[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: HD problems



-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


On 27-Feb-08, at 1:25 AM, Zach wrote:

Hello,

Two day ago I suddenly got lots of I/O and read errors which went to
all consoles on my laptop (Latitude C600 running Debian testing
release with Linux kernel 2.6.18) followed by loud clicking noises
coming from the area where the HD is then the kernel panicked and the
screen froze and I then heard several high pitched beeps and loud
chirping noises like a cricket. This is the small ATA/IDE HD that came
with the laptop (~8 years old, Hitachi Travelstar 08K0851, 20GB). I
tried rebooting and it said it could not load the root filesystem and
complained about error reading disk  and  input/output error and I
heard beeping noises again - 2 quick very sharp beeps ~90 seconds
after it tried loading the / filesystem. I booted into my Ubuntu Live
CD and tried mounting the disk but it gave read error. So I went to a
local computer shop and bought another HD and installed it in the
laptop; I made sure the laptop had no power (battery is dead and I
unplugged power cord) and I used latex gloves and had the laptop on a
wen table when inserting the new drive into the side of the laptop.
It's a Toshiba ATA disk, MK6026 GAX, 60GB, another $60 sigh. That
drive also gave similar read, I/O problems so I suspect it is a bad
hardware controller or maybe even the interface connection. Two drives
both cannot be read. Has anyone ever heard of anything like this
happening before (the HD is god but cannot be read due to fault in the
system's hardware)? I hope whatever is wrong didn't damage the data on
my drives.



It's odd that the new drive is unreadable as well. It's possible, but the noises you mention make it sound like it was drive failure, not controller failure.

The best way forward you've already stated - grab an external drive case and put the drive in that to see what happens. Since you have a laptop drive, look for a 'slim' or 'small' or 'portable' case - they are meant for use with laptop drives. You'll know one when you see it - the box is too small to hold a regular 3.5" case.

Alternatively, they do make adaptor cables that let you hook the laptop drive up to a regular 3.5" drive cable. The interface is the same, just the connectors are different so a simple adaptor works fine.

Alternative to that, they do make IDE to USB adaptors, and some of those come with the connectors for laptop drives.

HTH,

Brian
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (Darwin)
Comment: Verify this email or encrypt your email for free - see gnupg.org

iD8DBQFHxXSZGnOmb9xIQHQRAkgcAKDVjh6/QZn6WUZ4tOJPDU0qUaTSMACgnlN6
nyrvMPVn35mF4LjfZnMZoVE=
=VSp6
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----


Reply to: