Posts Tagged ‘jumper settings’
September 8th, 2009 | 
Author: All hard drives crash, no matter how and when. When the drive actually fails, it is said to be mechanically failed. While in some cases, when the hard drive starts catching problems, it starts giving some warning signs and thus you can very well recognize them before it dies. The article aims at defining all such symptoms that occur before and after a hard drive failure. Also, it discusses about some diagnostic steps that you should apply before deducing the conclusion. However, to recover from a completely failed hard drive, hard drive recovery service will be required.
Warnings
If you are observing noticeable increase in warning patterns for a hard drive, you should completely backup your data as soon as possible. The typical warning symptoms are:
You find files mysteriously disappearing or being inaccessible from the hard drive
You often observe system being frozen while normal operations
System gets locked up when you try to boot the system
When you try to open or save a file, it takes unexpected time
Post-failure Signs?
When the hard drive has completely failed, the only thing you can do is to replace it and restore from backup. However, you can deduce it by following signs:
Hard drive makes strange noises. This particularly occurs when the read/write head is failed and tries to scrap off the magnetic surface while trying to move.
System fails to boot
You observe a completely dead hard drive- not spinning up
You may receive blue screen of death
How to Diagnose?
If you have encountered symptoms, discussed above, you first need to examine the system to check if it is indeed a hard drive failure case:
Make sure that hard drive has been properly defined in BIOS. Enable the auto-detect option
Ensure for proper hard drive cabling
For an IDE hard drive, you need to ensure that all jumper settings are correct for master/slave
Try booting the system using a bootable disk to see if it is not a logical failure issue
If your system is unable to detect the hard drive, call Hard Drive Data Recovery service as it might be physically damaged. Hard Drive Recovery service is the aid provided by recovery experts who analyze the crashed drive for fixing damaged internals and extract the data thereafter.
Stellar Information Systems Limited is the leading organization that provides comprehensive and advanced disk recovery service for all brands and models of hard drives. The company offers safe and confidential Hard Drive Data Recovery program through Class 100 Clean Rooms and complete set of recovery procedures.
Author is researching on the hard drive related problems and explains the warning that can cause data loss .Author has given solution of hard drive recovery and suggested to use hard drive recovery software.
Article Source: Hard Drive Failure: Warnings and Solutions
LILO (LInux LOader) is the generic boot loader used for Linux systems. When LILO loads it prints a letter after a particular task is done, completing the word ‘LILO’. Thus, it gives you specific way to analyze and correct Linux boot problems if any error occurs while successfully starting the system. In few cases, you might need to reformat or repartition the disk as the solution.
Thus you require a clean data backup to restore lost information later. Due to any cause, if you find no recovery is possible from backup as it is corrupt or absent, you should use Linux Recovery tools for complete recovery purpose.
When you start a Linux-based system, you might observe that LILO stops at ‘LI’, preventing the system to boot further. The system hangs after this event.
Cause
When LILO stops at ‘LI’, it indicates that the first stage of booting has been completed and loaded the second stage boot loader, without actually executing it. Possible reasons for this behavior to occur are:
• Hard disk is suffering from geometry mismatch
• /boot/boot.b file has been moved without running the map installer. This file is installed as the basic boot loader.
• System is trying to boot from a non-bootable disk and could not find the kernel
• Jumper settings issue
• /boot partition is not created below the 1023rd cylinder on hard drive
Solution
To fix these problems, you should refer to these solutions:
• Reformat the hard disk in case of geometry mismatch issues. Restore lost data using backup
• Run map installer to place the moved /boot/boot.b file at correct location. This program resides at /sbin/lilo
• Make sure that no external media is present in system while you are attempting to boot the system
• Ensure that all jumper settings are appropriate
• Reparation and reinstall Linux to create boot partition below 1023rd cylinder. Use you recent data backup to restore lost data
In any case backup fails to restore because of corruption or other concerns, use Linux Recovery applications, which are powerful application designed to recover lost data. Such Linux Recovery tools perform thorough scan to efficiently recover all the data.
Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is a well-built tool to locate and recover lost data using powerful scanning technology. It is a read-only tool that supports safe Linux Data Recovery for Ext2, Ext3 and ReiserFS file systems. It supports almost all of the Linux distributions.
Jonny a student of Mass Communication doing research on linux recovery and linux data recovery software. He is also a freelancer for http://www.stellarinfo.com
Article Source: LILO Stops at ‘LI’
When a computer system is powered up, BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) is the first program (a firmware that is software on hardware) executed by a computer system. The BIOS detects, tests and initializes system devices like hard drives, optical drives, keyboard, display screen etc. After the BIOS check is over, computer system files take control to detect the hardware and software environment. Among all computer storage media, hard disk is the most common one due to its large storage capacity and cost-effectiveness. When the hard drive fails due to hardware issues, BIOS fails to detect it. This generally happens when hard disk suffers physical issues related to one or more of its internals. Attempting to run such failed hard drives can cause more damage to your data. So, if you ever encounter such issues, it is recommended to power down the system immediately and consult data recovery solution providers for recovering lost data.
The first function of BIOS is to run POST (Power-On Self Test) that is stored on a predetermined address in memory. This code is responsible to gather information of all attached drives including hard disk. It makes sure that all hardware is working properly and the minimum hardware required is available. Thus, if the hard drive is damaged, POST may not detect it.
In particular, BIOS may fail to recognize the hard drive post issues as physical crash. But, there can be other issues as well like:
• You have recently changed the BIOS settings and hard disk is not correctly configured.
• Hard disk is inappropriately connected to the system. Power cable or interface cable is damaged or not attached to the mainboard.
• Jumper settings are not correct.
• Hard drive controllers are disabled in BIOS.
To solve the issue, you need to follow these steps:
• Set your BIOS settings to default
• Verify all cables are in good condition and are properly connected
• Check jumper settings. If you have attached two hard drives to a port/connector, make sure that one of them is configured as master and other as slave
• Make sure that all/in-use hard disk controllers are enabled
• If the problem continues, you require a hard drive recovery company that has all the modern facilities and tools to recover lost data.
Data Recovery service incorporates cutting-edge technologies and tools that are intended to recover lost data. When you first send your failed hard drive to a recovery company, the recovery experts scrutinize it under safe and controlled lab environment of Clean Rooms. Based on such analysis, suitable recovery procedures are followed to recover optimum lost data. For example, if your hard disk is damaged due to read/write head crash, experts repair or replace it.
Stellar Information is industry’s leading provider of quality data recovery services. Stellar’s recovery experts work under state-of-the-art Class-100 Clean Rooms. The recovery solutions are available for almost all makes and models of hard drives (SCSI, SATA, EIDE and IDE), USB flash drives and SSDs (Solid State Drives: SATA). Stellar provides complete data recovery solutions for Server, RAID, SAN and NAS hard drives.
K madhav is a data recovery expert and doing research on data recovery software and hard drive recovery.
Article Source: What You Do When BIOS Fails to Detect Hard Drive
During POST or Power On Self Test, computer BIOS attempts to get information regarding all of the devices attached to your computer system. After examining the processor and primary memory (RAM), it checks for the devices like hard drive, CD ROM etc and shows them with messages on screen like ‘Found Primary Master’ and ‘detecting IDE drives’ etc.
-> POST (Power On Self Test) is the first thing done by BIOS when your computer first boots up. POST is an in-built diagnostic program, which examines the hardware of your computer system to make sure that everything is available and working properly.
Many times, the BIOS of your computer just declines to recognize the hard drive, basically makes it unusable- there is no way in which your operating system will recognize the hard drive if BIOS can not. Let’s observe why all this happens.
The most frequent reason of this problem is a badly connected or loose data cable. You should first ensure that data cable is properly plugged in, both into the motherboard as well as the hard drive.
The same thing goes for the power cable, so you should check it as well. You should also make sure that red lines on data cable and the power cable are contiguous to one another.
Once you have ruled out the cable problems, you need to check out the jumper settings on hard drives. If two hard drives are attached to a port, ensure that one is set as masters and other as slave.
Next, ensure that the hard drive controllers on motherboard are not disabled. These hard drive controllers control the IDE devices and without them BIOS could not detect the hard drives.
If any of the above mentioned methods does not work, you need to search for a data recovery expert to cure your hard drive. It seems that hard drive has some internal problems, which can not be cured without opening it. And you are not recommended to open your hard drive at your own.
Data recovery experts are highly qualified and trained professionals, who know all ins and outs of the hard drive and are able to fix most of the physical hard drive problems. To ensure absolute and safe data recovery, always go for the experienced and reliable data recovery company.
Stellar Information Systems Limited is the most trustworthy and leading data Recovery Company, having more than 15 years of rich experience. Stellar’s personalized data recovery services is offered by highly trained data recovery specialists through Class 100 Clean Rooms.
Williamz Jack work as a freelancer and researcher of Data Recovery & File Recovery Software.
Article Source: What to Do When BIOS Does Not Recognize the Hard Drive?