Hard Drive not recognized

[trilliansytes]

All of a sudden, my system won't boot up. After the video card and memory are recognized, the system tells me to Wait. A while later, it then beeps and tells me that the hard drive is not installed and wants me to insert a boot disk into drive A:
In the CMOS, when I try to auto detect the drive, it says that it isn't installed, and takes quite a while to determine that.
If I tell it to auto-detect the drive, when the system boots up, it says the master drive is IDE drive and then tries to load windows but doesn't get past the startup screen.
I have tried a different hard drive, which boots up no problem. I have used different power cable, and different connection cable.
This happened a week and a half ago. So, I reformatted my hard drive (low level format) and reinstalled everything. It worked fine for about a week (except once I had to go in and have it auto-detect the drive). Now, it's not recognizing my hard drive again!!
Also, when I was reformating it, I used the fujitsu utility to do tests on the drive, which the drive passed.
Please help!

[CompGeek01]

I had the same problem with my drive a while back. Eventually it wouldn't even help to reinstall everything. Sounds like it's headed downhill to me. I am unsure it there is a test you can perform on it though. GOod luck! :t

-B

[Billforce]

If you get it to start again, you best pull off any info. you want to keep because for sure your hard drive is going away. It's never going to get better, only worse so save your info. When the bios won't detect the drive it is on it's last legs.

[fishybawb]

Yep, definitely back it up if you can. Run the diagnostics program again a few times - they often miss errors on just a single pass.

[rsfnatik]

I just had a 40GB Fujitsu (MPG3409AT) fail on me about two weeks ago. Windows crashed and the drive was no longer detected. I spoke to a few data recovery places and they all had something (negative) to say about the Fujitsu MPG series drives (controller board is apparently susceptible to rather sudden failures).

Hmm... doesn't sound good. If other drives work in the same machine with the same cabling there's most likely a problem with the drive. When you ran the Fujitsu utility did it offer a quick/extended tests? Which did you run? Can you boot from the other drive and get your data off the Fujitsu (connected as a slave)? You're probably better off doing that and sending the drive off for RMA.

Fujitsu is paying out these days depending on the drive. I'm getting $103.50 for my dead 40GB. :)

Good luck.

[trilliansytes]

The drive is about 2 years old. I can recover data from it by hooking it up as a slave, so that's not a problem. I just want to make sure I'm not overlooking something. I don't want to buy a new drive only to find out that I could have solved a problem/issue with my current drive.

When I ran the utility, it had two options, as you said. I ran them both. Both tests claimed that the drive passed.

After I reformatted, it worked great, for about one week. Then it repeated the same thing again. Can't detect hard drive.

Could a virus have damaged my drive? I had a MBR virus not too long ago. Had it removed by a local computer company. At that time, the computer crashed as well, but not in exactly the same way (I still couldn't boot my system though).

[trilliansytes]

rsfnatik, you said Fujitsu was "paying out"? How old was your drive? How do I find out if my drive is on their "list"?

[trilliansytes]

I just tried the drive on a different computer. It started right up! Now, that's not to say it will crash in another week, but what does it mean?
The Fujitsu doesn't work in its computer, but works in a different one. (Recognized with no problem. Did the Fujitsu tests again, passed both).
The Fujitsu doesn't work/ isn't recognized in its own computer, but other hard drives are recognized.

Does that makes sense to anyone?

And, if the drive passed their tests, I definitely wouldn't be able to get an RMA, right? So, I would be wasting my money on shipping.

Does this still sound like the HD needs to be replaced?

[Billforce]

Your right, you may be wasting your money if it proved O.K. Suggest placing it in another machine and running diagnostic tests. The problem COULD be simply your bios not recognizing the drive....if it doesn't, nothing can follow. Perhaps you can reflash your bios. Also, I have had several hard drives to repair that had boot sector or partition virus. You need to clean the boot sector with Norton AV, Disk Dr. and re-fdisk and format it.

If it in fact works as a SLAVE, then it's not toast, it has a bad boot sector.

[trilliansytes]

About a week ago, I did reformat the hard drive. Worked great for a week... now it doesn't. I have deliberately been extra careful about emails with attachments, I haven't used any floppies, etc... why would the boot sector be corrupt again??

I agree that it doesn't sound like it's dead. Why would it work in another computer, but not its own computer? Why would it work for a week or so and then, for no reason, stop being recognized? It just doesn't make any sense to me.

As for reflashing the BIOS, I considered that, but I know there are risks involved with that. I'm a little hesitant to do that. Right now I might have to replace my HD. I don't want to have to replace a motherboard too.

[herosrest]

U need to run a virus scan.

[trilliansytes]

Originally I did do the virus scanner, and it found nothing. Now I can't even 'see' the hard drive in order to scan it when it's in its own computer as the master.
The thing I don't understand is... why is it not recognized in its own computer, but it is recognized in another computer? Shouldn't the problem/issue exist no matter which computer it is in?
I have done the virus scan, reformat, low level format, reinstall, etc. The computer worked for just over a week, and now it's not recognizing the hard drive again.
I really don't know what to do from here. The hard drive utility says it's fine. The virus scanner says it's fine. Another computer says it's fine. But it just will not work in its own computer.
So, should I reformat once again? How many times should I do that till I give up on this hard drive?
Someone please put yourself in my shoes and give me some advice!! :confused:

[rangeral]

You haven't said what motherboard your using? The boards ide slot could be bad, try another hdd in that slot see if it produces the same problem with another ribbon, or use the CS jumper on your old one see if it recognizes it that way.

Or try the problem hdd in ide 2 see if it gets recognized now.

[rsfnatik]

Trillian: From what you describe I would say either the system or the drive has an intermitent problem or you're doing something wrong. Based on what steps you've taken so far tho, i'm leaning towards the first case. :)

You say that other drives are recognized as a master in this system, but for how long? Have you tested another (master) drive long enough to be certain that it doesn't come to the same fate in a weeks time?

If you've done a low-level format and formatted the MBR and the drive still doesn't recognize in this system but does in others *and* it passes all diagnostics, I would turn my attention to the system itself. Try another IDE channel and another cable. Clear your CMOS and make sure you have the latest BIOS updates (i've never had a problem updating a BIOS - no dead boards yet).

Beyond that i'm out of ideas. You could always call Fujitsu and ask what their opinion is. If they offer to RMA the drive that may be your best option...

[trilliansytes]

Okay, I think I have officially tried everything to get this hard drive to work in the computer. I have used different cables, I have cleared the CMOS, I have updated the BIOS... in the past I have done a low level format, fdisked the MBR, done several virus scanner checks... nothing!
The hard drive still passes Fujitsu's tests, it still works in my other computer and my Maxtor hard drive works fine in both systems. I'm lost. And, to make things worse, I'm concerned that if I just buy a new harddrive, if the problem is a system related, then I've wasted money and still not resolved the issues.
Does anyone have any other advice?

[Midknyte]

What is the exact model number of the drive? did you check for firmware updates?

http://www.fcpa.fujitsu.com/support/hard-drives/

[NubeDonations]

I have the same problem except that the hard drive i am trying to slave is fully identified by the Bios and is shown as the slave during the boot-up process in my Windows 98se Desktop Computer.It shows everything,..the name (Toshiba),the 30 gb size,etc.Now when Windows starts and i go to my computer,....it is NOT seen.Only the C: drive and my Cd-Rom drives show.I removed the devices in device manager but the same ones come up except for my anticipated newly assigned D: drive .....slave.I have slaved drives many times and never had this problem.This Toshiba drive is out of a newer XP Laptop and i have the required pin adapter installed correctly and the Toshiba's hard drive jumper set to slave.Like i said,...the boot-up process sees it as the Primary IDE's slave.I have a Western Digital 80 Gig properly showing as the master. I just cannot seem to get it an assigned Letter. Any ideas? Thanks.


p.s. the Toshiba H.D. will not boot up in its Laptop.The Recovery Console was attempted but friend could not remember adminstrative password which halted our recovery attempts.Slaving to my desktop and copying files was my next move.Thanks again.

[trilliansytes]

Well, a couple of things have happened since I last posted. I contacted Gigabyte (motherboard) about the problem and they recommended updating the BIOS. I contacted Fujitsu and they told me to RMA it, even though I specifically told them that it passed their tests.
So, I updated the BIOS :( and now the system is completely unstable, and it still doesn't recognize the original hard drive. I loaded the default settings. I loaded the optimized settings. I cleared the CMOS. Nothing will make the system stable again.
Any suggestions? At this point I just want to get it back to not recognizing the hard drive. At least I could use a different one.
I saved the old BIOS file, but with the system so unstable, how do I flash the BIOS back?
I've sent an email to Gigabyte to find out what they suggest, does anyone have any suggestions or similar experience?

[raabscuttle]

about your Fujitsu hard drive.. It was part of a class action lawsuit. These drives fail prematurly due to problems with the Cirrus Logic controller chip... The suit was settled as of March 2, 2004. Check the link below to see if you quality for the suit.

http://www.hddclassactionsettlement.com/