Jump to content

corrupt hard drive


gmac
 Share

Recommended Posts

I have two hard drives installed on my computer, one 40gb contains nothing but data, the other was dual booted suse and windows 98, the windows failed completely and utterly, not being happy with suse I installed mandrake 9 on it (i had a box set from earlier experiments) seemed to work fine, upgraded to 10 albeit from a free magazine installation. all seemed to go OK but on booting up all I got was a blue screen, pretty but useless. I reinstalled the 9.0 version and it seems to work OK, however when i try to mount the other hard drive everything freezes and I have to reboot. Similarly when I open several applications things grind to a halt.

 

I suspect there may be a physical fault somewhere but having pored over the forum I have two quesions.

 

Memtest-exactly what do I do to carry it out.

disc check, I know there is some way I can chck the physical condition of the drive but agian exactly how do you do it?

 

Any help much appreciated. even if it might seem an obvious question to ask.

Edited by gmac
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is a good idea to actually install the memtest rpm package.

It is available from Contribs (which you can setup by using easy-urpmi.)

When memtest is installed it appears in the lilo or Grub boot up menu so it is always available to test at anytime.

 

Cheers. John.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A real easy way of testing to see if your hard disk drive is problematic is by formatting it. If there are problems, you'll get bad sectors marked accordingly, and if it's worse than that, you should hear the disk making a really bad noise as it attempts to read/write the disk.

 

In the past, I have just used an MS-DOS boot disk with format on it, and then just issue the format command. Do not use quick-format, this will not give you the correct information you need.

 

I don't know a Linux alternative to this type of format, but this should show up bad sectors at least, and any noise from read/write problems if the head is crashing into the disk.

 

If you do have any data on it, suggest you copy this somewhere else. If you do have a faulty disk your going to lose it sooner or later anyway. But for the purpose of formatting, you need a copy so that you can put it back on the disk later.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I installed I formatted the disk first. All the data I want to keep is on the second hard drive and i have it backed up anyway so losing it would not be a problem. I'm going to have to buy a second tower since that is cheaper than trying to install XP.-I work from home and am stuck with windows for work purposes , howevr, I'm going to experiment more thoroughly with mandrake till i can suss out what i am doing with it. I'm noyt in IT if you get my drift.

 

I've never been able to get linux working properly beyond the installation stage mainly because i was trying it on old computers. The one i am i]using has `a new motherboard and processor-sods law you upgrade then the operating sytem dies.

 

Why would the computer freeze when i try and mount the second hard drive?

 

Also fsdisc. How do I get that to checjk the drive.

 

I'll try the ubcd, I'll have to download it on another computer.I'm also having problems with the cd writer. can't decide wj=hether i am just unlucky or thick.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...