On Monday 14 July 2008, Eben King wrote:
> I rebooted my computer because I couldn't make the printer stop spewing
> garbage, and it wouldn't start back up. It does the POST, then the SCSI
> card offers to boot from a SCSI drive (I have none), then I get a solid
> character cell followed by a flashing character cell. I took out the SCSI
> card and disabled PATA, SATA, serial, parallel, and USB audio. No change.
> It won't boot from a CD either, and it normally does. Any ideas?
Note that today SATA drives are seen as SCSI.
I would start by checking if the BIOS sees the drive.
(Providing that you are using ext2/3:)
If not, then put a screwdriver to the drive on the metal end and your ear to
the plastic end. You should be able to hear the drive hum. If not then turn
the computer on and off a couple of times while listening to if it spins up.
If it does not spin up check the connectors to ensure you have power. If you
can verify power but no sound then drive is not spinning up. Time to see a
drive restoral service.
If yes, but no boot then boot of a live Linux CD/DVD and see if the drive is
visible there too. If not then time to see drive restoral service.
An invisible drive is either (depending on the tool you are using) using an
incompatible file system, a bad partition table, bad cable or is bad.
I might have missed something here but this would be the general path. If
something work like you can see the physical drive but no partition(s) then
it would seem the partition table is either incompatible with what you are
using to look at it or it's corrupt.
There are commercial tools that will restore wholly lost partitions including
ext2/3 files. Most seem to label them like file00001. But I've seen at least
one that recovers file names and all. (Unistal is one. Though I have had big
problem reaching them after trying their LInux version. About to file a claim
with PayPal. Otherwise the ext3 recovery looked really good running on
windows.)
--Steve Szmidt
"They that would give up essential liberty for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
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