[comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc] Hard disk problem

cncst@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Christophe N. Christoff) (11/05/90)

I have PC/AT compatible machine with Seagate hard disk paritioned
into drive C and drive D.  I ran Norton speed disk for both drives
and I was successful on drive C, and got message saying something
like "incomplete....., run Norton Disk Doctor".  Then, I ran 
Norton Disk Doctor on drive D.   What happened was NDD was trying to
read forever, and never return the control back to DOS.  I had to 
turn off the machine after very very long time.  After I turned on
the machine again, drive D was bad.  I cannot use it, and I cannot
even get a directory on the drive D.

How can I fix this problem?  I hope I can recover something back
from drive D.  Any suggestion I can try?

ESR@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU (Ed Russell) (11/06/90)

In response to:
>
>From: cncst@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Christophe N. Christoff)
>Subject: Hard disk problem
>Date: 4 Nov 90 22:17:52 GMT
>
>
>I have PC/AT compatible machine with Seagate hard disk paritioned
>into drive C and drive D.  I ran Norton speed disk for both drives
>and I was successful on drive C, and got message saying something
>like "incomplete....., run Norton Disk Doctor".  Then, I ran
>Norton Disk Doctor on drive D.   What happened was NDD was trying to
>read forever, and never return the control back to DOS.  I had to
>turn off the machine after very very long time.  After I turned on
>the machine again, drive D was bad.  I cannot use it, and I cannot
>even get a directory on the drive D.
>
>How can I fix this problem?  I hope I can recover something back
>from drive D.  Any suggestion I can try?

You didn't say how the disk was partitioned.  DOS FDISK?  Disk Manager?
You also didn't say whether you are using a disk cache program.

I have also had some recent problems with Norton (4.5) Speed Disk.  It
totally lunched the files in one directory on the D partition (FDISK from
DOS 3.3).  I had files with 0 length and all sorts of errors with
cross-linked files and clusters not attached to files.  I finally erased
the whole mess and restored from a backup.  I couldn't tell if it was
Norton alone or because I forgot to turn off the PC-CACHE from PCTOOLS
before running Speed Disk.  In any case, I usually use the compress
function of PCTOOLS because I have had a couple of suspicious things
with Norton (no proof, just suspicions).

ESR@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU (Ed Russell) (11/07/90)

In response to:

>>From: cncst@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Christophe N. Christoff)
>>Subject: Hard disk problem
>>Date: 4 Nov 90 22:17:52 GMT
>>
>>
>>I have PC/AT compatible machine with Seagate hard disk paritioned
>>into drive C and drive D.  I ran Norton speed disk for both drives
>>and I was successful on drive C, and got message saying something
>>like "incomplete....., run Norton Disk Doctor".  Then, I ran
>>Norton Disk Doctor on drive D.   What happened was NDD was trying to
>>read forever, and never return the control back to DOS.  I had to
>>................

I replied (in part)

>I have also had some recent problems with Norton (4.5) Speed Disk.  It
>totally lunched the files in one directory on the D partition (FDISK from
>DOS 3.3).  I had files with 0 length and all sorts of errors with
>cross-linked files and clusters not attached to files.  I finally erased
>the whole mess and restored from a backup.  I couldn't tell if it was
>Norton alone or because I forgot to turn off the PC-CACHE from PCTOOLS
>before running Speed Disk.  In any case, I usually use the compress
>function of PCTOOLS because I have had a couple of suspicious things
>with Norton (no proof, just suspicions).


I apologize for casting aspersions on Norton.  My problem also had nothing
to do with the use of a disk cache (although that may sometimes cause
problems).  The problem is that the file menu in the PCTOOLS shell tries
to be efficient by not re-reading the directory tree automatically but
keeping information about it in a disk file.  (One of the menu items on
the OPTIONS menu allows you to tell it to re-read.)  Thus, if one goes from
the PCTOOLS file menu to the applications menu and invokes ANY disk
defrag (including the one from PCTOOLS), returns to the file menu, and then
does something (stupid) like changing file attributes without having told
the shell to re-read the directory tree, there is an EXCELLENT chance of
screwing up your directory entries, getting cross-linked files, etc.

Thus, my problem was not remembering to re-read the directory after doing
a defrag/compress and before diddling file attributes.  This also had
nothing to do with the original post.

Scott_Phillips@f110.n771.z3.fidonet.gen.nz (Scott Phillips) (11/07/90)

FSC-Control: EID:fd4c 15681740
 >I have PC/AT compatible machine with Seagate hard disk paritioned
 >into drive C and drive D.  I ran Norton speed disk for both drives
 >and I was successful on drive C, and got message saying something
 >like "incomplete....., run Norton Disk Doctor".  Then, I ran
 >Norton Disk Doctor on drive D.   What happened was NDD was trying to
 >read forever, and never return the control back to DOS.  I had to
 >turn off the machine after very very long time.  After I turned on
 >the machine again, drive D was bad.  I cannot use it, and I cannot
 >even get a directory on the drive D.

I've had the same problem with NDD scanning the hard drive and never 
seeming to stop.  I left it going for about 10-15 minutes and finally 
it came up with "check CMOS, invalid drive number" (which is silly as 
it was on an XT, not AT).  I'm not sure if NDD is such a good program 
if it damages disks!!! Although I've retreived a few buggered floppies 
with it.


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