[Ma-linux] IDE Drive problem, need advice

[Matt Bidwell]

Jay Hart wrote:
> Ok, the guy down the hall from me has a IDE drive in an external USB enclosure. The guys mouse
> didn't work when he originally called me (seperate issue, which I fixed).
> 
> After I fixed his mouse (replaced batt), then I couldn't get PC to boot (XP) normally.  So I
> finally booted into safe mode, got a couple of drive errors.  Since I didn't know his hardware
> setup, I decided to unplug the ext USB drive. This resolved the drive error condition, and I was
> able to boot PC normally.  Just for grins, I rebooted PC without ext drive again, and upon reboot
> everything fine.
> 
> Drive is a Fujitsu MPA3043AT.
> 
> So, I plugged the ext drive back in, PC screwed up again. Turned PC off, removed drive, PC boots
> normally.
> 
> So, ext drive has an issue. I removed the IDE drive from the case, and plugged it into a IDE cable
> as master, no other IDE devices in PC.  PC boots pass POST, recognizes drive, but can't actually
> get the PC to boot a boot loader.  The state I'm in is basically the screen right after the BIOS
> loads and then looks for the boot loader.
> 
> PC is set to boot from floppy. I can boot from floppy if I use another drive, but not this
> particular drive.
> 
> So, at this point figure I got two options for problem, bad controller, or bad drive.
> 
> So, I order an identical used drive, and receive.  I swap controller boards out. I'm call guys
> drive "A", and the drive I ordered (which is used) drive "B". From BIOS and fdisk utils, the drive
> I ordered looks fine, but I haven't run any tests on it.
> 
> I ran Four tests:
> Guys "A" drive with "A" controller: not boot
> Guys "A" drive with "B" controller: not boot
> New "B" drive  with "A" controller: boots fine
> New "B" drive  with "B" controller: boots fine
> 
> Test indicates the drive itself is causing the problem.
> 
> Now the guy, (a cartoon artist), has a bunch of data on the drive, which is what I'm trying to get
> at.
> 
> So, anyone got any other tips I can try, such as freezing the drive???
> 
> When the drive spins up, it sounds normal.  I think I'm down to the option of telling him to send
> this drive off for data recovery.
> 
> TIA,
> 
> Jay Hart

One more thing I thought of... Ultimate Boot CD.
This is downloadable and burnable to CD.  Although
some of it is long in the tooth,(cpu troubleshooting
is almost useless with modern dual core/multi cpu machines)
it still has all the major drive manufacturers tools on it.
It also has some motherboard trouble shooting tools you can
use.

Matt