Write protect on hard disk!!!???

[markdshark]

Hey,

I was mucking around with my system and now can't write to my HD. I get told one of 2 things:
1) There was a "serious" error writing to the hard disk, Retry(r)?

....kudoes to the tech that decided that was an appropriate message there :-/

2) Write protect error on fixed disk

....now that's just not right!!! :-)

Anyway I interrogated all the usual suspects. The BIOS, tried fdisk/mbr no go. Error when I try to get out, it tells me there was a write protect error....

Tried format/u no go.....it formats and hangs. The weirdest part is that I can boot up from A and switch to C and read things....

Tried switching cables back to old IDE disconnected all else...went back to ATA cables...nothing.

Any takers?

[jbyron]

Did you set the jumper on the hard drive to read only

[Richard_Cranium72]

Shark, check ur mail.

[markdshark]

DOH!!!!!

a diagram on the maxtor site shows that one plug on the ATA 66 cable is a slave plug and one is a master plug.....the one at the end is a master plug. I have my HD hooked to the one in the middle.....

*sigh*...what threw me off is that it actually worked for a while.

Not the first time something so damned trivial has tripped my up and kept me down for more than a day :-(

[markdshark]

nope...jumpers on HD are set to master as per maxtor leaflet that came with HD.

I think the problem stemmed from blindly installing a driver off of the cd that came with the ASUS board. I think it was a PCI IDE driver.

My suspicion is that as part of the install process, some part of the BIOS was overwritten or changed, but I can't seem to locate anything in the BIOS setup (AMIBIOS) that might be it.

Currently poking around in the office looking for low level hd formatters.

[markdshark]

...and furthermore....decided to go ahead and try installing LINUX back on thinking that mebbe it was just Windows living up to it's rep.

Neither Disk Druid nor Partition magic are able to delete that dos partition...or create new partitions...or anything.

Still searching for a low level formatter, still suspecting it's a BIOS thingy........

[markdshark]

Nope. That didn't do it. Still can't write to the hard disk. No fdisk, no fdisk/mbr, no format, no disk druid...nothing.

It's a Maxtor 20 gig drive. ASUS K7M Via1.04 mobo, 128 meg ram, 300W power source.

Already tried :
jumper settings
different cables
different positions on cables
different BIOS settings (auto detect, read-write, etc.)
different configurations
formatting
fdisking
trying to install Linux

....Help?

[markdshark]

btw Richard...there was nothing in my mail from ya.....

[BEOR999]

Dare I say IT....
Sounds like the drive is Dead, Try another one if poss

[daveleau]

try the maxtor hdd utility here: http://www.maxtor.com/technology/technotes/20007.html

This will tell you if the drive is faulty. If it is not clicking and popping, I would think it was something else but I would try to send it back.
Dave

[markdshark]

Beor, No...I don't think the drive's dead 'cos I can read from it fine. I just can't write to it. I can't even copy con a file to it (old dos console file maker akin to cat > file)

Daveleau, thanks for the link. Today I'm also going to try several other utilities from Maxtor, including a low level formatter.

[markdshark]

oh...additionally.....another drive (small 1.6 gig) works fine

[richamies]

Mark - take the drive back and ask them to test it. I'd say from the sound of it the drive has a problem.

[Richard_Cranium72]

Shark; if ya want to wipe the drive totally, go to go.com or yahoo or
zdnet and get a disk wipe utility,, on the other hand I just
remembered; www.jetico.com (http://www.jetico.com) get bc wipe. This will overwrite the disc
with "0's" and "1's" . There will be no trace of whatever is giving you the problem.. I got a Maxtor and just Love it ,, it's rocket
fast and super quiet.. Just another note, is this drive hooked up as a
single ?? If so make sure the drive isn't jumpered to master,, this is
only for running two drives.. No jumper, is single.. Also some WD drives
don't like being a slave to a Maxtor,, or the other way around,, I
forget.. I tried to E-mail you but the acct is inactive,, more hackers messing around I guess, can't get the Pickel either=>>>><mardshark@hotmail.com>:
216.32.243.135 does not like recipient.
Remote host said: 550 Requested action not taken:user account inactive

[markdshark]

well...yeah. :-/

If nothing wurks by the end of the day I'll dew that. On the other hand what's got my goat is that the drive worked well enough apparently right until I loaded that VIA PCI IDE driver. Things just went downhill from then on. If the low level format doesn't solve things today then yeah...back it goes to Maxtor.

Thanx all.

[markdshark]

Hey there,

Many thanx again to everyone for help on this HD problem thread. So Richard, you say my hotmail account claims it's inactive?....hmmm...strange. It's actually checked about 40 times a day. These days, seemingly more often than not I check mail, delete junk...have a momentary spasm of rage against the junk emailer...realize it's pointless...and just get back to work.

Anyway, I wound up getting the MaxDiag utility from Maxtor's site and running it. Got an error "G40SY2" on the write tests. Spoke with Maxtor this morning. Very Pleasant Lady on the other end. It was all I could do to keep myself from asking for her phone number. I'm sure she was Just My Type. They're shipping me a new one right away against a cred. card no. as security.

Meanwhile my athlon 700 system's up and running. ASUS K7 mobo, 128 meg, pioneer slot loading 10x dvd, Matrox G400 32 Meg dual head... All other drives recognized and freely and happily communicated with. Went and picked up a copy of the Matrix yesterday and watched it courtesy my Matrox card. Matrox, Maxtor, Matrix...coincidence?...hmmmm

The new system's is *such* a pleasure......except...I've got this nagging feeling that it isn't running as fast as it should/can. Could be one of 2 things. Either A) it's cos my old drive is basically an ancient 1.6 gig from back when Moby Dick was a guppie (which for the benefit of any passing icthyologists was in '95 :-) ...and so is basically an old IDE instead of a new ATA 66 thingamajig.....or B) Somewhere somehow something's not quite set right. A few whores of testing....which I'll probably let turn into days 'cos I'm such a masochist and because I don't have a girlfriend...and everything should be right as rain....except maybe the part about not having a girlfriend...then again...hmmm

o/~ Oo-ooh what a beee-aauuuti-ful moooooooornniinnng.....Ooohhhh what a beauuuuuuu-ti-ful day....o/~

My first assembled system built from the ground up ;-)