Damaging HDs

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Damaging HDs

#1 Post by Asker »

Im treating to install 1.0.4 in a second HD, specially to grow memory whit a swap partition (only 48 Mb RAM, MMX-200).

raffy
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Check HD Setting

#2 Post by raffy »

You may know this already, but no harm in checking - make sure that you set the hard disk right in the BIOS (CMOS). At boot-time, most BIOSes are configured to autodetect the hard disk, if not, enter BIOS setting (CMOS) and "Detect HD" then save changes.

And, oh, make sure that you have only one hard disk (the primary master) connected. Linux is quite fussy about this, although Windows is not.

Some more ideas are in the link below.
Puppy user since Oct 2004. Want FreeOffice? [url=http://puppylinux.info/topic/freeoffice-2012-sfs]Get the sfs (English only)[/url].

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rarsa
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#3 Post by rarsa »

And download the HD manufacturer utilities to initialize the HDD. If they are very old HDD then they will do a low level format. If they are newer it will be a 'zero write' also called low level format although it isn't.

Make sure that your BIOS recognizes the correct geometry of the HDD (heads, sectors, cylinders, etc). You can find the correct geometry of your HDD on the manufacturer's web site.

Partitionin, repartitioning and formating should not physically damage a HDD. It may become 'unusable' due to setting the wrong geometry, but with an good initialization it will be like new.

Bruce B

#4 Post by Bruce B »

A little off topic. I had a hard drive that started to develop bad sectors in one section. Here is how I dealt with it.
  • I wiped the drive clean.

    Partitioned and DOS formatted it.

    Ran Norton Disk Doctor on it to locate the bad section.

    Repartitioned the drive to avoid making any file systems in that section. It's been working fine since. (although I generally think bad sectors is a symptom that the drive is near the end of its life)


It seems odd that a drive only in use about 6 years, would develop bad sectors, but it did. :?

Just kidding, sorta.

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Ian
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#5 Post by Ian »

Your power supply might be on the way out, do you have another that you can try in your machine or can you try the HDs in another machine.

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rarsa
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#6 Post by rarsa »

Bruce B wrote:It seems odd that a drive only in use about 6 years
Hahaha, I was going to jump on this one before I saw the 'Just kidding".

Never trust critical data to a HDD newer than a couple of months old or older than 5 years old. Even now that the HDD have became really reliable.

I used to have a 5 MB HDD that I had to format every couple of months to mark for bad sectors.

Bruce B

#7 Post by Bruce B »

rarsa wrote:
Bruce B wrote:It seems odd that a drive only in use about 6 years
Hahaha, I was going to jump on this one before I saw the 'Just kidding".

Never trust critical data to a HDD newer than a couple of months old or older than 5 years old. Even now that the HDD have became really reliable.

I used to have a 5 MB HDD that I had to format every couple of months to mark for bad sectors.
Yes, well the bad sectors started showing up after only 6 years, the drive is now 8 years young. I hate bad sectors. Sometimes they can show up anywhere, but in this case they were showing up relatively close to each other.

Wanna hear something funny? The other day I wanted a 32 GB drive. So I asked my vendor for a 32 MB drive. He asked me if I was sure I wanted a 32 MB drive and I replied affirmative.

He said he's got a used one for $25 guaranteed in good condition. So I jumped on it, thinking is was a fair price for a 32 GB drive.

I wondered why it was so big and heavy, when I got home and connected it I discovered that I got want I actually asked for not what I actually wanted. :)

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rarsa
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#8 Post by rarsa »

:lol: hahahahaha, nothing to add....

(except adding that my first HDD was really 5MB

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babbs
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#9 Post by babbs »

I paid extra for the optional 10MB hard drive in my first computer instead of the 5MB default. I also paid extra for the 640k RAM instead of the 530k standard.

Bruce B - If you'd like another highspeed hard drive, I think I still have a 20MB MFM drive somewhere around here that still worked when I took it out of one of my old systems... ya want it? :lol:

Asker -
In my system, I have two hard drives. I have Chubby Puppy 1.0.4 on a 5GB partition on one drive (hda) that shares the 1GB swap partition on my second drive (hdc). My master boot partition (100MB) is on my second drive, along with my swap partition (1GB) and Fedora 3 partition (19GB). Grub runs from the master boot partition and is set up to choose between Puppy and Fedora, with Puppy as the default. My Puppy partition on the first drive is one of four 5GB partitions (the other three are presently unused).

If I can get my mess to work right, I know that you can too.

I tend to agree with the others, it seems like you are suffering from a hardware failure. Starting with the power supply is where I would start. Try doing the low-level, Fat16 format as recommended, but I would recommend doing it on another computer that is capable of auto detecting your drive. Most drives have the geometry printed on them.

Babbs

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