Re: [gentoo-user] desperation question: disklabel, unable to write to disk, etc.

[Alan E. Davis]

I am still in limbo about this drive.  I have gotten a disk scanning utility
from Gateway, and am now trying to get together a floppy to test it that
way.

I have had another HDD issue this week, on a SATA drive.  I may post
separately about that.  I can see partitions from Ubuntu that I cannot see
from Gentoo.  Etc.  Back to the laptop.  I hope for the best, and suspect
that somehow the disk was corrupted by software, and if so I HOPE it can be
recovered.  Otherwise, I guess I can run a live cd and save files to a usb
flash drive!  I haven't heard any strange noises, but the freezer trick
would certainly be a last resort.

Alan

On 1/3/07, Nelson, David (ED, PAR&D) <David.Nelson2@×××××××××××.com> wrote:
>
> I am maybe "late to the party" here but for specific types of disk failure
> the freezer trick can work briefly if you have any data to recover (looks
> unlikely in this case but thought I'd mention it). I did this for my friends
> laptop drive a few weeks ago so he could back his stuff up to my box via
> Samba - the drive was shoved in a plastic sealed bag with as much air
> squeezed out as possible and left in a freezer for a few days. It lived for
> an hour and a half before dying again.
>
> (Note: the failure in this case involved the drive making a rather horrid
> grinding noise)
>
> In a rather cruel case of Murphy's law, one of my hard disks died the
> following week, taking his backup with it. Nice.
>
> David
>
> Note: These views are my own, advice is provided with no guarantee of
> success. I do not represent anyone else in any emails I send to this list.
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Mick [mailto:michaelkintzios@×××××.com]
> > Sent: 24 December 2006 13:09
> > To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
> > Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] desperation question: disklabel, unable to
> > write to disk, etc.
> >
> >
> > On Sunday 24 December 2006 08:42, PaulNM wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > These type of messages:
> > >
> > > [17180157.020000] hda: dma_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady
> > SeekComplete
> > > Error }
> > > [17180157.020000] hda: dma_intr: error=0x40 { UncorrectableError },
> > > LBAsect=5, high=0, low=5, sector=0
> > > [17180157.020000] ide: failed opcode was: unknown
> > > [17180157.020000] end_request: I/O error, dev hda, sector 0
> > >
> > >
> > > are very bad signs.  Nine times out of ten it means the
> > drive is dead,
> > > or nearly so.  The few times it's not a dead/dying drive,
> > is usually due
> > > to dma not being supported, or a bad cable. Given that dd is not
> > > working, and nothing seems able to actually write to the drive, I'm
> > > leaning towards a dead drive.
> > >
> > >     As a last ditch attempt, you could try reseating the
> > power and ide
> > > cable on the drive, as well as the motherboard end of the
> > ide cable. If
> > > you have another system laying around, you could put the
> > problem drive
> > > in there to confirm it is a drive problem.
> >
> > I agree that in all likelihood your HD is toast.  However,
> > before you start
> > searching on Ebay you would better follow the above advice to
> > reseat cables
> > and, or sockets.  I used to have an IBM laptop with a
> > problematic floppy
> > drive that needed reseating in its socket every now and then
> > to cure its boot
> > problems.
> >
> > --
> > Regards,
> > Mick
> >
>
> --
> gentoo-user@g.o mailing list
>
>


-- 
Alan Davis, Kagman High School, Saipan  lngndvs@×××××.com     1-670-256-2043

I consider that the golden rule requires that if I like a program I must
share it with other people who like it.              --------Richard
Stallman

Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection
of authority.  ----- Thomas H. Huxley