything off.

Update-- I received a fatal exception error a couple times yesterday. Not sure if it's related to my problem or not, but I thought I'd throw it into the mix. The error was 0028:C02A8C68 in VXD IFSMGR(04) + 000021EC. A google search brings up references to the Control Panel, but I never access the CP when I get the system going. I stay on the desktop and CAD to close all programs. Any one know what else this error could be pointing to?

Mike

 

Update--

Sorry it's been a few days. I got busy and put this to the side. This morning I decided to try things again. First, I went into SAFE mode and then msconfig. I removed all check marks for the startup programs and rebooted. Everything booted fine and the system ran for about 3 1/2 hours before locking up. At least I was able to get all my data off the drive. A couple checks with CAD shows nothing running but Explorer. I was hoping that disabling all the running programs would help. I guess not.

Tonight, I was able to access it for a few minutes again. When it froze, I unplugged and tried to boot up again. I got to where it runs scandisk and thought I would let it run this time. I usually bypass this step. It ran to about 90%, jumped back to 82% and then froze. I rebooted and received the 1780 error message. I hit enter and kept getting the "insert system diskette..." message again.

I'm still confused as to whether this is software or hardware related. I will try to run KillDisk and see what it finds. I will also try the disk software again to see what it finds. I'll post back what I find. Any, and all, suggestions are still welcomed.

Mike

 

Have you tried running Scandisk in Safe Mode? Windows Scandisk is better than DOS scandisk.

KillDisk will wipe everything from the drive, I have not used it, but haven't heard of any problems.

The drive utilities will probably tell you most about the condition of the drive. Use both MaxBlast and PowerMax (from memory PowerMax has the low-level (zero) format option and will probably do the same job as KillDisk, the difference may be that the drive is dropping out or disappearing, so you may have more certain results with the Maxtor programs). I would be a little unsure what might happen if KillDisk suddenly "lost" the drive.

Check it with MaxBlast and PowerMax.

Matt

 

Matt,

I'll see if I can get scandisk to run in SAFE mode. My current drive is an IBM, so I have been trying to use their software. I made a new disk last night and will try it later today to see what I get from it.

Mike

 

Hopefully, I get everything listed here. This is what happened tonight.

I went into SAFE mode to try scandisk. The normal scan went fine so I tried the thorough scan. About 5% of the way through the disk surface scan (data area), I got the message that "Scandisk must now restart because another program (or Windows itself) wrote to your disk... ". This happened twice, with the second scan getting a little further. On the third attempt, I got a fatal exception OE error at 015F:BFF9DBA7. I hit enter and got "SCANDSKW caused a general protection fault in module KRNL386.EXE at 0001:000023dc ". I hit close and got another fatal exception error. Then a "EXPLORER caused a general..." (in the same module as before). Then another fatal exception error. Then another general protection error. This time it was MSGSRV32 in the same module. Then I got the desktop but there were no icons. CAD and receieved "The system is either busy or has become unstable" message. Then a fatal exception error and back to the desktop, again without the icons. I CAD twice and rebooted.

This time I went into Normal mode to see what would happen. I got in without any problems and went to scandisk my C: drive. The thorough scan got about 30% done when I heard a slight click and the hard drive shut down. This is how it has been stopping on me. I can always hear it when it stops spinning. I had to unplug to shut it down.

I put in the Drive Fitness Test disk and started the system. It detected all my drives correctly. During the quick test, it froze. I did not hear the hard drive stop spinning, but it floppy drive was accessed right before it stopped. I restarted and got the 1780 error. I rebooted and tried the drive software again. This time no hard drive was found. Only the drives on the secondary channel were found. There was no primary found.

I rebooted and tried the KillDisk software. No drives were found. I didn't go any further with KillDisk.

Question... Can I put the hard drive on the secondary channel? Does the hard drive need to be on the primary? Does something have to be there or can you run with just the secondary? My thought is that maybe the primary channel is going bad. I this possible? If that's the case, I assume that I need to replace the motherboard. Correct? Could this be a power supply problem?

Any thoughts?

Mike

 

No problems running it on the secondary controller, you will just have to boot to a floppy or CD.

Primary Controller could be going bad. Had that happen once or twice, but it went "all at once ", not like this. See if you can run the utilities with the drive on the secondary controller. Yes, motherboard would need to be replaced.

Power problem, disconnect added hardware. I think you said there were two optical drives, try disconnecting one then the other (as well as reducing any other hardware). If you are only going to boot from a floppy, disconnect both opticals, see if it seems stable then.

Matt

 

Matt,

I disconnected the two drives on the secondary controller. No change in the drive problem. As far as moving the drive to the second and booting from a floppy, can you give me a little direction on that? Do I use a startup disk? What do I do once the disk loads? Sorry, this is new territory for me.

Mike