Everything was going along fine this morning, and then all of a sudden Office installer kept coming up. I wasn't using any Office products at the time, so I kept trying to kill it. Took forever.

Finally, I got rid of it and immediately ran a backup of all my important data.

Then I looked at Event Viewer, and there is a whole list of errors (see attached files) indicating a bad "block"???

At this point I'm afraid to reboot until I get some advice what to do next.

H-E-L-P!!!!

Shoot, forgot to attach the files.

Attachment #1, (gif file)
Attachment #2, (txt file)

PS, I should include that my hard drive is disk C, not D; D is a CompactFlash/MicroDrive that I don't even use.

What the heck???

Jenna,
I didn't see any reference to the D: drive in your intial post or in the attachments. Is there some reference to D: that you haven't included?

Behind every good computer... is a jumble of wires 'n stuff.

This is what's got me a little confused, the errors are referring to the D drive, which as long as I've owned the computer I haven't even USED; it's some sort of flash drive.

Do you think I need to be worried about this?? At this point I'm afraid to reboot this thing.

The specs on the computer are as follows:

Processor
(2)Intel Pentium 4, 3000 MHz
200MHz external bus
BIOS
Intel Corp. BZ87510A.15A.0084.P08.0308290851 08/29/2003
Memory
Upgrade
1024MB physical
90% free resources
4 memory slots, 0 free (256+256+256+256)
Video
Upgrade
Graphics Adapter: RADEON 9600 PRO
Screen Area/Colors: 1024x768 pixels, 16 million colors
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Drives
Upgrade
C:\ (NTFS) 156327MB total, 141505MB free
D:\ Removable
E:\ Removable
F:\ Removable
G:\ Removable
H:\ CD-ROM/CD-RW or DVD Drive
I:\ CD-ROM/CD-RW or DVD Drive
Network and Modem
Upgrade
(net) Intel Intel PRO/1000 CT Network Connection
(net) Microsoft Direct Parallel
(net) Microsoft 1394 Net Adapter
(modem) Intel Intel 537EP Data Fax Modem
Operating System
Upgrade
Windows XP SP2 (Windows XP 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2)
Original setup date: 10/30/2004
DirectX Version: 5.03.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
Swap file managed by Windows
File cache managed by Windows
Browser
MSIE 6.0; 5.1; SV1
Proxy: No proxy set
HTTP level: direct 1.1, proxy 1.0
Scripting version: 5.6.0.8820

In checking Event Viewer again, I notice it is continuing to add more entries referring to the bad block... Is my HDD crashing???

I'm really bummed here.

Martin,in post # 1 attachment # 2 change the txt to jpg and you will see it is D drive ,which on a Gateway I believe is her restore drive.I don't know if chkdsk would take care of it or not.

LilJoe

Run CHKDSK with the /r switch on your C: drive. If you have any bad blocks they will be locked out and any data on them moved to another part of the drive. That way nothing will be written to the bad areas again.

Shelly

Wow, the reason you didn't hear back from me on this is that the HDD did in FACT crash. I ended up buying a new one and am now trying to put back stuff. What a pain.

The first problem I have is that my spare HDD--which contains all the backup data from the crashed drive--does not appear. Can anyone help me get it back??? I thought it would automatically appear, but I guess that was hoping for too much.

Which drive crashed? C:\? D:\?
Did you set the jumper on the new drive the same as the old?

Actually, it was the C drive that crashed; I don't know what the reference to D was all about, but it was my main drive, C.

Now, my spare drive, J, where I do all my backups, does not show up. It appears as though it is calling itself D now, but not all the data is on the drive. I'm bummed, but think I can restore backups from DVDs that I burned and to hell with it.

But take a look at the screen shot attached. What used to be the D drive on my previous config, which was D:/CompactFlash/Microdrive is now in actuality the second HDD in the box, which used to be J.

When I opened the machine to replace the C drive, I DISCONNECTED the cable on the motherboard to the J drive (I did not want to accidentally reformat it as it contained my backups). Once Windows was reinstalled on the new C drive, I shut down and reattached the cable to the J drive, but it now thinks it's D.

Attachment #1, (gif file)

What do you read when you click on Removable Disk J ?

LilJoe

"Please insert a disk into Drive J".

If it was mine,I would remove the card reader until you get the drive mess up cured.
Your so-called original D drive was a hidden partition with the restore info put on there by the mfg of your computer.
Was the backup that you have, made before you installed the card reader?

LilJoe

I didn't install the card reader; it came with the machine, already installed. I don't even know what it's FOR, tell you the truth.

I'm very frustrated, though; all my data was on that J drive, which now doesn't seem to exist.

What does it show in disk manager?
Right-click My Computer and select Manage...click Disk Management.

I've attached screen shot of what it shows. It LOOKS like it's what USED to be my J drive.

HOWEVER, when checking event viewer, I notice yet more entries referring to bad blocks, and the timestamp is AFTER I put the new C drive in the computer.

What the hell??

I'm going to bed, have a terrible headache. Please feel free to post and I'll check tomorrow and probably need more help.

I curse the day I bought this Gateway. Never again!

Attachment #1, (gif file)
Attachment #2, (gif file)

Your D: partition should not be set as Active. It should be a logical drive in an extended partition.

Shelly

Still fiddling with the thing instead of going to bed.

Shelly, how the heck do I get this thing back like it was? Shelly, what is now the D drive is actually my second HDD, which was J before the new C drive was installed. When I installed the C drive, I shut down the machine, removed the old C drive, inserted the new one, AND I then disconnected the cable from the mobo going to the J drive so that I would not accidentally reformat the wrong drive on boot.

After Windows was installed on the new C drive, this is when J started appearing as D.

What do I need to do to make it play nice with the new configuration, and hopefully something that won't corrupt the data on that J/D drive!...

Darren,I believe the original D drive was the hidden restore (partition) drive on her main C: hard drive.When the D shot craps it took out the whole drive.

LilJoe

Well, morning has brought no good news on this issue.

It now appears as though I may have replaced the C drive for nothing, as it appears now that the J drive was the problem all along.

After installing the new C, J became D drive. Checking Event Viewer yesterday revealed MORE of the same 'bad block' errors as before.

This morning, I booted up, opened Event Viewer: today's entries were all informational, no errors about bad blocks. Then I accessed the "D" drive and the errors reappear about bad blocks.

I guess the question now becomes twofold:

1) Per Shelly's posts, with two drives, one being used with OS and programs, and the second used as backup for data: HOW DOES ONE REPLACE THE C: DRIVE AND THEN GET IT TO RECOGNIZE THE EXISTING SPARE DRIVE PROPERLY????

2) Is there a way to repair this "bad block" thing WITHOUT erasing the information already on the drive, or do I need to actually replace THAT drive??

I would download the PowerMax HDD diagnostic utility and run it to find exactly which drive is bad, then replace that drive. The drive letters changed because you eliminated the hidden D: restore partition when you replaced the C: drive, and you had your J: drive unhooked. You lost a drive letter. It won't be back unless you created an extended partition on your C: drive.

Help me out here: I need to know HOW to do this:

When you've got TWO drives, one main drive with OS and one spare drive for backups of data, HOW do you replace the main drive AND end up with the system recognizing the spare drive with the backups on it???

Make sure the jumpers are set right. Master for OS and slave for the other.

Jeez...I didn't change any jumper settings at all, just unplugged the cable from the mobo and replugged it in after the new drive was installed.

>Help me out here: I need to know HOW to do this:
>
>When you've got TWO drives, one main drive with OS and one
>spare drive for backups of data, HOW do you replace the main
>drive AND end up with the system recognizing the spare drive
>with the backups on it???

Ok lets start from the Top. First off, I noticed that something is whacked with the HD installation order. Your new Hard Drive should be C: with it being recognised as HD:0. Your Backup drive should be detected as HD:1 . If you look closely at your previous attachment, you will see that this is reversed.



What I think happenned is that you had some jumper selections on new Harddrive set incorrectly. Jumper selections are critical Jenna. So lets start from the top and get that sorted.

1: If the HD's are from the same manufacturer, then things are pretty simple. Set both drives to "Cable Select" ( CSL ). Probably best to remove both drives from the Computor to check this. There should be a decal on the HD with instructions on where to set the jumpers. Set both new and old HD's to Cable Select.

Note: Mark drives with a Felt pen as to which is old and new!! "Really" simple mistakes can be made when you're tired and frustrated LOL.

2: The new HD MUST be attached to the Black end of the IDE cable ( 80 wire ). The old HD ( with your Backup data ) MUST be connected to the Gray connector. The Blue end goes to the Primary IDE connector on your MB.

3: If you have different manufacturers of drives then that may get a bit more complicated. Some combinations don't like each other when using Cable Select. To get around this, set your New HD as Master( Dual). Note: With some Drives " Master" is NOT the same as " Master Dual". Western Digital drives are very particular about this setting.

Then set the old HD jumpers as slave.

4: Your CD-RW should go on the the Secondary IDE Channel. It would help if you could tell us what you have as CD-RW\DVD burner\reader devices.

5: Reinstall the Drives HD's to the Computor....but ONLY connect your new HD for now. Your Computor should boot up and your New drive should be recognised as C: drive and as HD:0.

Note: If WinXP is SP1 or earlier....don't be connecting your LAN line yet ( or Dial-up for that matter ). No Firewall!!! Good way to get a Blaster worm. Always have a Firewall up and running BEFORE connecting your ISP.

6: Looking at you Disk Management attachment you did not define any Logical partitions on your new Drive. That is not good. So start all over with a CLEAN install of WinXP using NTFS . Only this time do NOT assign all of the drive space to the C: ( active or System ) partition. Instead, only assign about 15 to 20gb as the C: drive. The rest ( unallocated space ) can be divided up as a Extended Partition. Probably easisest at this point to assign all of the remaining "Unallocated space" in the "Extended Partition" to one "Logical Partition". This should become your new D: Drive.

7: Upon reboot ( your old drive still physically disconnected remember!! ) you should have a new C: Drive set as HD:0 and a new D: partition set as HD:0 You should see your CD-RW device as E: drive. Don't worry if your Cd-Rw device is D: and the Second Partition is E: Some Motherboards will detect the drives in different priority. It doesn't matter as the NTFS file system supports drive letter reassignment. So you can easily re-arrange drive letters ( Don't mess with the C: Drive obviously )

8: If everything at this point looks good with two partions on your new drive ( C: as System and a Logical partition ), then shutdown and reconnect your old HD. Upon reboot you should be able to see your old HD and it should be shown as HD:1 . Doesn't really matter what drive letter assigment it has, you can change that at will. Drive letter assignment should not prevent you from accessing all Data on the Drive. Then Transfer Data from old drive to the new HD. Put all the old Data on the second Partition of your new HD.

9: Start re-installing your Programs....but this time install all of your third Party Programs to your new Logical Partition that you created on your new HD. Only OS critical programs should go on the C: drive.

Good Luck and post back with results. Remember. Change only one thing at a time and follow the above steps in the exact order. This may take a little longer...but should ensure a correct install.

Chickenman, thanks so much for all this information.

However, here's the thing: I have just spent the better part of 24 hours reinstalling everything. I got this Gateway a couple of years ago, and I'm getting near the point where Microsoft is not going to let me reinstall XP again, and at that point I will be completely hosed up as there is no way on earth to reach a human being at Microsoft to beg/plead my case, or wait for them to send additional CDs. Since they are Gateway proprietary OEM CDs, I probably would spend three days on the phone with Microsoft for nothing anyway.

So I really cannot reformat this drive again at this point.

That said, there must be some other way to get this Disk 0, Disk 1 thing straightened out. Is there an alternative way, now that I've messed everything up, to put things right?

PS, I should note that both these drives are serial ATA drives. The new C drive is a Western Digital 160GB SATA drive, the other spare drive that used to be J is a Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9.

>Chickenman, thanks so much for all this information.
>
>However, here's the thing: I have just spent the better part
>of 24 hours reinstalling everything. I got this Gateway a
>couple of years ago, and I'm getting near the point where
>Microsoft is not going to let me reinstall XP again, and at
>that point I will be completely hosed up as there is no way on
>earth to reach a human being at Microsoft to beg/plead my
>case, or wait for them to send additional CDs. Since they are
>Gateway proprietary OEM CDs, I probably would spend three days
>on the phone with Microsoft for nothing anyway.
>
>So I really cannot reformat this drive again at this point.
>
>That said, there must be some other way to get this Disk 0,
>Disk 1 thing straightened out. Is there an alternative way,
>now that I've messed everything up, to put things right?

Actually you're wrong about Microsoft. I've found them to be very friendly and accomodating. I once had to do Seven or Eight re-installs with WinXP due to an incompatibilty issue with an older MB. They were very understanding, even after I triggered the WPA re-cativation twice. A very pleasant surprise in fact.

Most of the time you do not even have to talk to someone. You can re-activate over the Internet ( Remember that lack of a Firewall in SP1 !!!! ) or by phone. The Phone option is usually a two way Computer voice to user dialogue that is easy and Painless. All you need is your OEM License number or the OEM decal that is on your Gateway Computer. Little silver Microsoft Authenticity decal that will have your OEM License number on it.

In retrospect, I think that my problem originally was NOT with the C drive but with the J drive. I think it is the J drive that has bad blocks, especially since after replacing C, J still comes up in Event Viewer as having bad blocks.

If THAT is the case, what will happen now, after reinstalling C and apparently screwing it up, if I simply take OUT the new C drive and replace it with the old C drive, and REMOVE altogether the bad J drive???? Will this at least get me back to having a happy C drive???

I don't want to try this before asking you guys because I'm NOT into hardware, I know just enough to be really, really, reeeaaallly dangerous...

>In retrospect, I think that my problem originally was NOT
>with the C drive but with the J drive. I think it is the J
>drive that has bad blocks, especially since after replacing C,
>J still comes up in Event Viewer as having bad blocks.
>
>If THAT is the case, what will happen now, after reinstalling
>C and apparently screwing it up, if I simply take OUT the new
>C drive and replace it with the old C drive, and REMOVE
>altogether the bad J drive???? Will this at least get me
>back to having a happy C drive???
>
>I don't want to try this before asking you guys because I'm
>NOT into hardware, I know just enough to be really, really,
>reeeaaallly dangerous...

Yep...probably. Just Chcek the jumpers as noted and Cable positions.

I haven't changed the jumper positions on the original C drive, and it would be going into the same bay with the same cables as it had originally, so what could go wrong?...

Ha ha, now THAT's funny!!

>I haven't changed the jumper positions on the original C
>drive, and it would be going into the same bay with the same
>cables as it had originally, so what could go wrong?...
>
>Ha ha, now THAT's funny!!

Well....I don't know what MFG HD's you have and whether the Second drive was Slaved to the First. But for example. A WD drive, by itself, may have to have the jumper changed from Master ( Dual) to Master to be detected. Or Cable Select should be fine.

or....Just plug the danged thing in. It it works.....great

If not...check the jumpers.

OK, I guess I'm ignorant, but I thought that serial SATA drives did NOT use master/slave settings. The instructions that came with one of them said so.

At any rate, I have located the offending drive; it was the C drive after all.

I removed the bad drive. That leaves me with the original drive (the letter used to be J), and the new drive I bought and reformatted and reloaded all my programs.

I put the good formatted/OS'd drive into the bay and booted up. Everything was fine.

Then I put in the spare drive and booted up. The result is on the attached gifs. Can you tell me how I can now get the second drive to appear???

Attachment #1, (gif file)
Attachment #2, (gif file)

Maybe go into your SATA utility and enable it?
Any options when you right click on that Disk 0 (Dynamic) in Disk Manager?

Where is my "Sata utility"???

The only options I have right clicking the thing are "Import Foreign Disks" and "Convert to Basic Disk". If I'm not mistaken, either of these options destroys all data on the disk.

It doesn't seem like so much to ask to re-insert a drive into the same machine it came out of and have it work without all this fuss.

I appreciate all hanging in here with me. We got two rovers on Mars and just launched a shuttle. I ought to be able to access the stuff on this drive, you'd think.

Disk 0 - Dynamic Foreign?

Dynamic Foreign. See the attached gif.

Attachment #1, (gif file)

Go into computer management click on Help then dynamic it will show you all the settings and troubleshooting you should be able to do. That is assuming it is installed correctly on the board.

I'm went into this thing, but it kind of scares me. I'm concerned I don't know what I'm doing...

Have you done this before, and can I royally mess things up with this procedure?....

No I haven't. Are there files on there? When you rightclick what options do you get?
Back up whatever there is on there and Right-click the dynamic disk you want to convert to a basic disk, and then click Delete Volume for each volume on the disk.
When all volumes on the disk have been deleted, right-click the disk, and then click Convert To Basic Disk.
You dymanic disk is blank it would seem that someting would show up maybe since you haven't done anything it looks like that. My external was fat32 so it showed up. I converted it to NTFS. Maybe the new drives are blank. Luckily you have time to figure it out. My cd drives show up blank but they are empty.

There is data on there! It was my main backup disk. My right click options are "Import Foreign Disks" and "Convert to Basic Disk".

Link for importing foreign disk http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkb_cnc_klvo.asp
There is tons on google for Convert to basic disk.
I don't understand why it is showing up before your system disk. Someone else probably has perfectly obvious answer.

Well, I'm not going to do anything until someone assures me that this baby won't reformat one, both, or the wrong drive...

That is what I would do. Backup disks are important. Between Raid1 on my desktop and two external disks I hope I'm covered. I take everything I've backed up and back that up to another disk on my network.
Some people think I'm silly but I have enough gigs and it doesn't take up that much room.
My son lost 120 gigs of music when his external drive died.

I agree. The irony is, I seem to have more trouble with hard drives crashing and system failures than anyone on the planet. Which is WHY I back up so much, but still it's a real nuisance reinstalling everything...just not my bag.

I sure would like my HDD back, though... Hopefully someone can hold my hand through this one because I'm deathly afraid at this point of doing something terminally wrong.

Have you begun the import foreign disks function to see what's there (see Maggie's link.) If it says OK, then you should be okay. Whatever it says, you can back out of it, and learn a little more in the process.

I was going to do this, and then I panicked when I read from Maggie's link: "In computers that are running any combination of Windows 2000 and Windows XP Professional, you do not need to import existing dynamic disks because the disks are imported automatically each time you start either operating system."

I am using Win XP Pro, hence according to Microsoft, it I'm not supposed to have to import this disk as it's supposed to automatically...

I really have a feeling like this could be a disaster of untold proportions if I attempt this and it's misidentifying one or both disks; I could end up with TWO blank hard drives, and I have my business files on these disks.

You can always back out of it, and the info seems conflicting. See this page for something to try if you haven't - "Rescan Disks" and "Scan for hardware changes" under "How to Move Disks." Also note the apparent conflicts on importing - it would seem that there's no use for a manual import at all since 2K and XP-Pro are all that can use them.

Ok...I'm back. Missed your post #27 that these are SATA drives.....would have been nice to have known about that in the first post.

Windows XP does not have Native support for SATA drive ( unless the MB Bios supports recognising SATA Devices as IDE devices. Some MB's support this some don't. WinXP will support ONE SATA device with no third party drivers...but not more than one. So you must Load the SATA drivers these should be on your OEM CD. Or you can download them from the MFG.

More info at this site. A similiar problem to what you are having:

http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-470148.php

What is Drive J? Do actually have a Removable Drive installed? If not, I suspect this is your second drive that has not been properly identified. Go to Administrative Tools\Computer Management\Disk Management and post a pic of what that "J" Drives information is

If you want we can do a remote Session. Do you have SP2 installed or a Firewall up yet? If so, Crank up Windows Messenger and Start a Remote Session. I'll send you a PM on how to get in touch with me. Time is now 7:07 PM Pacific Time.

Chickenman, I would LUV to remote!!! Unfortunately, I'm leaving out of town in a few minutes for the day. I will post back when I'm home. If you mail me privately, I'll check PCQandA mail when I get home and contact you directly, otherwise I'll post back when I get back in town.

Thankyou, thankyou, THANKyou!!!

Just thought I would post to let you know that Chickenman graciously gave up his time to use remote assistance to hold this old lady's hand and reconnect my wayward drive. It was ridiculously simple...for him, anyway...

Like all angels, he wouldn't accept any compensation, but I just donated to the PCQandA fundraiser in his honor. Hope other folks who are helped out here will do the same. If not for the grace of people like Chickenman helping others, we'd all be at the mercy of the local hack shops. Thanks again, Chickenman!!

And to all the other unsung heroes on this forum.

I hope chickenman will be so kind as to tell us what he did for future reference.


I'm Freddie-Learning all the Time!!

It was one of the steps I was too "chicken" to try, "import foreign disk" from disk management page. I was really leery of it since Win XP is supposed to automatically play nice with SATA drives.

He meets more chicks that way. It was very nice of him to do that for you.



Ed W.

LOL!! Yes it was. But part of it, I think, for most people is that you want to get to the bottom of the mystery. You hate to give up and let the damn computer win.

But most of it is that there are just some very nice people on this forum. I've gone out of my way behind the scenes of the forum to follow through with people when they've had problems in my area of expertise, too. In the ugly world we live in today, it's always a good feeling to give something back.