HOW TO TROUBLESHOOT YOUR HARD DRIVE
( Software Troubleshooting )

The hard drive is not as hard to understand at all once you remove the cover and take a look at this device. If you have taken the time to back up your files you won't panic when your hard drive crash. If you have an internet business you can use another hard drive as a backup. Install the same operating system on both drives and should the drive in the computer crash, you can simply connect your backup drive.

Being prepared to repair and/or upgrade your hard drive with both save you big bucks and downtime. Now we will first review some of the Hardware problems concerning hard drive failure.

If the drive is not spinning at all....

Check the power supply connector after you remove the cover of the system unit. Remove the connector and connect another connector from the power supply. Check the connector with a multimeter for 5+ volt.

If the drive makes a unusual grinding sounds on regular basis, the read/write head may have crashed onto the platters.

Hard Drive Software problems and solutions

If the drive CMOS settings are not correct, the drive will not boot up. Find the key combinations to access your BIOS and check the settings to see if the drive has been recognized. Select "Auto" from the main BIOS screen and after rebooting,the drive should be detected automatically. Be sure to save the changes and then reboot the computer to see if the drive works

Computer boots but with many errors or hangs

The LBA or Logid Block Addressing settings may be set wrong when your computer have many errors, and if your computer is an older model. LBA is a method used by older PCs to support IDE hard disks larger than 504 megabytes.

Access your BIOS and check the LBA settings. If the LBA settings are not enabled, enter the BIOS and enable your LBA.

Your Hard Drive may have an IRQ Conflict

The primary hard drive controller normally uses the IRQ or Interrupt Request Line of number 14 and if you have a second drive, it may use number 15.

You may install a new device such as a modem that uses IRQ 14 by default and once installed, the PC may not recognize the hard drive.

The solution here would be to change the IRQ setting of the new device you installed to another IRQ. Check the manual that came with the new device for possible IRQ settings

Device Drivers loaded in Windows causing problems

We have seen this first hand with Windows 95 and 98 loading into memory device drivers that should have been deleted. Take the time to check the device drivers being loaded in memory. You can press F8 as the PC boots and select "step by step confirmation" to see most device drivers as they are being loaded

Another way to view these drivers is to type "Edit c:\autoexec.bat or Edit Config.sys from the C:\ prompt. An editor will open the Autoexec.bat and Config.Sys files on Windows 95 and 98. Here you can check to see if there are device drivers being loaded that you deleted earlier.

Study,learn,and study some more to learn about not only your hard drive but every component, install, optimize, upgrade and troubleshooting procedure there is concerning your computer system. It will be both fun and rewarding to boost your knowledge of the hard drive and save lots of money in the long run.

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Otis F. Cooper
Softsale Software
5550 Pickering Ct.
Colorado Springs,Co 80911
allaboutpc@juno.com
http://www.ultimatepcrepair.com
719-390-6935

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