Internal Hard Drive Error

Hello,

First post, so be kind.

I got a problem with my SATA hard drive. Ive had my AMD ATHLON 320gb HD PC for about 12 months, and over the last few weeks, it has began springing error messages during its automatic diagnostics in BIOS.

My OS is Vista, but I dont have the backup cd for it. It never came with the package.

I done all the standard software checks, SPYBOT, AVAST, SCANDISK, DEFRAG, etc, but they didnt make an impact, and the error messages continued, but with more frequency.

I even lately created an System Recovery CD to try and fix the boot on the machine, but when I ran it via DOS, it couldnt detect the hard drive.

What is odd is that the hard drive is detected after several efforts of booting and rebooting.

Is there anything I can do to correct this fault?

 

Can you boot into Safe Mode (F8 at boot) ok?


Getting into Safe Mode on my system can be hit or a miss. But I do get in.

Was this PC a bought off the shelf one like Dell, HP, ACER etc if so what make and model? plus how old is it?


The PC is about a year old, and was a refurbished Demonstration PC for a retailer. It is an Acer Aspire M301 with an AMD Phenom 9150 Quad Core Processor (1.80 GHz)

What are the actual error messages in full please?


After switching on the PC, it sticks at a white Acer screen for about two minutes, not doing anything, then a black screen appears with the following information:

AMERICAN MEGATRENDS

Autodetecting 3rd Master....IDE Hard Disk
Autodetecting 4th Master....ATAPI CD-ROM
Autodetecting USB Mass Storage Devices

3rd Master Hard Disk Error
Press F1 to Resume

When pressed, it goes to another black screen, which says:

Reboot and select proper boot device or Insert Boot Media. (I dont have backup Vista OS).

What you could try is to make sure the HDD SATA cable is firmly pushed in, so unplug it nad plug it back in if a desktop...

I could try this, if I can work out how to take the case off (I really am a novice). Is there anything like a ground tester I should use before going to touch anything inside? Like an E-Tester to neutralise any electric charges?

 

I see a couple "problems" to start with.

Could you enter BIOS, and confirm your Boot Priorities?

Normally, your CD-ROM should be your first boot device, then your HDD (hard drive). That way, you can boot from disk if you need to.

Since this is a laptop, ordinarily you should have one hard drive, and one CD-ROM drive. All other boot devices should be OFF, or Disabled.

If it doesn't find the enabled device, that will put up an error message in a heartbeat, and cause the delay you mention.

How many bootable devices do you have, other than the normal two? I could only imagine you using a USB mass storage device if you also use Linux, then I would enable it as a bootable device. An external hard drive hooked up to a USB port would also qualify under the heading "mass storage device".

Is there anything special about this 'demo' model we should be aware of?

 

I should have clarified that it is a desktop as opposed to a laptop.

 

Do you have an EIDE drive, connected with a ribbon cable?

The principle is basically the same, you may just have additional hardware.

Do you have more than one CD/DVD-ROM, or HDD?

 

No - its just the one hard drive.

On my Vista OS, the hard drive is partioned (C: Drive and D: Drive partition).

In reference to the USB Mass Storage Devices, they include a card reader port installed, which came with the pc at the time.

Hmm....whats an EIDE drive? My CD-rom is a DVD combo....and its just the one I have, although there is capacity in the base to have another if I wished.

What Im trying to find out is the best, and cheapest way, to fix this problem, which has intensified over the last 6 weeks.

 

EIDE is the general way of describing a device that uses an old 40-pin ribbon cable. 4-pin SATA cables superseded them, and are worlds better.

If you only have two bootable devices, you should doublecheck the BIOS settings for your Boot Priority. Usually F1, or F2 at the Acer "splash screen" will get you in.

Set the CD-ROM drive first on the list, then the HDD (hard drive 0) as the second. Disable, or change the third which is looking for an EIDE connected device, as you have a SATA connection for your HDD. Most likely, you should disable devices three, and four. The mass storage will be sought separately.

Is the explanation OK?

 

I would do a HD diagnostic. Often a failing HD won't be recognized but repeated attempts to boot will sometimes let you boot fine. Go to Computer and right click the C: drive and select Properties. Under the Hardware tab do you see the HD and its brand name? WDC (Western Digital) or Samsung or such? Post the brand and we can help find the manufacturer's diagnostic tool.

On checking the cable, I can't find that model number for an Acer desktop. Double-check the model number and if you have it right then look at the white tag on the bottom/back of the case and see if it gives a more specific model number. Opening the case should be easy but we might be able to find a diagram.

 

Yeah, I noticed that too Sach.

I thought it was a laptop, from the info I managed to dig up on it.

From earlier posts, it really looked like a BIOS boot priority issue. If the search for an old EIDE (third boot device) was disabled, the BIOS would most likely not spend time looking for a third, or fourth boot device. It really looked like that might be the most likely reason for the delay being experienced.

 

Sorry for the delay in getting back....I appreciate the help.

The Hard Drive data via My Computer is as follows:

WDC WD3200AAJS-22B4A0 ATA Device

Ive tried Updating Driver but nothing comes back as out of date.

On second point, what is the relevance in terms of the boot order? By having it booting from CD-ROM first not just going to delay it eventually having to check the hard drive master? As Ive said before, I dont get the startup cd for Vista anyway, which would make a bootable cd as primary master redundant?

 

I would run the HD diagnostic so we can rule out a problem with the HD itself. Here is a link to the diagnostic software.

Downloading the "Diagnostic for DOS CD" would be the most helpful. You would download the ISO version, and use a burning software like imgburn to "Write the Image to Disc" (Disc being a blank CD). That would produce a bootable CD with the diagnostic program. You could then boot from the CD and run both the Short and the Extended test on the HD. The short test will give you the S.M.A.R.T. status of the drive just Good or Bad. The extended test will try to fix any errors.

If you don't have a blank CD available you can try the Windows version of the software. It will definitely run the short test and tell you if it sees any obvious problems. It may not be able to fix errors during the long test because the drive will be in use (I'm unsure on this point since I usually use a CD). Whether it can fix errors or not you should attempt to run the tests to see if a problem with the drive is detected.

 

Many thanks for the update!

When I was looking at potential solutions before coming to the board, I did burnISO an Automated System Recovery Program (for Vista). Keeping this in the machine, it ensured that rather than wait for a fail error to come up from not finding a hard drive, it would then go and boot anything sitting in the CD drive, which it does.

I will certainly run the tests from the link and let you know the status.

Thanks again for all your help.

 

Well, after burning the app to CD and trying to run from DOS, it failed to load, due to a "missing file" on the CD.

So, using the Windows version instead, I ran both tests;

SHORT SMART TEST RESULTS: FAILED
EXTENDED SMART TEST RESULTS: PASSED

Every time I try to re-run the short test, it just gives me an error dialog box after a few minutes of processing. Whats that all about?