"primary drive 0 not found"

[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?

[dlh6213]

It sounds to me like your drive is dying. You could try to put it in a system as a slave drive and see if you have access to your data. If that doesn't work, you could try this utility:
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html

[stranoblaze]

It sounds to me like your drive is dying. You could try to put it in a system as a slave drive and see if you have access to your data. If that doesn't work, you could try this utility:
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html

but if my computer won't even boot up, how can i DL this utility?

thanks

[Catweazle]

Buy a new hard drive. It sounds like the one you have is DEAD, not simply dying!

[stranoblaze]

is there any possible way to recover SOME of the files at least?

[dlh6213]

is there any possible way to recover SOME of the files at least?

After you get another hard drive, install this old one as a slave and see if you can access the files. If not, try the restoration utility suggested earlier. But if the drive stops running entirely, it won't work. If the drive does stop working completely, do a search here for 'freezer' for a possible solution.

[stranoblaze]

ok, i'll see what i can do. the freezer trick sounds sketchy but if it has been successful i guess it's worth a shot, right?!
thanks!

[Catweazle]

If you use that 'freezer trick' ensure you seal the drive in a plastic bag to protect it from moisture, and connect the thing and fire it up as quickly as possible after removing it from the freezer.

If the trick works, you want to maximise your 'window of opportunity' to lift those files off of it ;)

[stranoblaze]

If you use that 'freezer trick' ensure you seal the drive in a plastic bag to protect it from moisture, and connect the thing and fire it up as quickly as possible after removing it from the freezer.

If the trick works, you want to maximise your 'window of opportunity' to lift those files off of it ;)

has this freezer trick worked even with HDs that had the clicking noise?

[Catweazle]

Dunno, but it definitely HAS worked with drives which BIOS could no longer identify.

[DMR]

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.

[stranoblaze]

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?

[Catweazle]

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.

[stranoblaze]

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.

[Catweazle]

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.

[stranoblaze]

i think i got a dud too. it's making the dreaded "clicking" noise.

[DMR]

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.

[KRYSTAAL]

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 ;)

[ariascasillas]

I have the same problem with a friends dell dimension 8200. i put in a new power supply...and it gave me this error...is it a power issue? a jumper issue? it shows "unknown" in bios. i dont want to play around with it until i get an idea of what the issue is....i changed the jumper setting on hd to 5 different configurations including removing it entirely.....any ideas??? thanx