Hard Disk Drive Problems: Fixing Computer Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Problems - Page 1

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HARD DISK DRIVE PROBLEMS - PAGE 1

MHDD is the most popular freeware program for low-level hard-disk-drive diagnostics. - http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2005.10.02-MHDD/

Visit the Disk Drives section of this site for information on internal and external hard disk drives and CD/DVD drives/writers.

Click the relevant link below to go to that Q&A article. Use your browser's Back button to backtrack.

1. - Information on the most common hard disk drive problems in the Microsoft Knowledge Base

2. - Some common problems experienced with hard disk drives:

A. - Why I can only create four partitions on my hard drive? - B. - Windows can only see 137GB of my 250GB IDE hard drive - C. - I partitioned and formatted my new hard drive, but a message just says there's no operating system - D. - I ran benchmark tests on my IDE hard drive, which say that the drive isn't running at full speed - E. - A problem with an old IDE hard drive and a new SATA drive running from a PCI SATA adapter card.

3. - My PC reboots by itself and warnings have appeared asking me to run Chkdsk, the Windows XP hard-disk-drive diagnostic utility

4. - My computer/PC is giving loads of disk error messages. What do they mean and how can I get rid of them?

5. - A constant "disk boot failure" error message: What is it and what can I do to fix it?

6. - Windows Disk Diagnostics: Windows Vista Premium reports that my PC's hard disk drive is faulty and is about to fail

7. - Can you install/mix IDE PATA and SATA hard disk drives in the same computer/PC and in a RAID array?

8. - Will a backup copy/image created by Norton Ghost on a second hard disk drive be bootable when the drive is installed as the boot drive?

9. - The Windows XP Disk Defragmenter won't go all the way: Defrag stops at 12%

10. - I can't access my files in a user account protected by a password on a hard disk drive that was installed in another PC running Windows XP

11. - If I connect an SATA hard drive to my PC, it won't boot. It gives error message "hal.dll is corrupted"

12. - When I install Windows XP on an SATA hard drive and then reboot, the setup program asks me if I want to begin the setup all over again

13. - I can't find out if DMA is enabled for my hard drive in Windows XP

14. - In Windows XP, the boot drive is F: instead of C: - How can I change the boot drive's letter back to C:?

15. - My external hard drive is not recognised (US: recognized) by my PC

16. - When booting I can't have my external USB 2.0 hard drive turned on or else I get the message "Invalid system disk, please replace"

17. - Can Windows XP format my new USB external hard drive?

18. - How can I format an external USB hard drive in Windows XP without having to make it the C: drive?

19. - My external USB hard disk drive has shrunk from 60GB to only 3GB after using Paragon Hard Disk Manager. - How can I recover the lost space?

20. - File systems: How to convert from the FAT32 file system to NTFS

21. - My PC runs the hard disk drive in UDMA 33 mode instead of UDMA 100 mode AND In Windows XP, how can I change the UDMA mode from the reported mode 5 to the actual mode 6 that my motherboard supports?

22. - Every time I start my PC up the hard disk drive is checked for consistency

23. - How to attempt to recover the critical data from a corrupt hard disk drive

24. - Experiencing a system slow-down or a 'thrashing' hard disk drive?

Information on the most common hard disk drive problems in the Microsoft Knowledge Base

Some common problems experienced with hard disk drives

1. - Why I can only create four partitions on my hard drive?

Problem

My hard drive is recognised properly by the BIOS at start-up, shows up properly in the Device Manager and appears in My Computer, but I can only create four partitions with FDISK [used in Windows 98 and Windows Me. Alternatives are the partition programs that can be used from within Windows XP or from the Windows XP CD, PartitionMagic]. There is still plenty of drive space that I can't partition and format.

Answer

You have created four primary partitions; the maximum number of primary partitions that Windows can create. To create more partitions, you have to create an extended partition and then create logical drives (partitions) within the extended partition. Each logical drive will have its own drive letter assigned to it by Windows (E: - F: - G: - etc.).

You should be able to find an option to create an extended partition. It's immediately apparent in FDISK, but you'll have to find out how to do it with other partitioning utilities. When it has been created, you'll have the option to create logical drives within that partition. Windows XP allows you to partition hard drives from its CD, or from Start => All Programs => Administrative Tools => Computer Management => Disk Management. The hard drive partitions are represented graphically by rectangular spaces under headings for each drive (Disk 0, Disk 1, etc.). To create an extended partition, right-click on any empty space (unpartitioned space), and select the option to create an extended partition. There has to be an existing partition on the boot drive because Windows XP is operating from one. Alternatively, use the free QTParted. See the next item for information on it. It can create new partitions or resize existing partitions very easily.

2. - Windows can only see 137GB of my 250GB IDE hard drive

Problem

I installed a 250GB IDE Maxtor hard drive in a computer running Windows XP, but it can only recognise 137GB of the drive.

Answer

Elderly motherboards and Windows 98/Windows Me and Windows XP prior to Windows XP SP1 (that has Service Pack 1 installed) have a 137GB barrier. Any disk space over that amount isn't recognised because Windows (or any other operating system) requires driver support for 48-bit Logical Block Addressing (LBA), which was only included in Windows XP SP1.

How to enable 48-bit Logical Block Addressing support for ATAPI disk drives in Windows XP - This article describes the Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) 48-bit Logical Block Addressing (LBA) support for ATA Packet Interface (ATAPI) disk drives that can increase the capacity of your hard disk to more than the current 137 gigabyte (137GB) limit. - http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=303013

You should also check the version of the file Atapi.sys that is installed. In Windows XP, it can be found in the C:\Windows\System32\Drivers folder. Locate the file (if necessary by using the Search facility), right-click on it, choose Properties, and then click the Version tab of the window that comes up. The file should be version 5.1.2600.1135 or higher. (I have version 5.1.2600.2180.)

For more information on this subject read the information on upgrading hard drives on the first Upgrade Checklists page on this site.

Note that if you are using PartitionMagic as your partitioning utility, versions earlier than 8.01 don't support hard drives larger than 137GB.

If you have a motherboard that has an Intel chipset of the 800 series (810 to 860), there are patches that fix the limit available from:

http://www.intel.com/

http://members.aol.com/rloew1

You should make sure that your computer's BIOS setup program is the latest version. The motherboard's manufacturer's site should have details about BIOS updates, what they support, and how to install them. A BIOS update could fix the problem.

You might still have to partition the drive to get it to work. You can create partitions with Windows XP's Disk Management. To do so, enter diskmgmt.msc in the Start => Run box, or use a free program such as QTParted, which is part of the rescue CD for the Linux operating system that can be obtained from http://www.sysresccd.org/. Download the ISO image and then burn it to a recordable CD-R/DVD-R/DVD+R disc. You can run QTParted from the CD. It is meant for use with Linux, but can be used to partition and resize partitions for the NTFS file system used by Windows XP. Alternatively, you can download the program here: http://qtparted.sourceforge.net/, but you'll have to create your own bootable CD/DVD and copy the program to it if you want to use it from a CD/DVD. You can also use it from Knoppix Linux, which runs from a bootable CD/DVD. Download the ISO image free of charge from http://www.knoppix.org/ and use CD/DVD burning software to burn it to a recordable CD/DVD. Your PC's BIOS setup program should be set to boot from a CD/DVD drive in order to boot into Linux at startup without interferring with an installation of Windows XP/Vista. You would place the Knoppix Linux CD/DVD in its drive and reboot the PC. The PC will boot into Knoppix Linux, which looks like Windows. From the Start menu go to System and choose the program QTParted, which looks and works very much like Partition Magic, which costs around £40. It can be used with Windows XP/Vista on NTFS partitions.

If you still can't get the drive to work at its full capacity, you'll have to purchase a PCI IDE Controller adapter card. You install it in a spare PCI slot on the motherboard and attach the drive to it instead of to the motherboard.

Many PCI IDE Controller cards are made by Promise Technologies, but the company's controllers can also be found built into some motherboards. Promise has updated its device drivers to support 48-bit LBA operation, but at the time of writing this, it had not obtained Microsoft WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Labs) certification for the drivers that gives them a recognisable digital signature. This situaltion leads to a driver problem, because Windows XP installs its own drivers for Promise controllers that have not been updated for 48-bit LBA support if it cannot install install signed drivers. (48-bit support is required by Windows to recognise the full capacity of drives larger than 137GB.) In this case, even if you download and attempt to install the latest unsigned Promise drivers, Windows will refuse to install them because it has installed its own signed drivers, which always take precedence over unsigned drivers.

If this is the case, the Windows drivers will be dated July 1, 2001 (07/01/01). You can check this by opening the Device Manager. A Promise card or controller will be listed under SCSI Controllers even though it is not an SCSI device. Right-click on the controller's entry, click Properties in the menu that comes up, and then click on the Driver tab of the window that comes up.

You can force Windows XP to install the Promise drivers. To do that, right click on the controller's entry, and then click on Update Driver... You must not allow Windows to search for and install the drivers automatically. Choose all of the manual choices and ignore any warning messages no matter how ominous. You will arrive at the Have Disk button that allows you to point Windows to the location of the driver file. The Promise driver that supports 48-bit LBA support is dated March 28 2003 (3/28/03).

When Windows is restarted, you should be able to see the full capacity of any hard drive larger than 137GB.

3. - I partitioned and formatted my new hard drive, but a message just says there's no operating system

Problem

After I cloned my old IDE hard drive's data to the new one (also an IDE drive), and then repartitioned and formatted the rest of the drive, all of the partitions are visible to Partition Magic and the data is present, but the computer won't boot. An error message comes up that says that there is no operating system.

Answer

Run your partitioning program (Partition Magic, or QTParted, mentioned in 2. above). Right-click the new drive with the mouse, and make sure that the partition with Windows installed on it is set to Active. Moreover, make sure that the boot IDE drive is installed on the motherboard's primary IDE connector, and that it is jumpered as a master drive. Click here! for information on this site on installing an IDE drive.

4. - I ran benchmark tests on my IDE hard drive, which say that the drive isn't running at full speed

Problem

I ran the hard-drive benchmark tests in HDTach from http://www.simplisoftware.com/ on my IDE drive and I discovered that it isn't running as fast as it should be running.

Answer

HDtach tends to overestimate the average speeds of each type of disk drive. However, if the hard drive is more than a third slower than the average speeds it lists, take the following steps:

If the IDE hard drive is installed on the same cable as a CD/DVD drive, then install it on a cable on its own, or with another hard drive. Installing it on the same cable as an optical CD/DVD drive can force it to run slower than it should. Right-click on My Computer, then left-click on Properties, followed by the Hardware tab in the window that comes up. Open the Device Manager, open the category called Disk drives. If the hard drive's drivers are installed properly the drive's make and model should be listed. (If not then Windows installs its standard IDE drivers and you should install the manufacturer's drivers.) Double-click on the drive. If a setting for DMA (Direct Memory Access) is available, make sure that it is enabled.

Read I can't find out if DMA is enabled for my hard drive in Windows XP on this page to find out how to enable or disable DMA in Windows XP and Windows 98.

5. - A problem with an old IDE hard drive and a new SATA drive running from a PCI SATA adapter card

Problem

I cloned the system on my old IDE hard drive on to my new SATA hard drive that runs from a PCI SATA adapter card. I jumpered and installed the old drive as a slave drive. Unfortunately, when I boot the system, a message comes up saying that there is no operating system (Windows XP).

Answer

The old hard drive might not be attached to the correct connector on the ribbon 80-conductor IDE ribbon cable. A slave drive has to be connected to the middle connector on the cable, not the end connector. Click here! to read an illustrated article on installing an IDE hard drive on this site.

When you boot the computer, enter the BIOS (press the key that the first window says enters Setup). Under the menu item that is usually called Advanced BIOS Features, there is a setting called Boot Sequence or Boot Order. Look for an option to boot from an external controller. If there isn't such a option there should be one called Boot from an SCSI controller. An SCSI controller for SCSI drives works in a similar way to an IDE adapter card. Enable it. Doing that should enable the system to boot from the SATA drive instead of from the motherboard's IDE controller. You should also use your partitioning utility (PartitionMagic, etc) to make sure that the primary partition on the new SATA drive is set as Active. You can use Disk Management in Windows XP to make it active. Enter diskmgmt.msc in the Start => Run box to open Disk Management. Right-click on the drive to bring up the menu options.

Note that it can be tricky connecting both IDE drives and SATA drives to the motherboard. If, say, you install a SATA drive and then install an IDE drive, unless the BIOS is programed to know the difference, the system will usually try to boot from an IDE drive first. If a BIOS update isn't available that allows the two types of drive on the motherboard to be installed so that the system can boot from the SATA drive, you'll have to buy a PCI SATA adapter card and set the BIOS as instructed above.

My PC reboots by itself and warnings have appeared asking me to run Chkdsk, the Windows XP hard-disk-drive diagnostic utility

Problem

My desktop PC sometimes reboots of its own accord. Recently, at startup, dire warnings appeared asking me to run Chkdsk with a surface scan. It has quality components - a 350W power supply from http://www.quietpc.com/, an Asus A7NX8 Deluxe motherboard, and an AMD Athlon XP 3200+ processor. It seems to be getting worse with time. I have tested the AC mains power cable with a continuity meter, and removed and reseated the memory modules, the hard-disk-drive power connector and connection to the motherboard. The hard drive is a Samsung SP1213N, so I tested it with Samsung's hard-drive diagnostic utility, which reported no problems. The surface scan performed by Chkdsk was successful. I have also removed and replaced the silicone heatsink compound between the processor and the cooling unit.

Answer

It is advisable to begin by removing all of the removable components connected to the motherboard (memory modules, modem, video, sound, network cards, etc.) so that you can clean their contact points and then reseat them. You should also inspect the motherboard's capacitors, which are the large cylindrical objects wired to it, for any signs of bulging or leakage. The capacitors regulate the power supply to components such as the memory modules. If one or more of them are failing or failed, voltage drops can occur that make the computer reboot.

Spontaneous reboots can also be caused by software, such as a corrupt or bad device driver. To make sure that this is not the case, try booting the system from a CD/DVD with its own bootable operating system. To boot the system from a CD means having the CD/DVD drive set as the first boot device in the BIOS. You cold try using the free Knoppix Linux from http://www.knoppix.com/. It would be best to buy a cheap, ready-made bootable CD, because the download of the ISO file that you download and burn to a CD/DVD using the "Burn a disc image" option of CD/DVD burning software, such as Nero, is a huge 697MB download.

Many brand-name PCs, including most Dell PCs, come with built-in diagnostics that bypass Windows. A particular brand-name PC's diagnostic software can also be provided on a CD.

The Ultimate Boot CD from http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ contains several diagnostic programs and is self-booting.

It could be difficult to determine the cause of the rebooting if the computer only reboots once a day. In any case, if you have the Ultimate Boot CD, run its memory tester. You might have to leave it running all day or longer to find out if the reboots were caused by hardware. Just remember to set the CD/DVD drive to the first boot device in the BIOS so that the system boots from the CD that you created. If necessary, visit the BIOS section of this site for information on how to do that.

If your computer reboots while running any of these options, you then know that the problem is hardware-related, not software-related. If the computer runs utilities without rebooting, then the problem is being caused in Windows by software, such as a bad device driver. If the cause is a bad driver, it could be fixed by downloading an installing the latest drivers for all of computer's devices from their manufacturer's sites. Some computers provide live driver updates. For example, laptop or desktop computers that are made by MSI, or which have an MSI motherboard, have the MSI Live Update feature that scans the system for updates and allows you to choose which drivers to install. You run the utility while online. It shows the version that is installed and the online version. If the online version has a higher number, an update is available that you should install. You can also make use of Microsoft Update, which provides Windows updates and third-party drivers, and and the free Belarc Advisor, which can be used to identify the hardware (and software) installed on a computer.

How to download updates and drivers from the Windows Update Catalog - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323166

Many of the methods of recovering Windows XP dealt with on the Recovering Windows XP section of this site, including System Restore, a repair installation of XP, and the Recovery Console, can be used to fix software-related problems.

If one or more reboots occurs while the alternative operating system is running, you have to look for a hardware cause. If the power cable that connects the computer to the mains supply is old, replacing it may fix the problem. The connector that fits into the back of the computer can often be loose-fitting and not make good contact. Moreover, the fuse holder that holder a fuse in the 13A plugs used in the UK can be the source of another improper connection.

Since Windows was insisting on performing a surface scan on the hard disk drive, it could not read or write to a particular area or areas of the drive. During the scan, it marks any unusable clusters as bad so that the system won't use them. It also attempts to move data from them. The Event Viewer logs should provide useful details. You can bring it up by entering eventvwr.msc in the Start => Run box.

You can use the MHDD utility on the Ultimate Boot CD to check the hard drive for intermittent lockups that Chkdsk or the drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility didn't detect. (You can also download MHDD as a free diagnostic utility from http://hddguru.com/.)

However, note that it is possible but rare for a hard-drive problem to cause a computer to reboot; such a problem is far more likely to cause a computer to lock up. It is far more likely that faulty memory or a faulty motherboard or processor has created a corrupt command that has been sent to the hard disk drive, thereby creating an apparent but not actual disk error that is causing the computer to reboot.

The computer is getting into its old age, so a hardware problem of some sort is not unlikely. If the problem is being caused by a faulty power supply, motherboard, processor, or memory, the only way for a home user to find out which component is responsible is to take the computer's base unit to a reputable computer repair shop, or swap those components with known good ones until the culprit is discovered.

My computer/PC is giving loads of disk error messages. What do they mean and how can I get rid of them?

Problem

My desktop PC runs Windows XP SP2 and it is giving me loads of disk error messages. As it starts up, the Windows XP logo with its animated blue bar comes up as usual, but then a blue screen comes up that wants me to run Chkdsk - XP's hard-drive diagnostic utility. After that, a countdown begins and Chkdsk runs (1 of 3 tests). When it gets to 100%, it fills the screen with a repeated line saying: "Inserting an index entry into $0 of file 25", which runs non-stop, so I have to shut the PC down. Then I restart it and choose the option that prevents Chkdsk from running, but I still get the error messages. However, I can close them and log on while closing any other error messages. The first error message is: "WINLOGON.EXE - corrupt file" and it is followed by "The file or directory \$Extend\$Objld is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the Chkdsk utility." All of the other error messages name the same file, but have a different header. Is there a fix for this highly annoying problem, or does my PC need a new hard disk drive?

Answer

The $Extend\$Objld is a meta-data file; a special hidden file that the NTFS file system uses to store file-system information. For those of you who might be interested in the technical details, it is found in position 24 or 25 of the boot hard disk drive's Master File Table and contains an index to the unique object identifier numbers that NTFS allocates to every file on the computer. The index is not essential, because Windows can still be used with the alternative FAT32 file system, but if the hard disk drive's C: (boot) drive/partition has been formatted to use the NTFS file system, there is no way that it can be turned off.

$Extend\$Objld contains an index to every file on the drive, so it is large. If it is damaged, it usually takes Windows Chkdsk a long time to rebuild it - perhaps 12 hours or more of "inserting an index entry into index $0 of file 25". As you have discovered, you can wait for it to complete its task or choose to interrupt it. If you interrupt it, it will run again when the computer is restarted. You can, of course, press the key that prevents the disk check again.

The computer runs properly without the $Extend\$Objld file and you can use the chkntfs command at the Command Prompt to prevent Windows from running Chkdsk at startup. To do that, gain access to the Start => Run box and enter cmd to bring up the Command Prompt. Enter the command chkntfs. However, doing that is not advisable, because it could lead to serious disk corruption.

The initial corruption of the $Extend\$Objld file could have been brought about by a power interruption while the NTFS file system was updating the file, or it could be a sign of impending hard-disk-drive failure.

The measures you can take to discover the cause of the problem are:

Download the diagnostic utility that the hard-drive manufacturer provides from its website, and use it to perform a complete test of the drive. If you don't know the make/model of the drive, open the Device Manager by entering devmgmt.msc in the Start => Run box and open Disk drives. You can then enter the make/model number in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled) to locate the manufacturer's website. There is a table at the top of this page that provides information on where to download the hard-disk-drive diagnostic utilities for a particular major make of hard drive. Alternatively, click here! to go to information on this site on the diagnostic utilities provided by the major hard-drive manufacturers.

Note that some hard disk drives - certain makes of laptop/notebook PC hard-drives in particular - can suffer from random lockups, or develop areas of the drive that become slow for the drive to access. Those areas of the drive may not be revealed by the diagnostics utility provided by the drive's manufacturer. However, they can often be detected by MHDD, which is a free diagnostic utility from http://hddguru.com/.

It is possible that the $Extend\$Objld file can become so fragmented that updating it can take a long time. This will usually only happen if some of the drive's sectors are very slow to access, which itself suggests that the drive is suffering from physical problems. Problems can be caused if the computer is shut down before the updating has finished. The Windows Disk Defragmenter (Defrag) cannot defragment the file because of its special system status. It won't defragment a system file. Nor can third-party defragmentation utilities, such as PageDefrag, defragment it.

If the diagnostic utilities don't discover any physical problems with the drive and the problem occurs repeatedly, the only possible solution is to reformat the entire partition of the drive. If you don't know how to do that click here! to go to relevant information on this site.

A constant "disk boot failure" error message: What is it and how can I fix it?

Problem

My new Windows Vista desktop PC is giving me a "disk boot failure" error message each day when I try to boot it up. What does this mean exactly? It appears, with rare exceptions, only when the PC is started each morning. Once or twice in the six weeks since I purchased the computer, the error did not appear. If I shut the PC down and restart it, everything appears to run properly. I've run diagnostics on all the hardware, followed the recommendations on the HP site to correct this error, run chkdsk and talked to HP tech support. The only course of action left is to wipe my hard drive and run the system recovery CD. Before doing that, I need to know if there is anything else I can try.

Answer

Since your PC is still under warranty, you could insist that the seller gets it fixed for you or replaces it. However, if you don't want the hassle that is always involved, here are some simple measures to take to resolve the issue:

I have seen quite a few problems with the older IDE 40-pin hard-drive cables, and the new SATA cables. Their fragile-looking connectors look like a potential cause of problems such as yours. These cables are very cheap, and, although HP should fix it all under warranty, the hassle often is not worth it. If you can replace the hard disk drive's data cable, you will save yourself all the hassle of having to reload all of your data and programs again.

I found this answer on the web that provides the most likely solution:

"I had a problem similar to yours, did a lot of digging on Google and got lots of advice, ran a bunch of diagnostics and could not find any problems. I thought my drive was ready to fail, so I looked into replacing it. But I happened to have a spare SATA cable lying around, and for the heck of it, tried replacing the cable. Since then, I've had no problems! My advice - before you buy a new hard drive, buy a replacement cable and see if that makes a difference. You might save yourself lots of $$$, like I did!"

Your action plan should be:

1. - Save/backup your email, documents and pictures, and music.

2. - Don't bother trying to backup your programs, because they usually need to be installed, not just copied back.

3. - Unplug the AC mains cable so the computer is not powered on. Replace the hard drive cable, or, at least, unplug it and then re-plug it. If the power supply unit has a spare 4-pin power lead (with yellow, black, black, red), then unplug the power connector from the hard drive and swap it. If there is no replacement available then unplug and re-plug the drive's power connector.

If doing that doesn't work, you could try running the hard-drive diagnostic utility that is provided by the drive's manufacturer. There is a list of links to the sites of the main manufacturer's provided at the top of this page. You should be able to identify the manufacturer by entering devmgmt.msc in the Start => Run box in Windows XP and in the Start => Start Search box in Windows Vista. That command brings up the Device Manager. Look under the Disk drives category by clicking on the + beside it.

If the hard disk drive is shown to be failing, make copies to recordable CD/DVDs of everything that you want to save, and then go through the process involved that will get your PC fixed by its manufacturer under its warranty.

Windows Disk Diagnostics: Windows Vista Premium reports that my PC's hard disk drive is faulty and is about to fail

Problem

I have upgraded my Windows XP PC to Windows Vista Premium Edition. Having formatted the C: drive, the clean installation went well until I had to choose the drive on which to install Vista. The drive had a yellow warning triangle beside it and a message appeared saying that the hard disk drive was faulty and about to fail. Since the drive was purchased brand new in January 2007, I thought that it was a false warning and installed Vista. After a few hours, Vista produced a warning message saying that the drive was failing and that I should back up my data. The message made an appearance a few more times over the next few hours. After the last appearance, I was given the option to disable it, which I did. Is the drive faulty? If so, will I be able to send it back to the online store I bought it from?

Answer

One of the new diagnostic features that Windows Vista has is called Windows Disk Diagnostics. Most recent hard drives have an inbuilt feature called SMART, which stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology. Windows Disk Diagnostics just reports what SMART is reporting about the drive's status.

A hard drive that uses SMART monitors itself for symptoms of impending failure, such as a high number of attempts to read data, or a higher-than-normal temperature. In approximately half of the cases, SMART drives fail without providing any advanced warning. Unfortunately, SMART has also been known to start giving warnings long before the actual failure occurs.

In any case, Windows Vista checks a SMART drive's status once an hour and records any problems in its Event log. You can use the Event Viewer to look through the log files to find out why the warning messages were produced. You can find out how to access the Event Viewer by entering its name in Search box of Vista's Help and Support.

The BIOS setup program of most motherboards have a setting that makes it check the drive's SMART status at system startup. For some unknown and peculiar reason, it is usually turned off by default, so it is advisable to enable it. Visit the BIOS section of this site if you don't know how to access the BIOS.

Just to make sure that the drive is faulty, you can download a diagnostic program from the drive's manufacturer's website. All of the drive manufacturers provide such a utility. If you don't know what the drive's manufacturer is, you can find out (without having to open the PC's case and remove the drive) by entering the command devmgmt.msc in the Start => Start Search box (Start => Run box in Windows XP). Doing that opens the Device Manager. Click the + beside Disk drives. You should find that the make and model of the hard drive is listed there.

If the manufacturer's diagnostic utility also says that the drive is faulty, you should replace it before it dies.

Your hard drive is still under its statutory 12-month warranty. You should be able to get a replacement, because the drive manufacturers replace any drive that gives SMART warnings. Visit the online store's website to find out what its returns policies and procedures are.

Can you install/mix IDE PATA and SATA hard disk drives in the same computer/PC and in a RAID array?

Question

My desktop PC has a Gigabtye GA-P35C-DS3R motherboard and a Samsung Spinpoint SATA hard disk drive. The motherboard supports RAID. I have an older IDE PATA hard disk drive taken from another PC that I don't want to waste. Is it possible to mix SATA and PATA drives in an internal RAID configuration? Also, is it possible to install the PATA drive in an external hard disk enclosure via a USB port?

Answer

You can install the older IDE PATA hard drive internally because the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R motherboard has one residual IDE PATA port that can connect two IDE hard drives or one hard drive and one IDE CD/DVD drive. (You can find reviews of this motherboard by entering its make and model in the Google search box at the top of this page with its Web radio button enabled.)

There are no eSATA ports on the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R motherboard, instead it comes with a dual eSATA bracket that connects an internal SATA header on the motherboard to the bracket that fits into a slot at the back of the case. Therefore, you can use an external eSATA/USB 2.0 external hard-drive enclosure that fits an IDE PATA drive and use it as an external drive.

However, you cannot use an external or an internal IDE PATA drive with an internal SATA drive in a RAID array. This motherboard supports RAID, but all motherboard RAID controllers require that all of the drives in a RAID array should have the same kind of interface and preferably all have the same amount of disk space. If there are differences in the amount of disk space in the drives, the array will be based on the smallest drive's disk space and excess space on the larger drives will be unusable.

When PATA and SATA hard drives are installed on a motherboard, the BIOS Setup Program determines which of them is bootable (starts the system up). With some BIOS Setup Programs, all RAID controllers are set up as SCSI controllers, even though no SCSI hard drives are being used. On some motherboards it is not possible to change the boot order. If that is the case, and both PATA and SATA drives are installed, some motherboards always boot from the PATA drive and others always boot from the SATA drive. For more information on this, read the motherboard's manual. If you don't have a copy, download one for that model from Gigabyte's website: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/.

It is a better option to use a file-synchronisation program, such as Fileback-PC from http://www.fileback-pc.com/, or a backup program, such as AIS Backup from http://www.aiscl.co.uk/ to create and maintain a mirror drive than it is to use a RAID mirror option. Both of those products can save previous versions of files so that, if the latest copies are damaged, earlier versions can be restored.

Click here! to go to the information on RAID on this site.

Will a backup copy/image created by Norton Ghost on a second hard disk drive be bootable when the drive is installed as the boot drive?

Question

My beloved home-built PC runs Windows XP Home and has two IDE ATA 160GB hard drives installed. I use Norton Ghost 2003 to create an image of the boot drive on the second drive on a regular basis. Then, if the main drive fails for some reason, I plan to replace the failed drive with the drive that has the image of the system on it. However, I can't find out how to install the boot files to the second drive that would make it bootable. With Windows 98, there was an option to format the drive and install the system files that would make it bootable, but Windows XP doesn't provide that option.

Answer

Windows XP makes any hard drive potentially bootable by default (you don't have to make the choice), so if you use the default options in Norton Ghost, the image should also be bootable, because it is an exact clone of the imaged drive. To boot the system from the drive with the image on it, you should just have to connect it to the same IDE connector on the motherboard that the present drive is connected to.

However, things can go wrong, so it is best to test the image by attempting to boot from it.

How the boot process works in Windows XP

To understand what can go wrong, you have to understand how the boot process works.

In Windows XP, the BIOS setup program loads the data on the first sector of the drive installed as the master drive on the primary IDE connector on the motherboard. There is a primary and a secondary IDE connector.

Note that if a computer has a combination of different types of drive controller (IDE, SATA, SCSI, or PCI adapter cards for IDE or SATA drives), the first controller is usually determined by an option setting in the BIOS. Most current motherboards (the time of writing is June, 2006) have a BIOS option that can make an external USB hard drive the first bootable drive.

That is not the case with your setup. You only have two IDE drives that use the IDE controller on the motherboard, so merely replacing the drives should make the drive with the image bootable.

To be bootable, a hard drive must have at least on primary partition, which must be marked as active. This is usually the case unless you formatted the drive and chose the Extended instead of the Primary option as the partition type, in which case the drive will never be bootable.

Moreover, if a drive contains more than one partition (the PC manufacturer might have added a partition that contains recovery files or utilities), make sure that the partition with Windows installed on it is the active one. To do that open Disk Management by entering diskmgmt.msc in the Start => Run box (or go Start => All Programs => Administrative Tools => Computer Management => Disk Management). The boot drive, which is usually the C: drive, should be described as Healthy (System). If another drive is active, it has the description Healthy (Active). Non-active drives are just described as Healthy. With only one operating system installed, only the system drive will boot. Your second drive should be an active drive that will become a system drive when it is installed as the master drive on the primary IDE connector. If you have the drive set as a slave drive on the secondary IDE connector, make sure that the drive is jumpered to make it the master drive. Visit this Build a PC page on this site if you need to know how to install a hard drive with the master/slave or Cable Select methods.

The data on the first sector of the drive contains the Master Boot Record, which, when accessed, finds and loads the boot sector of the active partition. The boot sector looks for and loads the hidden file called NTLDR, which loads the NTDETECT.COM file (also hidden; a search for those files won't locate them), which then uses a file called Boot.ini to locate the operating system (Windows XP).

Note that if you don't want the system files to be hidden, open Folder Options in the Control Panel, open the View tab and enable option called Show hidden files and folders.

How does the boot-sector code locate the NTLDR file when the operating system (Windows XP), which usually handles finding files has not yet loaded?

There is a small amount of code in the boot sector that can't handle the complex NTFS file system that is native to Windows XP, so it is programmed to search a fixed location on the drive. Unfortunately, when Microsoft's programmers wrote the boot sector program, they used cylinders, drive heads (which search the disk) and sectors of the drive as reference points. This was the way in which floppy disk drives and the earliest hard disk drives in the late 1970s described locations on a hard drive. Cylinders, drive heads, and sectors are no longer used to locate points on a drive, because a system called Logical Block Addressing (LBA) is used instead. Therefore, in order to make the two addressing systems work together, the hard drive and the BIOS create a fictional division of the drive space into cylinders and heads. However, the number of heads and cylinders is determined by the particular BIOS and hard-drive firmware being used. Therefore, if you change the motherboard, you change the BIOS, or if you change the drive, you change the firmware. If the compromise between the two addressing systems is changed, the cylinders, heads, and sectors shown in the Master Boot Record won't agree with the information in the boot sector, and they must be made to match each other. This can be rectified by repartitioning the drive.

Fortunately, you can fix the problem more easily if your computer has a floppy disk drive, which many current PCs no longer have. You format a floppy disk using Windows XP by right-clicking on the A: drive in My Computer with the disk inserted, and then choose Format.... Then open Windows Explorer, click on the C: drive, and copy the following files to it, which are in the root directory (C:\): NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, and Boot.ini.

Note that if the computer has an SCSI or some other non-standard drive controller that the BIOS does not support, you must copy the device driver for that controller to the floppy disk and then rename it ntbootdd.sys.

Next, boot the system with the floppy disk. You may have to set the floppy disk drive as the first boot device in the BIOS. The operating system on the drive will be loaded from its location after the relevant information has been accessed in the Boot.ini file.

The Boot.ini file provides the location of the operating system, which is Windows XP. In Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP, the file specifies from which drive on which controller the operating system should be loaded. This makes it possible to install those versions of Windows on any partition of any drive, using any controller, even though the first stages of the boot process will always use the master hard drive installed on the primary drive controller.

Since you have two IDE drives, the drive containing the Norton Ghost image contains a copy of the boot drive's Boot.ini file, so you can just remove the failed drive and replace it with the drive with the image on it. It must be set as the master drive, or installed properly using the Cable Select method that I discussed early on in this article. However, if someone has two different types of drive, such as an IDE drive and an SATA drive, you can try changing the boot order in the BIOS (make SATA the first boot option if the image is on an SATA drive), or try editing the information in the Boot.ini file.

The Recovery Console has a bootcfg /rebuild command that locates the operating system and modifies the Boot.ini file automatically. Click here! to go to information about it on this site.

Note that Windows XP will not boot from the image unless it has the same drive letter as the original boot drive. This is not an issue with the DOS-based versions of Windows - Windows 95/98/Me - because the active partition on the primary drive is always given the letter C:, but Windows XP handles removable drives differently by giving a drive the same drive letter every time it is connected. This can make strange things happen when copying/imaging from one drive to another. For example, it is common to find, having performed a repair installation of Windows XP in order to put things right after a backup of the system has been restored, that the system drive has become drive E: because Windows is programmed to think that the C: drive already exists.

The change of drive letter from C: to E: (or any other letter) shouldn't prevent Windows XP from booting properly, because it reads the path to the system drive from a variable that is set during the boot process. Unfortunately, Microsoft's programmers could be sloppy and have often used the letter the that the system was installed on instead of the variable, which means that Windows XP won't work properly unless the drive that contains the copy is allocated the same drive letter as the original drive.

If you want the copy to be given the same drive letter as the original drive (usually C:), make sure that you use the option to clone the drive in Norton Ghost, not the other options for copying data drives, because the other options won't copy the serial number that is set when a drive partition is formatted. This is because the drive letter is assigned in the Windows Registry according to the drive serial number. You are going to replace the failed drive with the drive containing the image so you won't have two drives installed that have identical serial numbers. In any case, although technically illegal, it isn't usually a problem to have two drives installed with identical serial numbers. Windows XP will make the boot drive the C: drive and then allocate another drive letter to any other hard drive that is installed.

The Windows XP Disk Defragmenter won't go all the way: Defrag stops at 12%

Problem

My computer won't run the Windows Disk Defragmenter all the way. It's the first time I've had a problem with it. It gets to about 12%, stops and produces a message that says some files cannot be defragmented. I am running Windows XP Home SP2. The last software I installed was jv16 Power Tools - the paid-for edition - and I used it to clean the Registry.

Answer

In Windows 95/98/Me, startup programs were the cause of most such failures, but the Disk Defragmenter (Defrag) in Windows XP isn't usually bothered by startup programs running in the background. I would say that there is either a problem with the hard drive itself, or some open or in-use file is getting in its way, or a security tool is preventing Defrag from moving a system file, perhaps because it recognises it as malware.

To check the C: drive deeply enough, run Chkdsk in Thorough mode, To do that open My Computer, right click on the C: drive, and select Properties => Tools. Click Error checking => Check Now... and place check marks in both check boxes by clicking in them with the mouse pointer. Click Start. A message saying that the disk check cannot be performed in normal Windows mode offers to run Chkdsk during a reboot. Choose Yes, and then reboot the PC to allow Chkdsk to run during the startup process. Because the process takes a long time, the best time to do this is when you are not using the PC for several hours, or run it overnight. When the process is finished successfully, it means that the drive itself is all right. Reboot the PC again, and start pressing the F8 key as the startup begins. Press the key quite a few times in order to catch the moment when Windows is looking for that keystroke. The F8 key interrupts the normal boot process and presents you with a boot menu that includes Safe Mode, which you should select. In Safe Mode, Windows XP runs its most basic configuration that makes troubleshooting possible, because none of the higher functions are loaded. If any antivirus or other security programs are running in Safe Mode, disable them temporarily. To run Defrag from the command line, click Start => Run, and enter defrag c: in the Run box. This activates the most basic version of Disk Defragmenter which has no graphical interface. Defrag should now defragment the whole C: drive. Afterwards, reactivate the security programs, and restart the PC.

I can't access files in a user account protected by a password on a hard disk drive that was installed in another PC running Windows XP

Problem

When the power supply on my ex PC failed it took the motherboard and the processor with it to component heaven. (I can't tell you how much it hurt me to have to bin them.) I built a new computer - new power supply, motherboard, processor, memory, hard drive. I installed the old hard disk drive, which was found to be working, in a USB enclosure in order to use it as a backup drive, but I also have many gigabytes of music and images on the drive that I want to recover. Unfortunately, the files are in a user account that is protected by a password, so I am unable to access them. Is there any way that can be done?

Answer

When a password is set for a user account, Windows XP provides an option to make its files private. With NTFS as the file system, right-clicking on a folder, and clicking Sharing and Security allows you the option to make that folder private. The option is there if FAT32 is the file system, but it can't be enabled. Making files private in those ways sets NTFS security permissions that prevents them from being accessed by other users. You must have made the files private.

Because NTFS uses a combination of the username and a unique Security Identifier (SID) key that is created when you install Windows XP, even if you use the same username, the file system security in the new installation of Windows identifies the files as belonging to a different user, so it won't allow you to access them.

Fortunately, Windows XP allows you to change the ownership easily. How this is done depends on the version of Windows XP is being used.

In Windows XP Professional Edition, open Windows Explorer (right-click Start => Explore) click on Tools => Folder Options => View tab, and turn Simple File Sharing off (use your mouse to uncheck the option called Use simple file sharing (Recommended and click Apply).

If you have Windows XP Home Edition, you must first start the PC in Safe Mode by repeatedly pressing the F8 key after the memory count and just before Windows itself starts to install itself. Log in as the Administrator. That account is shown only in Safe Mode and usually has no password. Open Windows Explorer. Right-clicking on a folder should present an option called Sharing and Security. Click on it and then click on the Security tab of the window that presents itself. Next, click on Advanced => Ownership, select the group entry for Administrators and place a check mark with the mouse in the box called Change ownership on sub-containers and objects, and click on Apply. If a message come up saying that it needs to reset permissions, click OK. All of the files should now be accessible to you.

In Windows XP the boot drive is F: instead of C: - How can I change the boot drive's letter back to C:?

Problem

My hard drive failed irrecoverably and I reinstalled everything on a new hard drive, but unfortunately I left my USB card reader installed. So, now the hard drive is drive F: because the reader is drive C: and D: and the CD/DVD drive is drive E:. It's not a major problem, but it does cause problems with some software, such as Spybot Search & Destroy, because it wants to check the C: drive. I work around it by unplugging the USB card reader.

Answer

Changing the drive-letter assignments for actual additional hard drives installed in a system or non-boot partitions that Windows gives a drive letter is usually easy, but changing the boot drive's letter, which is usually the C: drive, is more involved, because the installed software has usually been installed to work from it. When users install software, they usually accept the default location for the installation, which is under the Program Files folder on the C: drive. But in this case, Windows itself has changed the drive letter of the boot drive from C: to F:, so it would also have changed its program references that point the programs to the C: drive to the F: drive. You therefore need to know how to restore the C: drive as the boot drive.

Read this MS Knowledge Base article: How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=223188.

The article applies to Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional Edition, not to the earlier versions of Windows.

"This article describes how to change the system or boot drive letter in Windows. For the most part, this is not recommended, especially if the drive letter is the same as when Windows was installed. The only time that you may want to do this is when the drive letters get changed without any user intervention. This may happen when you break a mirror volume or there is a drive configuration change. This should be a rare occurrence and you should change the drive letters back to match the initial installation."

The procedure for non-boot drives is provided in this article: How to change drive letter assignments in Windows XP at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307844&sd=tech.

This Google search should produce many more links that provide relevant information: http://www.google.com/search?q=assign+drive+letters+xp.

If I connect an SATA hard drive to my PC, it won't boot. It gives error message "hal.dll is corrupted"

Problem

I have Windows XP Pro installed on an IDE hard drive. Everything works fine, but if I connect an SATA drive to the PC, it won't boot. It gives this error message: "hal.dll is corrupted" - I have tried reinstalling Windows with no luck. The same thing happens with or without SP2 installed. - Strangely enough, the PC boots if BIOS is set to use the CD/DVD drive as the first boot device and the Windows XP installation CD is in the drive at startup.

Answer

The first action to take is to enter the BIOS setup program. If necessary, click here! to go to information on the BIOS on this site.

The SATA and RAID settings are usually in the section of the BIOS called Integrated Peripherals. Here are the settings in the Phoenix Award BIOS of an MSI K8N SLI Platinum motherboard:

OnBoard Sil3132 RAID - This setting controls the onboard Sil3132 RAID chip. Setting options: [Enabled], [Disabled].

OnBoard Sil3132 Mode - This setting allows you to select the Onboard Sil3132 mode. Setting options: [SATA], [RAID].

SATA1/SATA2 & SATA3/SATA4 - This item is used to enable or disable onchip SATA controller. The settings are: [Enabled], [Disabled].

nVidiaRAID Config - Press to enter the sub-menu and the following items appear:

RAID Enabled - This item is used to enable/disable the onchip RAID function. When you set to enable and the following fields will be selectabled. Setting options: [Enabled], [Disabled].

IDE Primary/ Secondary Master/Slave RAID - This feature allows users to enable or disable the RAID function for each IDE hard disk drive. Settings: [Enabled], [Disabled].

SATA1/ SATA2/ SATA3/ SATA4 RAID - This feature allows users to enable or disable the RAID function for each onchip SATA hard disk drive. The settings are: [Enabled], [Disabled].

You only have one SATA hard drive, which can't use RAID because a RAID configuration only works to make two or more drives function together in one of several different schemes, such as one drive mirroring the contents of another, etc. Click here! to go to information on RAID on this site.

Therefore, check to make sure that the SATA options are enabled and that the RAID options are disabled. If you had two or more IDE hard drives that you want to use in a RAID configuration, you would enable the IDE RAID options.

The PC would boot if the BIOS is set to boot from the CD/DVD drive first, because the hard drives are not in the picture as boot devices.

When I install Windows XP on an SATA hard drive and then reboot, the setup program asks me if I want to begin the setup all over again

Problem

I am trying to install Windows XP on an SATA hard disk drive. When I insert the Windows XP CD in the CD/DVD drive, the setup program works just fine. The install program recognises my SATA drive and starts installing the system. Then I have to reboot. Unfortunately, rebooting results in going back to XP's install menu that gives me the option to begin the process all over again. It appears that the BIOS doesn't try to boot from the SATA drive. Having no experience whatsoever of SATA drives (I have hitherto only had IDE hard drives), I don't have a clue about what I should do to fix the problem.

Answer

You have formatted the drive from the Windows XP installation CD, because you wouldn't have been able to install Windows XP if that wasn't the case. You might also have partitioned the drive.

You should have the boot sequence in the BIOS set to boot from an SATA drive. If you have a fairly recent motherboard, the setting for that must be there because it has SATA connectors. For older motherboards that don't have SATA connectors, if you have the SATA drive installed on an SATA PCI adapter card, there should be a setting in the BIOS called Boot from an SCSI controller. An SCSI controller for SCSI drives works in a similar way to an IDE adapter card. Enabling that setting should enable the system to boot from the SATA drive instead of from the motherboard's IDE controller.

You only have one SATA hard drive installed. The SATA (IDE) RAID feature (that controls two or more hard drives in a RAID array of drives), may be enabled in the BIOS as a default setting, so, start the computer up and enter the BIOS (usually by pressing the Del key after the memory count), and make sure that the RAID feature is disabled. For some reason, some motherboard manufacturers are under the impression that nobody installs only one SATA hard drive and therefore set the BIOS up for multiple drives by default, thereby making it impossible for a system with only one drive to function without changing that setting.

I can't find out if DMA is enabled for my hard disk drive in Windows XP

Problem

In order to speed up my slow computer, I was advised to make sure that Direct Memory Access (DMA) is enabled for my IDE hard drive. I know how to enable it in Windows 98. All you do is click on the hard drive's name under Disk drives in the Device Manager. You click on the hard drive's Settings tab. In the window that comes up there is a check box with DMA beside it that you enable. But, try as I might, I can't find out where DMA is enabled or disabled in Windows XP. When I enter msinfo32 in the Start => Run box to bring up the System Information window, there is information on DMA, but nothing on where to locate its enable/disable setting.

Answer

When you attempt to configure the direct memory access and programmed input/output (DMA/PIO) settings for a hard drive in Windows XP, the settings don't appear in the Properties dialog box for the hard drive. For some reason, Help and Support doesn't provide the location of the settings. The DMA/PIO settings are configured for each IDE controller instead of for each hard drive (as they are in Windows 98). To locate the settings, open the Control Panel, and then follow these steps to configure the DMA/PIO settings for an IDE controller:

1. - use the right mouse button to click on My Computer, click Properties, followed the the Hardware tab.

2. - Click on the Device Manager button.

3. Expand IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers by clicking the + beside it.

4. Several primary and secondary controllers are listed. Click the controller for which you want to configure the DMA/PIO settings.

5. Click the Advanced Settings tab (if available; only active controllers will have this tab; inactive controllers may be listed).

6. In the Transfer Mode box, click either PIO Only or DMA if available.

If necessary, read the following pages:

Device settings are hard to find in Windows XP - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q310751

DMA Mode for ATA/ATAPI Devices in Windows XP - http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/IDE-DMA.mspx

Troubleshooting: Enabling/Checking DMA in Windows XP, 2000, Me, 98 - http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=101616

My external hard drive is not recognised (US: recognized) by my PC

Problem

I have an elderly Dell Dimension XPS running Windows XP with 512MB of RAM and a 50GB SATA hard drive. I use a LaCie 80GB external hard drive for storage. I have antivirus and antispyware scanners and a firewall all of which are fully updated. The computer became very sluggish, so I decided to reformat the hard drive and reinstall everything. I was advised to disconnect the USB 2.0 cable of the external hard drive from the computer before reformatting the boot drive, which I did. The computer runs fine now, but, for some reason it doesn't recognise the LaCie external hard drive, even though the LED light indicating power is on and lights up, and I can feel the drive spinning. I tried installing the external hard drive on different computers, but it was not recognised. I am out of ideas. Is there any way I can get the drive working so I can recover the data stored on it?

Answer

It's not advisable to use an external hard drive for general data storage, which should really only be used only for temporary backups, because external hard drives are generally slower than internal hard drives, most of them come preformatted to use the FAT32 file system, which has a 4GB file-size limit, they are more likely to fail because of a greater likelihood of accidental bumping or dropping, and many external drive enclosures that house such drives are not properly cooled for continuous usage, which can lead to premature failure.

The possible causes of your problem are as follows:

1. - A bad cable, so try using another USB 2.0 cable just to make sure the cable is not damaged. 2. If you are using the same USB 2.0 port to connect the drive to the PC, it might have developed a fault, so try using a different port. 3. - The controller inside the Lacie drive or the drive itself has failed, which would necessitate replacing the drive. You could send it to a data recovery company that would charge an arm and a leg to recover the data if it is that valuable to you. You can find such companies by using the Google search box at the top of this page with its Web radio button enabled. To locate such companies in the UK, you could use a search term such as data + recovery + uk (as is). They also advertise in computer magazines such as Computer Shopper.

The hard drives used in home PCs typically have an average lifespan of five-years, but many last much longer and some can fail much sooner. In fact, because they can easily be damaged by being dropped, etc., some drives are fatally damaged during transportation to the vendor or the purchaser. Unfortunately, you rarely receive a warning of an impending failure, thus the need to make regular, restorable backups. Note that if the drive is under warranty, Lacie will repair or replace it, but the company will not recover any data and usually will reformat the drive during the process, so, if you want the data you'll have to recover it before returning the drive to its manufacturer.

When booting I can't have my external USB 2.0 hard drive turned on or else I get the message "Invalid system disk, please replace"

Problem

When booting my one of my PCs that runs Windows XP and has an MSI motherboard, I can't have my external USB 2.0 hard drive turned on or the error message "Invalid system disk, please replace" comes up. The PC boots fine if I leave the drive switched off and then turn it on after Windows has loaded. After the Windows XP logo appears I can turn the drive on. On my other computer that has an Asus motherboard, there is no problem starting up when the external hard drive is switched on.

Answer

Check that you have set the boot order of devices in the BIOS to the order that you want them to boot. In a Phoenix Award BIOS, there should be a setting called First/Second/Third/Fourth Boot Device on the Advanced BIOS Features page of the BIOS. The wording for both of those categories will be similar in another make of BIOS. This setting allows you to set the sequence of boot devices from which the BIOS attempts to load the operating system (Windows, Linux, etc.)

On the same page in the BIOS, there should be other settings called Hard Disk Boot Priority and CD-ROM Boot Priority. Those settings allow you to set the boot priority of the hard drives and CD/DVD drives installed in the system.

If the problem isn't fixed by correcting those BIOS settings, try downloading and installing the latest drivers for the motherboard from the MSI site, and, if you still have the problem, try updating the BIOS itself, which may have a bug that is rectified by the update. The motherboard manufacturer's site provides BIOS updates and information on the ways in which they can be installed.

Can Windows XP format my new USB external hard drive?

Question

I have a new 120GB Western Digital hard disk drive installed in a USB 2.0 external case. I need to format it and get it running. I'm using Windows XP.

Answer

Windows XP has an Initialize Disk Wizard. If you start Disk Management after adding a drive, the Initialize Disk Wizard appears so you can initialise the disk, partition, and then format it.

But if you have to access the Wizard manually for some reason, enter diskmgmt.msc in the Start => Run box or open the Control Panel => Administrative Tools => Computer Management => Disk Management. If an unformatted drive is present it is listed as one of the installed drives, each of which has a small descriptive section. For an unformatted drive the description says Unknown or Not Initialized. Right-click on it and select Initialize Disk, then right-click on the right-hand side of the next window and select New Partition to start the New Partition Wizard. Select Primary Partition and continue with the wizard.

Installing a hard disk drive in Windows XP: Unfortunately you can't just install a drive in the case and plug it in to make it work. You have to initialise and format the drive before it appears in My Computer or Windows Explorer. - If you require more information, click the link to the following page. It provides illustrated instructions on how to use the Wizard.

How to install an additional hard drive using Windows XP Disk Management -

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2cfd04d2e817f010VgnVCM1000005106090aRCRD&locale=en-US

How can I format an external USB hard drive in Windows XP without having to make it the C: drive?

Question

Is there a way to format a new hard drive that I've connected via a USB port? My computer runs Windows XP. I recently installed a 200GB hard drive, then a week later, had to return my 80GB hard drive to the vendor. When it, or a replacement, was returned, I tried to set it up as an external drive in an enclosure with a USB connection, but it wouldn't format. I had to remove the side of the PC case, disconnect my 200GB C: drive , and format the 80GB external drive as if it were my C: drive. Once I got the first half partitioned (partitioned as two drives) and formatted, I reinstalled the 200GB drive as the C: drive, and then was able to format the second partition on the external USB drive. That seems like a lot of trouble to me. Can a brand new, out-of-the-box hard drive (say, a 100 or 160 or 200GB drive) be cabled as an external USB drive, and then be partitioned and formatted without having to make it the C: drive?

Answer

How to initialize, partition, and format a new hard disk drive from within Windows XP

With the USB drive connected, enter diskmgmt.msc in the Start => Run box to bring up Disk Management. The drive should be given a space there with the other drives, and you should be able to partition and format if from there by right-clicking on its space. You have to initialise (US: initialize) it in Disk Management before you can format it, but it will be listed there.