Trouble Booting

I am running two HD both split in two at 250 gigs each. Started having problems booting just the other day. Keep getting this message: "3rd Slave Hard Disk: S.M.A.R.T. Status Bad,Backup and Replace Press F1 to Resume" Quote marks are mine.

 

Apparently, you have a Master/Slave drive configuration with your two hard drives. The slave drive is failing and the data on it needs to be backed up or your data needs to be moved to another drive and your slave drive needs to be replaced.

 

Why if the slave is failing am I having problems, I am booting from C:?

 

When you hit ''F1' to resume', does everything act normal from there? If so, then the smart check is just making sure you're aware of the problem. If everything is normal after that try a chkdisk on the drive, go to my computer, select the bad drive .and then 'tools'.

 

https://www.windowsbbs.com/threads/trouble-booting.111465/

 

Thanks Bill.

Maybe at least Greyhound will let 'everybody' know how it gets along. And then follow the 'manners' you point out.

 

Sorry again Bill. Going to answer imandy Mann because it applies, ok.

 

Notice to Bill as this does apply I will answer it. Then I will see what I can do. Yes, after I hit F1 to resume everything is okay. Used a couple methods to check and every one checks out okay except Crystaldiskinfo which says D & F are bad. I do have them as slaves.

 

Wow, I think I have been really stupid with this problem. I thought I had only 2 Slave drives, but I did have a third which was an external backup which has failed and I pulled it the other day, That is when the problem started. Not postive but do think It is fixed now. will let you know. Thanks for everyones help so far.

 

Well, guess I got the shaft, drive D: & F: which are both slave drives have just plain disappeared.

 

Let's back up a second to get terminology correct. Are these EIDE or SATA drives? Since EIDE was superseded many years ago, I suspect they are SATA and in that case, there is no such thing as "Slave" drives. There is the primary (first), and the rest are secondary.

It matters.

The EIDE interface supports two drives on a single cable. The primary drive (the one that connects on the opposite end of the EIDE cable from the motherboard connection) is always the Master. The drive connected to the middle connector, if there is one, is always the Slave.

If your motherboard has two EIDE interfaces (as most did back in the day) and you put a drive on the Master end of both cables, then you have two masters! A perfectly acceptable configuration.

You cannot have a Slave unless there is already a Master on the cable. It will not be recognized by the motherboard's interface.

You must configure each drive to be a Master or a Slave by positioning a jumper on the back of the drive then connect the drive(s) to the applicable connector on the cable.

There are two methods for jumper settings. With two drives you set the jumpers to MA (Master) on one drive and SL (Slave) on the second drive. Or you can set the jumper to CS (Cable Select) on both drives and the drives are assigned MA and SL by their location on the cable by the interface. You cannot mix MA/SL and CS on the same cable. If you do, one or both drives will not be recognized. That is, if you set one drive to MA, you must set the second to SL. But if you set one drive as CS, the other must also be set to CS.

The SATA interface supports just one drive per cable. Therefore there is no need for any Master or Slave designation to worry about.

External drives typically are just secondary drives.

If me, I would disconnect all external drives, then do a "cold" reboot. By cold I mean to shutdown Windows then unplug the computer from wall for about 15 - 30 seconds. Connect power and boot. Make sure no external drives are seen. Then follow the proper procedures to connect one external drive at a time and see what happens.

 

I don't remember what kind of drives they are, all I do remember is: I have two physical drives. and they are both split, one is C: & D: and the other is E: & F:.. I built this several years ago and my mind is not as good as then for sure. I did have an external drive on USB but it quit working some time ago, The only thing now that I have connected is a USB card reader, which doesn't seem to show up in the file explorer.

 

I have to apologize for putting same problem on more than one forum. I am going to follow Windows BBS. If you are a member and have helped me here, please feel free to congregate there.

 

Hello,

I am having a similar issue with a Toshiba Satellite C675D-S7101 running windows 7(that in safe mode said Build 7601 service pack 1). The computer boots to a black screen with visible mouse. Hitting power and zero is no help. Hitting Fn and F5 is no help. Hitting F8 doesn't always work but when it does and you go into one of the safe modes that does not help. When you hit F12 and go to HDD recovery that will typically let you then hit F8, it says windows is loading files and then starting windows, circle appears above the mouse and all you have is a black screen with a movable mouse.

 

I want to thank you guys for all the suggestions, What I have to do is replace that one drive. so problem solved.

 

That's what I said in Post #2.

 

Thanks so much. Yes I know...but when I looked to try and post separately I could find where I needed to go. Please know that I am doing this from an iPhone since my laptop isn't working. Where can I go to post separately?

 

When you are logged in look at the far right top of the forum and click on 'POST NEW THREAD'.

 

Wow, I still wanted to see if I could access that drive and get my data off from it. I hope this was not sarcasm, mdonah. Thanks for you info though.