Sector not found

[Chrisk]

My kid is at school and he just called with a problem - when he boots his pc it goes thru the post then says sector not found abort retry ? I had him boot to a C prompt which he was able to do annnd was able to see his files so I know that they are there but when he types win he gets the same error. Could it be a virus? Was not able to run scandisk - something about LBA but not sure. It's an older pc with a new 40 gig WD that is set up with EZ Bios.

[Dan]

if you are able to boot to safe mode, try running a virus scan (or scandisc) from there....

[GaryRouth]

Is this his computer - or the school's?

If it's his, Dan's advice should have helped figure if the problem was a boot sector virus or not (which can cause this error)

It can also happen when drives are starting to fail. Scandisk can sometimes mark bad sectors of the drive so that they won't be used in the future. But a hard drive that start's having such trouble is usually a good bet to fail sooner rather than later.

Have him run the DataLifeGuard tools (they should have come with the drive when you bought it - or you can download them at the WD website). Do a thorough test: it should give a good indication of the status of the drive.

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[. . . and the nice thing is that 40gb WD drives can be had on sale here in the states for $40-$50 USD - so if they are the same in merry England, replacement won't hurt the budget much. . .]

[Chrisk]

It's his pc and we can't boot to safe mode. WDtools says the drive is not set up properly but it says that on mine too and it runs fine. (I set the drive up with the WD disk) The drive is new at Xmas so I think the drive is fine. It all started with Kazza and his desktop got messed up and he had to restore it-when he rebooted he had the problem. The only thing I can get to is a C prompt. I ran scandisk-fixed errors and still same problem. Should I reinstall Win98? P.S. Sandwich MA

[Chrisk]

While on the subject of WD their diagnostics tell me that the drive is not set uo properly but in every different screen it tells me something completely different! It makes it impossible to set the drive up on your own.

[mike breck]

I think it sounds as tho EZ-BIOS has become corrupted - hence the LBA type error.

Try reinstalling the WD EZ-BIOS.

To do this, use a Win98 Bootdisk to get to the A: prompt
Insert the Data Lifeguard Tools disk
Type DLGEZ /MBR and press Enter.
This should re-install EZ-BIOS to your boot or master drive and hopefully allow you to access the HD

If you haven't DOS-based, anti-virus floppies, then might want to run the DOS-based F-Prot anti-virus before reinstalling EZ-BIOS

http://www.f-prot.com/download/

BTW You shouldn't allow DOS-based Scandisk to repair any errors found on the HD. If EZ-BIOS is corrupted, then repairing errors in a different LBA mode could corrupt the rest of the HD.

The LBA mode used by EZ-BIOS is different to that used by the mobo BIOS.

HTH

[GaryRouth]

Some excellent advice from Mike. I hope it's just the EzBios & not a boot sector virus or disk failure. KaZaa can pack quite a punch with not just virus vulnerability, but also to spyware, trojans, hijackers, etc. http://www.spywareinfo.com has lots of information on the subject, and anti-spyware tools to download and try. Most are free, and have full-strength commercial versions as well for a modest fee.

[and a question for Mike] - does EzBios load after Dos is already running? If it's installed on a drive, does it provide its overlay translation for Dos programs as well as Windows? It's such curious software, I haven't really paid attention to it's operation in Dos. [hasn't come up before]. I can see where the Dos ScanDisk might be a big problem - you'd figure that WD would give a noticable warning somewhere.

I suppose this is a good day for me to learn a bit more about that widely used program.
. . . Gary

[p.s. #1 - Chris: if his data is fairly well backed up, you can scan the backups for viruses. And if they are clean, wipe the drive with a reformat (leaving any Non-Dos partitions from Compaq alone, if this is a Compaq) and install fresh (I suppose this also assumes you have a Windows disk or Recovery disk that will let you load the OS clean). You can do without Ez-Bios altogether by buying a $10 IDE controller card (might get a slight performance boost as well - higher Ultra-Dma performance)]

[p.s. #2 ... didn't know about Sandwich, Maine (I think that's what MA is - or is it Massachusetts? or Maryland?). I was thinking of the place in England with the famous Earl & his deli inventions]

[Chrisk]

It is to the point where I can't even access the drive! When the system boots it recognizes the 40 gig drive but even the win98 boot disk doesn't see it and loads ramdrive in c. Aughhh!

[GaryRouth]

Did you try reinstalling the EzBios mbr with the command Mike posted?

The WD diagnostics should be able to detect and test the drive, even if it's a goner. [If it's a goner, it will let you know]. If it's been less than a year, then it's under warranty & should be replaced free of charge. (not sure if they still have 3-year warranties or not - might be a 3-year)

Hope it turns out OK
. . . Gary

[mike breck]

Good question Gary,

Every Drive Overlay changes the code in the MBR, EZ-BIOS will start when the BIOS pulls the first sector of the HD containing the MBR into the Ram.

As part of the job of the MBR is to examine the Partition Table and look for the Active Partition to load the OS, then Drive Overlays will run before any OS is loaded - even DOS.

When you think about it, if that was not the case, then you wouldn't be able to use a large HD in DOS at all. The full capacity wouldn't be recognised or seen.

Using Scandisk in DOS is not a problem if the MBR is intact. However, if you should remove EZ-BIOS from the HD or the MBR becomes corrupted then this could cause serious problems.

The info about possible Scandisk/HD corruption comes from Maxtor - and not WD. In their instructions for testing to see whether a HD can run properly on a new mobo "without" using EZ-BIOS, they state the way to find out is to use Scandisk in DOS. If the drive shows as error-free, then it should work well after removing EZ-BIOS.

Alternatively, if Scandisk throws up an error, then that means the mobo BIOS is not compatible with the LBA mode used by EZ-BIOS. Any attempt to "repair" the error shown, could result in total disaster.

In that case, you are advised to back off without repairing the error, and continue to use EZ-BIOS.

I figure, that as the Maxtor and WD Drive Overlays are fairly similar, that it would be safer to apply this rule to WD as well.

HTH

[GaryRouth]

Mike - I think you're right about WD and Maxtor using similiar tools... My guess is that they are both probably using versions of OnTrack's EzBios, sometimes under their own branded title.
Thanks for the details

Chrisk - any luck yet?
. . . Gary

[Chrisk]

Ok Lost all data and reformatted the drive after fdisk. Went to install System Commander but would not allow me to - said there was a third party disk utility in place. I did not install EZ Bios again after fdisk but it seems to be there. Also the drive is only registering as a 26 gig. What to do?

[mike breck]

You'll need to use the lifeguard tools to write zeros (low level format) to the HD. That will completely erase the Drive Overlay and return the HD to pristine condition.

What motherboard and BIOS version?

If the BIOS does not recognise the full capacity of HD, then you have three options:

Try to get a BIOS upgrade that tackles the problem
Reinstall EZ-BIOS
Get a PCI Controller Card like the Promise Ultra 100 TX2 ($20-$30). This will allow the full capacity to be recognised and run the HD at full speed.

Of the three options, I've got to say, I prefer the Promise card. Not only does it circumvent the BIOS limitation, it also lets you increase the amount of IDE devices you use from 4 to 8 (up to 4 HDs on the card) you use.

And if you ever change systems, then you can put the card in next system.

Great device to have.

If you go back with the free, EZ-BIOS solution, just make sure you do some reading up on the WD site about the do's and don'ts of using Drive Overlays. That should reduce the chances of disaster.

HTH

[Chrisk]

Thanks all for the help. The Promise card seems to be the solution. On boot the drive is recognized so does that mean the bios does? After format does 338??? sound like the correct size?

[mike breck]

I'm sorry, I don't understand what 338 represents - GBs or Megabytes?

What size does the BIOS see the HD drive as - 40GB or 32GB?

A 40GB HD should format out to around 38GB.

1GB = 1024MBs - so that should be around 38,912MBs after format.

If it's formatting out to 32,768MBs or less, then the BIOS has a 32GB limitation.

Also, a point to remember, is that with modern HDs (and with a mobo which is capable of ATA66 or ATA100), you should jumper them to Cable Select and use an 80 wire 40 pin cable with the Blue (to Motherboard), Gray (to Slave) and Black (to Master)connectors.

If using a 40 wire cable (which you shouldn't really be using) and there is NO Slave present, take all the jumper caps off the HD jumper block. If there IS a Slave on the cable, then jumper the HD to Master.

WD HDs have slightly complicated jumpering arrangements.

So, how do you have the drive jumpered and what sort of cable?

Also make sure you don't inadvertently jumper the HD to the Cylinder Limitation Jumper position. That will limit the capacity the BIOS sees to 32GB.

Sorry, that's another work-a-round for BIOS limitations, I didn't tell you about. It is worth a try if the BIOS turns out to have a 32GB limitation and you don't mind losing 25% of the working capacity.

It's not "tooo" bad on a 40GB HD, but not many people would want to lose approx 28GB on a 60GB HD.

You can maybe try it, if the BIOS can't recognise 40GB, just to see if it WILL accept 32GB.

HTH