greg@phoenix.princeton.edu (greg Nowak) (08/25/89)
I've been trying to install a new disk controller on my Leading Edge D
because I thought the old one had died. Symptoms: Norton's NDD was
reporting problems with the Partition Map and the boot Sector;
the hard disk at this time was accessible but not bootable. Then the hard
disk died completely; if I tried to boot from it, I got the 1701 error
after the RAM check, and then a "Boot disk failure" error. At this time,
Spinrite halted with a message about FATAL DISK CONTROLLER ERROR, and C:
was completely inaccessible. I assumed the problem was the disk controller,
but the same errors occur with a new disk controller. I've tried putting it
in all of the expansion slots, loosened and reattached the 20-pin, 34-pin,
and power cables, and so on, and I'm still getting the same error. All of
my diagnotic programs refuse to recognize the hard disk; even the hard-disk
initialization programs (eg physical format) claim there's no disk there.
The hard disk does power up and attempt to boot, but that's about it.
I'm even willing to reformat the hard disk, since I've used Norton's
Format Recover often enough to have some confidence that I could get back
at my data. I'm beginning to wonder if the old disk controller wasn't the
real problem, and that there's something wrong with the disk instead. Good
news if this means that I can still use the old disk controller, since it
means that I'll have a better chance of getting at my data if I can do
something with the hard disk, but bad news if it means the disk is shot.
Has anyone experienced this set of symptoms before? Did I miss some crucial
step in the intallation, or is my disk dead?
...!rutgers!phoenix.princeton.edu!greg
Greg Nowak/Phoenix Gang/Princeton NJ 08540