robs@infmx.informix.com (Robert Schneider) (06/03/91)
A question for all you hard disk mavens: I've got a Bleeding Edge Model D 4.77 MHZ PC, with a 30 mb hard drive. I've noticed something fairly peculiar as follows: When "cold" e.g. freshly booted, I can access the hard drive no problem. After about 5 minutes or so, I begin to get seek errors. No matter what I do, I can't get at the damn drive. Running 'fdisk' off drive A, I am told that the FAT is gone and that there is no partition on C. Of course, this is not the case. If I power off the PC and *immediately* turn it back on, drive C is still unavailable. If I wait an hour or so, and then power up, the problem repeats itself as originally stated, e.g. 5 minutes of pleasure followed by infinite pain. Does anyone have an idea about what this could be? I can use the PC basically as a one floppy machine right now. I'd like to have the hard disk back. Thanks to any and all who reply. Rob
mig@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Meir) (06/05/91)
In article <1991Jun3.032541.20012@informix.com> robs@infmx.informix.com (Robert Schneider) writes: > >A question for all you hard disk mavens: > >I've got a Bleeding Edge Model D 4.77 MHZ PC, with >a 30 mb hard drive. I've noticed something fairly >peculiar as follows: > >When "cold" e.g. freshly booted, I can access the hard >drive no problem. After about 5 minutes or so, I begin >to get seek errors. No matter what I do, I can't get at >the damn drive. Running 'fdisk' off drive A, I am >told that the FAT is gone and that there is no partition >on C. Of course, this is not the case. If I power off >the PC and *immediately* turn it back on, drive C is >still unavailable. If I wait an hour or so, and then power >up, the problem repeats itself as originally stated, e.g. >5 minutes of pleasure followed by infinite pain. > >Does anyone have an idea about what this could be? I can >use the PC basically as a one floppy machine right now. >I'd like to have the hard disk back. > >Thanks to any and all who reply. > >Rob Back up your hard disk, let your computer run for an hour or two, then do a low-level format of your hard disk, reformat, and restore the info. From then on, let your computer warm up for 10 minutes before using it. A larger power supply and better cooling might also be in order. Is the fan still turning? BTW, new hard drives are getting cheap! Good luck! There are some very good hardware guides out there at the book- store and library which describe such problems.... * * * * * * * ======================= Meir Green * * * * * * * * ======================= mig@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu * * * * * * * ======================= meir@msb.com
barnett@rex.cs.tulane.edu (Karey Barnett) (06/05/91)
In article <1991Jun3.032541.20012@informix.com> robs@infmx.informix.com (Robert Schneider) writes: > >A question for all you hard disk mavens: > >I've got a Bleeding Edge Model D 4.77 MHZ PC, with >a 30 mb hard drive. I've noticed something fairly >peculiar as follows: > >When "cold" e.g. freshly booted, I can access the hard >drive no problem. After about 5 minutes or so, I begin >to get seek errors. No matter what I do, I can't get at >the damn drive. Running 'fdisk' off drive A, I am >told that the FAT is gone and that there is no partition >on C. Of course, this is not the case. If I power off >the PC and *immediately* turn it back on, drive C is >still unavailable. If I wait an hour or so, and then power >up, the problem repeats itself as originally stated, e.g. >5 minutes of pleasure followed by infinite pain. You might want to try re-low level formatting the hard drive.