Storage (non OS) harddrive causes computer to not boot

heleos · 2009-04-26 19:45:22

I just updated my PC, and in the process, switched over from IDE to SATA. I still have a 250 gig IDE drive that has been my storage drive for the past 5 years. I figured it wouldn't be a problem to just plug it in, and copy all the data over, but it seems there is a problem.

When I first plugged it in to the new pc, there seemed to be a problem. It was showing the device as 'RAW' in windows. Using a program (getdataback) I was able to see that all my information was still on the drive, but the MBR was probably messed up. I had the trial version, so I wasn't allowed to copy data off of it.

Unfortunately, now I cannot even boot my PC with the drive connected anymore. the PC will post, but after it gets past the bios screens, I get a black screen with a blinking cursor, and my hard drive light stays illuminated. Does anyone have any advice so I can atleast get my PC to boot with the drive plugged in?

graysky · 2009-04-26 19:51:46

So you have a system using a new SATA boot drive and an old EIDE drive, right? How is the old EIDE drive jumpered (master, slave, etc.) and what else do you have on the EIDE bus (CD or DVDROM maybe)? If it is a the sole device on the EIDE bus, I would recommend that you change the jumper setting to something else. Older HDD's can be very temperamental in my experience. I had an older WD drive that would only work if the jumper was removed (slave mode) even though it was the only thing on channel0.

Also, does the BIOS in your new MB have various settings for the EIDE controller like RAID, AHCI, etc. etc.? You might wanna switch it to 'legacy' or 'native ide' mode. Once you can resolve this apparent BIOS problem you shouldn't need any windows program to get at your data - damaged MBR or not. If the BIOS can see the drive and you're able to get into Linux, you should be able to mount the drive (assuming no physical damage) and get your data.

Last edited by graysky (2009-04-26 19:53:52)

fphillips · 2009-04-26 19:53:26

BIOS boot drive order

heleos · 2009-04-26 19:54:13

My current setup is:
150GB SATA (linux/windows partitions)
640GB RAID
250GB IDE

The ide is jumpered cable select, and is currently on the slave port with a cd-rom drive as primary. I believe I've tried all combinations with and without the cd-rom drive connected, but I will try again just to be sure

graysky · 2009-04-26 19:54:27

fphillips wrote:

BIOS boot drive order

...good point. Is your BIOS set to boot off the SATA or EIDE?

heleos · 2009-04-26 19:55:12

As far as I know, it should be set to boot sata, but I guess that's a good first step

edit:

Ok, managed to get up to the grub screen. Must have been a combination of bios and jumper settings. Unfortunately, windows hangs on the "loading windows" screen for atleast 5 minutes, and booting into linux hangs for atleast 5 minutes, but I actually get some useful information out of it

ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x6 frozen 
ata1.00: cmd (lots of hex) tag 0 dma 4096 in
ata1.00: status: { DRDY }
ata1: soft resetting link

and some other stuff after that... it seems to repeat that about 4-5 times, then boots up

edit:
Here's trying to mount from inside gnome:

heleos@archy:~/ > mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/tmp
ntfs_mst_post_read_fixup: magic: 0x00000000  size: 1024  usa_ofs: 0  usa_count: 65535: Invalid argument
Record 1 has no FILE magic (0x0)
Failed to open inode $MFTMirr: Input/output error
Failed to load $MFTMirr: Input/output error
Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Input/output error
NTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or it's a
SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows
then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very
important! If the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activate
it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g.
/dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation
for more details.

edit again:
here's a dmesg | tail

heleos@archy:~/ > dmesg | tail                       
NTFS driver 2.1.29 [Flags: R/W MODULE].
NTFS-fs error (device sda1): map_mft_record_page(): Mft record 0x1 is corrupt.  Run chkdsk.
NTFS-fs error (device sda1): map_mft_record(): Failed with error code 5.
NTFS-fs error (device sda1): ntfs_read_locked_inode(): Failed with error code -5.  Marking corrupt inode 0x1 as bad.  Run chkdsk.
NTFS-fs error (device sda1): load_system_files(): Failed to load $MFTMirr.  Mounting read-only.  Run ntfsfix and/or chkdsk.
NTFS-fs error (device sda1): map_mft_record_page(): Mft record 0x3 is corrupt.  Run chkdsk.
NTFS-fs error (device sda1): map_mft_record(): Failed with error code 5.
NTFS-fs error (device sda1): ntfs_read_locked_inode(): Failed with error code -5.  Marking corrupt inode 0x3 as bad.  Run chkdsk.
NTFS-fs error (device sda1): load_system_files(): Failed to load $Volume.
NTFS-fs error (device sda1): ntfs_fill_super(): Failed to load system files.

Last edited by heleos (2009-04-26 20:20:22)

luciferin · 2009-04-28 01:38:29

I'm getting this error too, but for me it is with my boot drive. All of my drives are SATA, I have IDE disabled in my BIOS. My PC actually takes FOREVER to post (I imagine getting stuck reading the MBR/HDD information from the disk?) and when it's finally up and running I get a "No bootable device" error. I'm trying to think through my latest actions to figure out what is causing the error, but so far I have no idea.
AND the batteries in my wireless keyboard are dead. My compy is full of spite right now.

heleos: Are you running ext4 as well?

[edit]
getting this error from the drive while trying to boot the latest live CD:
ata1: device not ready (errno=-16), forcing hardreset
ata1: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)

Timed out "giving up" after about a minute.

I'm booting with IDE mode now to test that...

Last edited by luciferin (2009-04-28 01:41:29)

heleos · 2009-04-28 01:43:33

I am not running ext4, running ext3 currently. I was able to fix my problem..... I guess it's not really much of a fix. My drive boot sector is completely messed up. If I allow it to boot into windows (about 20 minutes), I was able to read everything using the program "getdataback", and I succesfully transfered my needed files off. Not the best option.. but it worked.

luciferin · 2009-04-28 02:09:18

Damn.. I wonder if we picked up some strange malware somewhere..? I have Windows and Linux installed to this disk. My BIOS never gets the disk up and running, it just times out. I'm pretty lost for ideas at the moment, other than trying a USB sata inclosure. Don't know if I even have one of those though.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-04-26 19:45:22

Storage (non OS) harddrive causes computer to not boot

#2 2009-04-26 19:51:46

Re: Storage (non OS) harddrive causes computer to not boot

#3 2009-04-26 19:53:26

Re: Storage (non OS) harddrive causes computer to not boot

#4 2009-04-26 19:54:13

Re: Storage (non OS) harddrive causes computer to not boot

#5 2009-04-26 19:54:27

Re: Storage (non OS) harddrive causes computer to not boot

#6 2009-04-26 19:55:12

Re: Storage (non OS) harddrive causes computer to not boot

#7 2009-04-28 01:38:29

Re: Storage (non OS) harddrive causes computer to not boot

#8 2009-04-28 01:43:33

Re: Storage (non OS) harddrive causes computer to not boot

#9 2009-04-28 02:09:18

Re: Storage (non OS) harddrive causes computer to not boot

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