0200: Failure fixed disk 0

Be interested to know what fellow users consider to be the current, best bootable software to analyse memory, and hard disk failures.

On a couple of occasions I have had to deal with buddies machines that have hard disk problems. In one case, a reinstall of Windows did the trick, and I was able to recover their data, but on this occasion, the hard disk appears to be toast.

On normal bootup I get the message in the title of this thread.
I can boot to a Windows installation disc but get the message telling me to run a System Diagnostic Utility provided by the hardware manufacturer, or in particular, run a memory check.
I also tried an Acronis Disk Director Suite bootable disk, but the hard disk is not being found.
Tried SalvationData's HDD Scan and Restoration Program is also not finding a hard disk

I've seen on other threads it could be the controller, but need to try the disk on another machine to prove that. Unfortunately mine is ATE and this one IDE.
It's an Acer Aspire 1680 laptop. All suggestions gratefully received

 

What you want is the Ultimate Boot CD. That's my fourth time linking it tonight, so you know it must be good! It features everything you mentioned, including having the manufacturer hard drive utilities.

If anyone has come across any other decent bootable diagnostics CD I'd love to know because I really rely on the UBCD.

 

Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD) 5.0.3 is listed on the Major Geeks Diagnostics page.

 

Another one that people might want to check out is Hirens Boot CD 12.0 It has gone totally legitimate with all freeware. It includes many diagnostic utilities.

http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

 

Tgell, Thanks for the heads up about Hiren's going 100% legit. It is a great recovery disc and the few old copyrighted programs that made it legally questionable were probably unnecessary for most users. I'm glad to know it can be recommended now.

 

Apologies for the the hijack, kerryh_r,

Not all Freeware/Free/Open Source on the Hiren CD, there are still Shareware apps in there, also "Mini Windows 98" and "Mini Windows XP" - how and where are these 100% legit?

 

Yep, I really missed the boat on that. Sorry about that. :-o

 

I'll burned a copy of Ultimate boot cd, and will give the Hirens a try too.

Has anyone any specific experience in this area? I see that www.salvationdata.com do some data recovery training, but if the result of that is simply to confirm that the hard disk is toast, i don't really see the benefit.

"94drif/tgell - Do those tools help if the hard disk id not found?
Maybe I am getting into a heavy hardware area, but be interested to know what those sort of guys do to get data back if software solutions don't initially work

Thanks again guys

 

If your computer just plum can't see the hard drive, then no the software won't help. You might be in a situation in which the hard drive hasn't been assigned a drive letter, in which case Windows won't treat it as a hard drive within My Computer. If that's the case, then your chances are a lot better, and the hard drive diagnostics tools in UBCD may be able to help.

If on the other hand your laptop doesn't believe the hard drive exists (UBCD and even your BIOS doesn't see it's connected) then you have a hardware problem*. Either your hard drive is dead, or the pins of the hard drive, or the connector that connects to the motherboard. Of the three, the hard drive is the most likely culprit, the pins comes second, and the motherboard connector fault is rare.

* - There is one other possibility. Some old motherboard's BIOS wouldn't read hard drives over a certain size. Since your hard drive used to work, this cannot be your situation.

 

Well, the error 0200 is coming from the BIOS so no software is going to see the drive until the BIOS does.

I think the only thing you can do is make sure the HD is firmly in place and keep restarting the laptop multiple times and hope it eventually sees it. Sometimes you get lucky on a dead/failing drive and get a few more times for it to be recognized. Letting it cool down sometimes helps also (so leave it out of the laptop for a few hours and then plug in and try and get it recognized)

The other would be to get a USB converter which would help rule out a faulty connector/controller in the laptop. It is most likely a bad HD. Something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002

***
I don't think there are any software solutions for a truly dead drive. The only possible recovery would be a service that disassembles the drive and they are $500+ so out of most people's price range.

 

Where exactly is the link to download it? There's nothing on that page but a list of the files and a pic.

 

I'm not sure if this is run by Hiren, but the download is at the bottom of this page, along with a checksum
http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download.html?start=8

 

Got that now thanks.

Does anyone have a link for a Sony VAIO PCG-92B1 manual, or know how to take the hard disk out? It's pretty ancient I'm afraid
My old one packed up a couple of years ago, but my buddy's disk is also 2 1/2inch IDE, so I can try swapping them round just to prove if it is indeed the controller.

 

You can find your manual here...
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-find.pl?mdl=PCG-92B1 &PRODTYPE=24
you just need to enter exact model in drop down

 

none are available for the pcg-92xx series, i already looked

 

Hi, Kerry.

Even if you can't find the manual for the exact model, grab the closest one - it should be similar enough to give basic repair steps.
Shouldn't be hard at all - just use common sense, mark the location and save all screws, maybe even take a couple of cellphone pictures for reference as you go along, etc.

 

I haven't been able to find a similar series manual. I thought I would post this thread just in case yours is from a similar time. There may be a hidden screw on the bottom beneath a sticker.

 

Hello,
The PCG-92B1 is equivalent to the F-701. Attached is the user guide but it does not tell you how to replace the hard drive. As Caliban said, it is pretty basic and not all that difficult even without the manual. But, maybe you can use the manual for your reference. Note: on page 3 you will see PCG-92B1.

 

Excellente! Took a couple of minutes. Was all from the top, not the bottom as expected.
Screw at the side, remove speaker panel, one screw to remove the keypad, 3 screws to take the drive out, after disconnecting the ribbon cable.

I'll post again once I've tried the drives

 

This is an excellent site for laptop repair instructions. It may help in the future.

http://www.insidemylaptop.com/

 

No joy I'm afraid. I think it's the controller, in which case she's looking at a new laptop.

Thanks all for the tools guys.