down in the dumps!!!!

[Guest]

This weekend as I was completing my preflight for a long haul EGLL-KORD my purter died on me - I think. Everytime I try to restart it it says there is no primary hard drive. I didn't make any changes to the jumper settings so my fear is that the HD may be dead. It recognizes the secondary drive and when I start the computer the light on the primary drive comes on and I can hear the disc turning but the computer says there is no primary hard drive. I know this is not a lot of information for a diagnosis but as I sit at work waiting for the day to end so I can take the bloody machine in to the doctor I wanted to see what you guys think the problem could be. 2100+ AMDWIN XP (home)512MB Ram#1 HD Western Digital 27Gigs#2 HD Western Digital 80Gigs

[Guest]

Doesn't sound good Rich....I went through the same thing a few months ago. Fortunately... I had all my stuff backed up.Unfortunately... it was backed up on the hard drive.I am still rebuilding flightsim from what I remember having. This time, it's backed up to disc before I even install it.The hard drive that failed was a Western, 30gig, 7200rpm.New hard drive: Maxtor, 20gig, 5400rpm (cheap, but so far, so good).Can't see wasting more money on state-of-the-art if it's only going to last a year or so.Good luck, (try setting it as a slave.. you may be able to recover some data from it.)Bob

[Guest]

Hi Bob,Thanks for the reply, hopefully I won't have lost it all because I think I would have to find another hobby if I did. I have spent too many backbreaking hours downloading and tweaking stuff to get my Flightsimming just right. Incidentally I was on my way to pick up my birthday gift from the wife - a CD R/W drive, if only I had that before this happened.

[Guest]

There are 2 possibilities:1) The prob occured without any intervention on your part or on the part of any program/system interference. This indeed points to a harddisk failure. Your setup seems to be quite new, so its at least a warranty issue. Overheating might be an issue here as well. Is your case well-ventilated?2) User/program interference of any kind. Please try to recall EXACTLY what happened it the time between your last succesful session and the problem.So try to check your BIOS settings... boot config ok? Might also be a BIOS reset due to CMOS battery failure. Harddisk recognized at all? If not, try to attach it to your alternative controller if you have one on your motherboard (dont know whats current in this regard, but most new mobos have more than one IDE Controller. If it works then -- it has likely been a compatibility issue.Hope those first thoughts help. By all means handle your drive with care now more than ever :)

[Jay R 0]

Try booting off the XP CD-ROM, and try an automatic repair, it may be the MBR is fried.Happened to me, and this worked for me.http://www.forefrontgrp.com/jayssig.jpg"There is an art . . . to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss!"

[Guest]

Thanks for all the help guys unfortunately, the simmers worst nightmare has come true for me. I took the puter in to the shop last night and after looking at it for about 15 minutes and trying various solutions to get the drive to be recognized they told me the drive controller was where the problem lies, bottom line I lost the drive and all the stuff on it. The good news was I backed up my two most important files on that PC (6gigs of FS2002 stuff)and (5 Gigs of Napster downloads). I have made a few changes since the backup but nothing that I can't recreate within a few hours. This just shows the importance of backing stuff up, I never thought I would lose a hardrive just like that, but it happens I guess. As long as I don't have to sit for another 30hours downloading and assembling 250 AI planes (with gear) I won't complain too much.