Primary failure

Hi, a friend of mine who bought his PC 15 months ago (no warrenty left) calls me up. Trashed he says. Getting primary master HDD failure. He hasnt been inside the machine it just went. Says he did notice that PC had been running slow for a week or 2 and had run scandisk by itself a few times (win98se). Says it didnt pick up any bad sectors thou. But then I dont think he'd always notice that kind of thing anyway.

So I pull the drive and I get the same problems useing it as Primary master in another PC. Booting from system disk I get somthing like 'windows cannot detect a valid FAT' type of thing. fdisk wont pick it up either (of course).Cant get bios to pick up drive at all. Put another drive in PC and its all hunky dory.

What I'm wondering is could it be a virus. I've little xp with clearing up virus's and b4 I go ahead and recomend a new HDD for my friend I'm asking you people for a conformation??

Cheers.

OK this is what we get in the UK , 12 mths warrenty , you havnt said what "breed" the drive is?

1. download the diagnostic software from the Mfg website.

2. get the serial No and "try" to do a RMA .


you will probly get fobbed off as it is an OEM drive (with limited warrenty)

best of luck

Most of HDD manufacturers give customers 3 years warranty (at least 2 years). So,Freddy is right here - check drive's status.
I would recommend to reformat the drive (or use zero-fill utility from manufacturer), and try to reinstall soft.

My opinion here is that the drive is toast. Best of luck trying to repair it, but it might be all for nothing.

If it's a Maxtor or Seagate, you may be lucky they have exellent rma, forget fujitsu there the worst, anyway if you can't detect drive, it's probably dead, plug it up and hold it to your ear if it's quiet, you will hear it if it's spinning,
if it is , fdisk etc, if it is'nt and it's connected ok, its dead.

yo people, thanks for all the replys. First things first: we can forgett RMA as PC was bought from high street store and is beyond there warrenty.

So I have to decide whats going on here. Now I have a prob. I had tried to run Fujitsu's diagnostic software (b4 posting) and, like fdisk and the bios the progs not picking up the drive. But I JUST tried one more time and this time it picked up a drive but cliamed it wasnt fujitsu!! MMMM it quite clearly is a fujitsu ide drive and the software is clearly for fujitsu ata drives.

Unfortunatly I havnt the time to go into more details as I havnt fully done all I can yet but I put a brand new spare Seagate drive in the PC the faulty HDD came from and thats not working quite as I'd expect. I'll post agin tomorrow as I think I may need some more advice but if anyone can tell me if this could be virus I'd be gratefull!!
Thanks.

P.S. I cant format the thing because no programs I've used will actually recognise the drive

had bad dealing with fujitsu (europe). look at the european website ....siemens/fujitsu ---NO RMA prosedure.


QUOTE: fujitsu (europe) do,s not deal with retail customers (unless the retailer has gone out of buissness)
all warrenties must be done through your retailer.

in the UK you get 12m warrenty on a car,computer,tv,etc ,,,,,,the fact that the drive has x years dos,nt mean diddly squat ,,to fujitsu,

i have got 2x20/30g SCSI drives that have "died" dated o5/2000 ,,,,,and they are no better than door stops.

sorry about the beef ,,,,,,i will NEVER NEVER ever buy a fujitsu product again.

sorry,,,,,,,,,


freddy

Could You tell us exact model numbers of that drive like "Fujitsu MPC3064AT 6,4Gb". May be I will find right utility for solving Your problem...

hi ruslan , pulled one of the "expensive" doorstops out,

fujitsu model mag3182lc ID:jw
ultra2 scsi/sca2/lvd
date 2000-05

looking at the pc board ,,with the conectors downward ,,,
large ic : glogic tec462 / 2405169 mka407a/k9950 ,,,, approx 1in sq.

it is the ic directly to the right of it ....cannot read p/No. (1/2 in sq.) ,,,,this has burnt out on both drives.

Hi, well I was having problems getting the PC to take a new HDD but all is sorted now and my spare Seagate is working fine in it. Now as for the trashed Fyjitsu its a
Model: MPG3307AT
ID YFIP
Part No.: CA05761-B343
I've tried the thing as a slave as a master in 3 mobo's now and nothing will pick it up. I tried useing a program called vbust that I got off zdnet but it wouldnt do anything. I'm not entirely sure but I dont think it picked it up either.
Thanks
Andre
Oh, I'm no longer sure that the Fujitsu diagnostic software did actually see a drive. I posted above that it saw a drive but said it wasnt Fujitsu. Now I think that it is possible that it was looking at the CDROM. But am going on holiday for a week now (a day late because of this computer) and have not the time to do any more checks.

as a last ditch effort to get the data of put the drive on a pastic bag, and put that in the freezer for about a hour, take it out and hook it up that may give you a extra 20 min of use to get off any improtant data

To vapd:
So far as I remember,some of Fujitsu drives were having bugs in firmware...exactly MPG series... few times I updated firmware on these drives...but they weren't Your model... :confused: <a href="http://www.fujitsu-europe.com/home/drivers.asp?L=en" target="_blank">http://www.fujitsu-europe.com/home/drivers.asp?L=en</a>

If that drive isn't detected at all - it can be serious problem with surface media (sometimes it can be bad electronics,though). Try utils mentioned in my posts <a href="http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum3/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=3&t=001019&p=" target="_blank">here:</a>
--------------------------------------------------
To Freddy:
Both drives died?? :confused:
Did You try low-level format for Your SCSI drives?
It can be utility from controller's manufacturer or from drive's manufacturer. For example,I've repaired quite a few SCSI drives using LLF utils from Adaptec.

Good luck!

To Ruslan,

Hey, these utils from Adaptec, are they on the Ez-SCSI 4 CD? or do you download them from Adaptec?

Thanks...


G. ;) :D

To RUSLAN


both drives dead as door nails - dont spin up , not recognised ,,

a "chip" has exploded (burnt out) ,,,,,both h/drives used in different machines 3 months between failures,,,,,faulty batch of drives? ,,,,or just bad design?


freddy

[quote]Originally posted by Garak:
<strong>To Ruslan,
Hey, these utils from Adaptec, are they on the Ez-SCSI 4 CD? or do you download them from Adaptec?
</strong><hr></blockquote>

Yeah,utilites I have downloaded from Adaptec site.
But of course,I was using Adaptec SCSI controller with these utils. <a href="http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/support/driverindex.html" target="_blank">http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/support/driverindex.html</a>

[quote]Originally posted by freddy:
<strong> a "chip" has exploded (burnt out) ,,,,,both h/drives used in different machines 3 months between failures,,,,,faulty batch of drives? ,,,,or just bad design?
freddy</strong><hr></blockquote>

Exploded chips - most likely it was the problem with power supply. Both the drives have fried chips?
Then may be these drives still have good mechanics. ;)

Darn, I guess this is just coincidence but now one of my IBM drives has gone the same way as the Fujitsu. Luckily for me its under warrenty still. It still worries me that the problem might be linked. At one point with the Fujitsu I hooked it up to my primary master IBM (60GXP) IDE drive as a slave (replaceing my normal slave) and my PC wouldnt boot with it. I wasnt too concearned as I'd been given a HDD from a PC in which the PSU had fried everthing and had tried that in a mobo that then refused to boot even from FDD. Anyway point is: could my failing HDD be linked to the fact I tried the fujitsu linked to it?? My instinct says no, experience says very unlikly but I'm hoping someone can confirm.

My thanks to chap who recomends refrigerateing HDD, I havnt tried it yet but I'm about to give it a go.

hi ruslan ,,,both machines were different spec and used in off-licence shops (beer/wine) as EPOS units both were different towns 15 miles apart and just died!

both died during use/no use ,,,,no connection in any way .

both drives require new PCBs.

the prob in both cases was loss of data.

the other 2 machines that have those drives have been changed ,,,and the drives (working) have been sold on EBAY (auction)and all 4 are now IBM drives (bought from <a href="http://www.dabs.com" target="_blank">www.dabs.com</a> ) guarenteed "not" grey imports or anything like that with FULL Xyears warrentee

That is how much faith i have in fujitsu there after sales service (in the UK) SUCKS ......go to fujitsu UK and check it out!!!!!

sorry for the rant - but those **** drives cost a LOT of money (and) time

FUJITSU - SUCKS FUJITSU - SUCKS FUJITSU - SUCKS

UK


freddy

Hi Freddy, when you say youve got IBM drives that arnt 'grey imports' what do you mean?? I usually buy any HDD's that I want oem and I take this to mean that I get my years warrenty from the company I buy off but cant go to IBM for RMA. Are the drives I buy what you mean by grey imports? I had a look at the dabs prices and there competative to what I pay, just a little higher, but if I got em from them would I be getting IBM's 3 year warrenty (or whateveritis) then?

as i,ve already sead (whined) in the uk we get **** on ,,,although FOR EXAMPLE a fujitsu drive is sold with a 3 year warrenty ,,u only get 1 year statutory warrenty with the company who sold it to you ,,,after that it is down to you to chase a warrenty with the mfg ,,,,and as in fujitsus case THEY DO NOT DEAL WITH THE CUSTOMER.

most (not all) dealers buy from a wholesaler with a limited warrenty the warrenty date is stamped on the drive and thats it.
if the drive has been in stock ie, replacement 2g,4g, then it was mfg several years ago. ,,,those drives are sold cheaper.

we also have to muck around sending seagates to belgium and philips (cd-rw) to holland ,,,etc etc.

<a href="http://www.scan.co.uk" target="_blank">www.scan.co.uk</a> and <a href="http://www.dabs.com" target="_blank">www.dabs.com</a> are authorised ibm dealers and will handle your warrenties for u.

EDITED: by authorised , i mean retail as opposed to OEM (with 12 month)
grey import is by my reconing batches short date warrenty/no warrenty ,,,,,but retailer stands 12m ie: his sticker on it ,,,date of sale

i,m sorry i meant scan when i bought those drives.

if the average british customer wrote the make/serial no of there drive down and tried to do a RMA they would get a shock.


freddy

From the latest news - Fujitsu is now selling some part of their HDD manufacturing busines to Western Digital.
So, may be situation with end-user support will be changed for better soon.
At least,I hope so... :rolleyes:
But,anyways, it isn't good idea to buy new Fujitsu drives right now. Time will show all...

Freddy you seem to be doing 'a lot of business' lately if you are having problems with warranty you need a new re-seller....

Check what warranty you get before you buy...

My resellers all honour the full manufacturers warranty, beyond the 12 months or not. They don't get any f...ing choice, if they don't I don't buy.

If they are authorised dealers for the product then they will receive full manufacturers warranty so why shouldn't you!? You don't really want to ever buy from non-authorised dealers otherwise you are gonna have problems especially with repair & support - price ain't the be all <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" /> ...

hay ,,i know the "old posts" arn,t working proper but were did u dig this up from

"February 15, 2002 08:51 AM

slept since then ,,,and fujitsu still hav,nt changed there attitude to "retail" customers ,,,so this problem is/will get worse as drives exceed there 12m statutory uk warrenty,

as of dealings with fujitsu ,,i now buy drives from either scan or dabs mainly maxtors ,,for my use ,,(espessially on offer days) and if it,s a rush job then i have located a "retailer" in my area that buys from a w/sale in southport and will match scan/dabs if it,s a cash sale ,,,,as it helps his min order prob and if ordered before 10.30am i can have by 2.30 ,,,,v.handy

FtF

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by freddy:
<strong>hay ,,i know the "old posts" arn,t working proper but were did u dig this up from

"February 15, 2002 08:51 AM

slept since then ,,,and fujitsu still hav,nt changed there attitude to "retail" customers ,,,</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">No its not is it!!!, & no unfortunately they don't either... oops....