OSDev.org

I have a Dell laptop that an uncle of mine gave me (mouse is a bit iffy and it's old, but it works with OSDev well).

Unfortunately, I lost a lot of patience during slow shutdowns and watched as the drive slowly slowed down. At one point, it was so bad that the computer would lock up on any hdd access. Of course, to get past this, I just shut down the laptop using the conveniently placed power button :O.

Now, it boots with a BSOD (in Safe Mode too) with UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME. Running chkdsk returns no errors, fixboot says it can't write, fixmbr says it can't write.

I run Bart's PE and try to read the drive, it works perfectly. However, as soon as I try to write anything, the drive becomes inaccessible.

Any ideas? I'm about to go and retry chkdsk now.

Have you tried Knoppix? You can mount your NTFS drive as writable. If Knoppix fails, then I'd suggest backing up your data (since it's still readable) then try reformating. If that doesn't work, try low level formatting. If that doesn't work, you're harddrive is stuffed.

I already have reformatted. It seems the only parts that aren't writable are the boot area (MBR, boot sectors etc...). I think the hard drive is stuffed. Oh well, I'll just have to use live CDs.

are you sure you dont simply have a corrupted MBR? Dell use a series of Unusuale partitions which if corrupted will make it impossible to reinstall your Copy of Windows.

AFAIK I don't... FIXMBR doesn't work anyway. PTEDIT won't let me edit the disk stuff either.

Edit: when I say FIXMBR doesn't work, I mean it says it can't write.

Put the entire laptop in the freezer for one to three hours then take it out and see if it works.

Check on it. If some condensation starts to form you might just want to stick the hard disk in there. Making sure the laptop has cooled completely before hand would help.

Who is the manufacture of the hardisk? find their bootable low level formatting (Reinitializing..) disk or iso..

It'll fill the drive with zeros... most can also run tests on the device..

Then after the drive is completely zeroed out.. install what ever OS you want (In the event the disk isn't having any hardware issues...)

IIRC it's a Maxtor. Funny... the last Maxtor I had died as well. All my hard drives in my devving PC are Seagates. Never had a problem in 3 years (apart from one thing, but that was a corrupted MBR and took about 30 minutes to fix).

could always go buy a cheap, small external hdd and use it if your BIOS supports usb booting

pcmattman wrote:I already have reformatted. It seems the only parts that aren't writable are the boot area (MBR, boot sectors etc...). I think the hard drive is stuffed. Oh well, I'll just have to use live CDs.

Some BIOS allow for protecting MBR and/or bootsectors. Boot into the BIOS setup (F2 or Del during POST is most common) and see if there's an option for "Virus Protection" or some such. If it's enabled, disable it, and you should be able to write to MBR and bootsectors again.

Purpose of the option is to obviously protect against bootsector virii.

There is nothing like that in the BIOS settings.

The hard drive is an IBM Travelstar 15G (nothing on the website concerning low-level formatting).

pcmattman wrote:There is nothing like that in the BIOS settings.

The hard drive is an IBM Travelstar 15G (nothing on the website concerning low-level formatting).

You obviously didn't search long enough...

(Remember, That "zeroing" your drive will delete all data..)

Seagate acquired Maxtor.. so..
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/suppor ... eatooldreg

It's a bootable ISO(or floppy) that allows ya to maintain your drive, If that fails.. find an old copy of PowerMax (Maxtors old utility..)

Segates utility uses FreeDOS, It's pretty nifty..
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools ... kernel.zip (Source)..

Direct links for the Lazy:
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/SeaToolsDOS.exe --DOS or Windows binary.. creates a floppy image.
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/SeaToolsDOS.iso --Hooray.. bootable ISO.

For other companies:
Look here, Should be able to find the right application..
http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/low- ... ormat.html

One can also use the infamous dd command.. if all else fails.

Got the IBM/Hitachi tool, burnt it, tried it.

Error came up: Looks like I'm going to have to dish out some money for a new hard drive

I've barely touched the hard drive, must have been the previous owners (after all, the screen was broken too )

Whoops, Sorry for a Seagate central rant.. for reasons unknown I thought you had a Maxtor drive

Anyway, Hope you find a good replacement drive... I'm pretty sure 2.5" laptop drives are fairly cheap.

pcmattman wrote:IIRC it's a Maxtor. Funny... the last Maxtor I had died as well. All my hard drives in my devving PC are Seagates. Never had a problem in 3 years (apart from one thing, but that was a corrupted MBR and took about 30 minutes to fix).

That would be why. I didn't check my facts.