Win 98 corrupt partition on Toshiba laptop

[Magellan]

Helping out someone with their Toshiba 2100 CDT:

Power Up, no POST beep, odd knocking noise (maybe from the FD) leads to:
"IDE #0 Error"
Check System. Then press [F1] key.

Boot priority is set to FDD -> CD -> HDD
Save and accept changes leads to
IDE #0 Error
Insert System Disk in drive, press any key when ready

Inserting Win98 SE (alt 1) Boot disk (from bootdisk.com) leads to:
Windows 98 Start-up Menu with 3 options (start w/ CD-ROM support, without it and View help file)

Loads CD-ROM driver
Loads DOS
Does a PCI Bus scan. Then...

"Windows 98 has detected that drive C does not contain a valid FAT or FAT 32 partition. There are several possible causes:"

1. The drive may need to be partitioned. To create a partition on the drive, run FDISK from the MS-Dos command Prompt;
2. You may be using third party disk partitioning software. If you are using this type of software, remove the Emergency Boot Disk and restart your computer. Then, follow the on-screen instructions to start your computer from a floppy disk.
3. Some viruses also cause your drive C to not register. You can use virus scanning program to check your computer for viruses.

Running scandisk and chkdsk don't yield much as they only see the temporary c: partition the boot disk made.
I've cleared the CMOS and BIOS and, after rebooting, get the expected checksum error. I also still get the same IDE error and the request for a system disk (thus no progress).

Tried to install F-Prot but got a "Data error reading drive A" when copying to C:

Now I'm trying to save this puppy as some data needs to be recovered. I don't have the facilities to remove the HD and put it on a bench.

Any thoughts?

magellan

[rjfvillarosa]

From what you say it sounds like the hard drive is failing, download the manufacturers hard drive diagnostic tool and run it in DOS. You will need to establish make and model number of the hard drive, presumably it is a Toshiba hard drive, download the diagnostic tool run the application and it will create a boot disk. The test only takes a few minutes and is very comprehensive, it also has a few fix utilities to attempt repairs with.

[Magellan]

Hello again,

Thanks for the tip but Toshiba doesn't seem to offer HD diagnostic software. Here's what else I've done:

- Removed and reseated HD (as per Toshiba instructions).

Problem remains the same.

Starting to think this HD is well and truly dead. Unless anyone has any other suggestions, this thing is going in to the Service Center for some extraction.

Thanks to all of you who read my post.

magellan

[rjfvillarosa]

The diagnostic tester for maxtor drives is one of the better ones wether it will diagnoze and repair a Toshiba drive I don't know, it has the facility to test other drives but as to repairs I cant be sure. I am sure I have seen a link to the site for a Toshiba drive tester, if I can find it I will post it here for you. In the mean time keep a look out for GLC the moderator if anyone will know where to get a diagnostics tester for that drive he will.

I just found this diagnostic tool that says its for the Toshiba laptops, it's called active smart, cant tell you any more than that because I have never used it, maybe someone here can give you a little more information about it.
http://www.disk-utility.com/drive-ha...a-utility.html