Users may be the main cause of computer failure because they are human and use computers. And we computer users are typically just aware of how to use the computer’s operating system, peripherals, and other software and hardware.
Since this is the case, when diagnosing any computer issue, you should MAKE NO ASSURANCES. A new PC with a visual display issue was diagnosed by us. It took some time, even after a quick glance at the video card, to realize that it wasn’t fully inserted into the adapter slot.
I glanced at the card, but didn’t really look it over. As a result, I had to spend more time troubleshooting than necessary. Every computer user is terrified at the notion of a hard disk failure.
This is due to the risk of losing priceless data in the event of a hard disk failure. Here are the steps you should take the most frequently when a hard drive fails.
General Hard Drive Troubleshooting
While functioning, the hard drive may show errors like “retry, abort, ignore” or “cannot read sectors.” This suggests that there might be damaged or unreadable areas on the drive. Usually, the operating system needs to be reformatted and reinstalled to resolve this issue. This will result in the loss of all data on your drive, thus it’s critical to consistently make a reliable daily backup of your information.
You may buy reliable utilities that can fix hard drive issues without erasing data. If you want to avoid the headache of reformatting the drive and restoring the operating system, the utility Spinrite is good and only costs $200.00, which is a decent price. You should start by looking at these common hard disk issues; we’ll get more detailed later.
Use Operating System Utilities
First, by conducting the operating system maintenance on your PC, you might be able to fix those problematic places and mistakes from your hard drive. Since Scandisk will need to correct any issues it finds, you should run disk defragment on Windows after running Scandisk. Run Disk Cleanup after scanning and defragmenting the drive to make sure any unnecessary files have been removed.
Check Drive cables and connections
Check the 4 wire connector coming from the power source if there is any sign that the drive is receiving power (you don’t hear the recognizable clicking noise or the drive light is not functioning).
You can perform two tasks after removing the power supply connector if the connection is solid. A multimeter can be used to determine whether there is voltage. However, it is quicker to attach a second 4-wire connector to the drive to test the drive’s functionality. There are normally extra connectors from the power supply or you can use the connection to the cdrom drive to test for voltage from the power supply.
If the connection indicates no or very little voltage (4 volts or less) from the power supply, the power supply may be going bad. Now check and double check all connections, especially if you are someone else have recently worked inside the computer.
If the drive will not boot up…?
Boot the computer with your bootable DOS disk. If you don’t have one made, STOP and make one NOW by clicking on Start, Settings, Control Panel, Add and Remove Programs and Startup Disk.
Try to access drive C: by typing DIR C: and press Enter. If you see the directories on drive C: try to make the drive bootable by typing sys a: c: and press Enter. The system files should be restored and the drive may be restored to boot on its own.
If this fails, you may have to reformat and partition the drive with the setup utility that came with your drive or computer.
If the Drive boots but hangs up at boot…?
Disconnect the ribbon cable at the motherboard end after shutting down the computer and opening the system unit. When you turn on the computer, an error message stating that the drive is faulty and, in most cases, a BIOS prompt will appear. Before turning off the computer, switch the hard drive type to AUTO.
Check the hard drive’s functionality after re-connecting the ribbon cable. Once the drive settings have been reset, everything should work as it should.
A malfunctioning controller could be the cause of a hard disk that won’t boot up. There isn’t much you can do if the controller is mounted on the hard disk besides swap out the drive.