Molex Power Plug
Serial ATA Power Plug
Serial ATA Motherboard Plug
Damaged Head
ISA Hard Drive 10mb
Checklist
Does the BIOS pickup the drive?
Are the cables properly installed?
Does the drive spin up?
Are the cables properly installed?
Does the drive spin up?
Cable and Power Connector
Make sure the cable is working properly by attaching it to another device
Repeat the same process with the power connector
If there is a fault with the power connector it is advisable to change your power supply SATA cables are not all identical such as with IDE check the DWG measure on the SATA cable to indentify one capable to running your hard drive to its maximum speed (transfer rate) the higher the DWG the faster the cable
Repeat the same process with the power connector
If there is a fault with the power connector it is advisable to change your power supply SATA cables are not all identical such as with IDE check the DWG measure on the SATA cable to indentify one capable to running your hard drive to its maximum speed (transfer rate) the higher the DWG the faster the cable
Physical Hard Drive Failure
* The drive is not spinning. To troubleshoot this condition you need to physically access the drive while the computer is on. With the cover off, look at the drive and find the side which has NO components. With your hand touch that side and try to feel the spinning of the hard drive platter. A typical hard drive has a small amount of vibration and a slight whine.
* The hard drive head has crashed onto the platter. This usually causes the drive to emit unusual sounds sometimes grinding and many times repeating on a regular basis. A normal hard drive has a smooth whine so its should be easy to identify the bad drive by just listening
* The hard drive head has crashed onto the platter. This usually causes the drive to emit unusual sounds sometimes grinding and many times repeating on a regular basis. A normal hard drive has a smooth whine so its should be easy to identify the bad drive by just listening
Bad Sectors
* The hard drive is unable to read a sector on the platter.
This problem can be identified by running a program that is capable in performing a hard drive surface test. In Windows 95 you can use the scandisk which is found in the Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools folder. Another way is to use a utility program like Norton Utilities to perform the surface scan.
This problem can also be seen when you are formatting the hard drive and is indicated as "bad sectors" during the formatting. These bad sectors are normally recorded as such by the format program and the computer knows not to use them but more bad sectors can be created as the hard drive ages.
* One or more files have been damaged by some process.
These type or problems are caused when the computer is unexpectedly rebooted after a lock-up or perhaps a power failure. They are easy to troubleshoot and repair. Simply run the scandisk program which is found in the Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools folder and allow the computer to repair any errors found.
After such a repair it is very possible that one of more files were corrupted and are now unusable. It is impossible to tell which files will be affected in advance but if you write down the bad file names shown during the scan disk operation you can try to find the application which loaded them and re-install that application.
This problem can be identified by running a program that is capable in performing a hard drive surface test. In Windows 95 you can use the scandisk which is found in the Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools folder. Another way is to use a utility program like Norton Utilities to perform the surface scan.
This problem can also be seen when you are formatting the hard drive and is indicated as "bad sectors" during the formatting. These bad sectors are normally recorded as such by the format program and the computer knows not to use them but more bad sectors can be created as the hard drive ages.
* One or more files have been damaged by some process.
These type or problems are caused when the computer is unexpectedly rebooted after a lock-up or perhaps a power failure. They are easy to troubleshoot and repair. Simply run the scandisk program which is found in the Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools folder and allow the computer to repair any errors found.
After such a repair it is very possible that one of more files were corrupted and are now unusable. It is impossible to tell which files will be affected in advance but if you write down the bad file names shown during the scan disk operation you can try to find the application which loaded them and re-install that application.