"primary drive 0 not found"

Reply

Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 6,439
Reputation: DMR will become famous soon enough DMR will become famous soon enough 
Solved Threads: 362
Team Colleague
DMR's Avatar
DMR DMR is offline Offline
Wombat At Large

Re: "primary drive 0 not found"

 
0
  #11
Oct 3rd, 2004
Originally Posted by stranoblaze
has this freezer trick worked even with HDs that had the clicking noise?
Yes it has, but the chance of sucess depends on the severity of the damage already done.

The clicking noise is the sound of the drive's head actuator trying to engage, but failing to do so. This can be caused by either an electronic fault in the control circuitry, or by a physical malfunction of the actuator mechanism itself. Freezing can help in both situations, but as Catweazle said- even if it does you may only have half an hour or less before the drives "thaws" enough to fail again.

In the case of faulty controller electronics, it's often possible to replace the entire controller board with another, although the two controllers must be identical, and the process does take some skill.
"May the Wombat of Happiness snuffle through your underbrush."
- Ancient Aborigine blessing


Please do not contact me by email or PM for help. We're all volunteers here, and only have so much free time to dedicate to our efforts.

However, if I've been working on a thread with you already, and seem to have "forgotten" your thread, please do send me a message. I try not to let things slip through the cracks, but it does happen sometimes.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message  
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 50
Reputation: stranoblaze is an unknown quantity at this point 
Solved Threads: 0
stranoblaze stranoblaze is offline Offline
Junior Poster in Training

Re: "primary drive 0 not found"

 
0
  #12
Oct 4th, 2004
Originally Posted by DMR
Yes it has, but the chance of sucess depends on the severity of the damage already done.

The clicking noise is the sound of the drive's head actuator trying to engage, but failing to do so. This can be caused by either an electronic fault in the control circuitry, or by a physical malfunction of the actuator mechanism itself. Freezing can help in both situations, but as Catweazle said- even if it does you may only have half an hour or less before the drives "thaws" enough to fail again.

In the case of faulty controller electronics, it's often possible to replace the entire controller board with another, although the two controllers must be identical, and the process does take some skill.

so if the freezer method works, the harddrive crashes again....can the freezer method be used again or is it just a one-time thing?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message  
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 3,826
Reputation: Catweazle is a jewel in the rough Catweazle is a jewel in the rough Catweazle is a jewel in the rough Catweazle is a jewel in the rough 
Solved Threads: 144
Team Colleague
Catweazle Catweazle is offline Offline
Grandad

Re: "primary drive 0 not found"

 
0
  #13
Oct 4th, 2004
It's only for trying to copy your data across from one drive to another. If the drive is stuffed, super cooling it might get it working for a short time, and enable you to connect it as 'Slave' and copy your data to another drive.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message  
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 50
Reputation: stranoblaze is an unknown quantity at this point 
Solved Threads: 0
stranoblaze stranoblaze is offline Offline
Junior Poster in Training

Re: "primary drive 0 not found"

 
0
  #14
Oct 4th, 2004
after freezing it, won't there be condensate or will the fan keep it cool?


my computer is only 1.5 years old. when i replace the harddrive, what is the likelihood that it will crash again?

i've read other forums that the harddrive may not be the lone culprit and that something else is causing the harddrive to crash. i believe it's mostly from Dell users.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message  
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 3,826
Reputation: Catweazle is a jewel in the rough Catweazle is a jewel in the rough Catweazle is a jewel in the rough Catweazle is a jewel in the rough 
Solved Threads: 144
Team Colleague
Catweazle Catweazle is offline Offline
Grandad

Re: "primary drive 0 not found"

 
0
  #15
Oct 4th, 2004
Replace the hard drive data cable.

Try the download section for your PC on Dell's website for a BIOS update which might have been released to correct such an issue.

Other than that, I'd suspect it's a dead or dying drive. Not EVERY drive lasts forever, after all. You might've got a dud, or a whole batch of Dells may have been inadvertantly released with dud drives.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message  
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 50
Reputation: stranoblaze is an unknown quantity at this point 
Solved Threads: 0
stranoblaze stranoblaze is offline Offline
Junior Poster in Training

Re: "primary drive 0 not found"

 
0
  #16
Oct 4th, 2004
i think i got a dud too. it's making the dreaded "clicking" noise.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message  
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 6,439
Reputation: DMR will become famous soon enough DMR will become famous soon enough 
Solved Threads: 362
Team Colleague
DMR's Avatar
DMR DMR is offline Offline
Wombat At Large

Re: "primary drive 0 not found"

 
0
  #17
Oct 4th, 2004
One way to narrow things down is to install the drive as a slave in another computer if possible. If it still has the "Click of Death", you'll at least know that the problem lies with the drive and not your computer. As for the freezing, catweazle is right- it's only meant to be a last-ditch method to allow you some time to copy off your critical data.

However, people on other tech support forums have reported a variety of results for different variations of the freezing fix: I've used the method sucessfully a few times recently, but I've only had to try it once on any given drive; I've read posts where a second freezing is what did the trick. I've also read threads in which the poster said that their drive had been running for months after trying the deep-freeze only once. Of course, there are also those whose drives were too far gone for the freezing to work at all. YMMV, it seems.
"May the Wombat of Happiness snuffle through your underbrush."
- Ancient Aborigine blessing


Please do not contact me by email or PM for help. We're all volunteers here, and only have so much free time to dedicate to our efforts.

However, if I've been working on a thread with you already, and seem to have "forgotten" your thread, please do send me a message. I try not to let things slip through the cracks, but it does happen sometimes.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message  
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 1
Reputation: KRYSTAAL is an unknown quantity at this point 
Solved Threads: 0
KRYSTAAL KRYSTAAL is offline Offline
Newbie Poster

Re: "primary drive 0 not found"

 
0
  #18
Jul 17th, 2005
Originally Posted by stranoblaze
the other day i was checking my email and running a musicjukebox when all of a sudden my computer froze. i thought this was normal so i just ctrl alt del but the computer wouldn't restart. so i powered down my computer. when i tried to boot it up again, i received a message "primary drive 0 not found"
i was prompted to either F1 or F12 i believe (maybe it was F2). i hit F1 and when i viewed the drive description it said it was "unknown"

i opened up my tower and tried to reseat the harrddrive...disconnected and reconnected the cables. nothing worked...

any suggestions?

oh i also noticed that when i try to boot it up, i hear a clicking noise coming from the harddrive "cl-click...cl-click..cl-click"

i have a Dell Dimension 8300 i think...only about 1.5 years old

are my files somewhat recoverable?

:lol: Hi! Once you hear the clicking you know that the hard drive is going bad! There is a way however to still use a hard drive that is partially damaged. :mad:
I have a computer I used during my computer engineering degree and the had drive was damaged. What I did was partition 90% of the drive as C: and it still would not boot without problems, so I did 80% and it worked, I was able to install 2000 on it and still have it to this day working with 80% and it's 5 years now since and I haven't bought a new hard drive for it, it is still kicking! :mrgreen: :p
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message  
Reply

This thread is more than three months old.
Perhaps start a new thread instead?
Message:



Similar Threads
Other Threads in the Storage Forum


Views: 30548 | Replies: 17
Thread Tools Search this Thread



Tag cloud for Storage
About Us | Contact Us | Advertise | DaniWeb | Acceptable Use Policy | RSS Feed

©2003 - 2009 DaniWeb® LLC