A problem with the hard drive has been detected, consult the troubleshooting section of your owners manual. Press enter to continue...

The message is surely popping up as a result of the SMART feature that is enabled in Bios.

SMART ( Self Monitoring Analysis & Reporting Technology ) is an interface between a computer's BIOS (basic input/output system) and the computer hard disk.

Quote:

It is a feature of the Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics (EIDE) technology that controls access to the hard drive. If S.M.A.R.T is enabled when a computer is set up, the BIOS can receive analytical information from the hard drive and determine whether to send the user a warning message about possible future failure of the hard drive.

SMART monitors elements of possible long term drive failure, such as 'Spin Up Time', the number of start/stops, the number of hours powered on and the temperature.

Unquote.

Source: http://www.passmark.com/products/diskcheckup.htm

If you have data and software that you really need, start by backing up immediately what you want or need.

After that download and run "PassMark DiskCheckup - Drive monitoring" from the website above (free for personal use), install and run it.

The results should be obvious.

Post back your findings.

Good luck,

Zee

Hey,

I found out that it's a Western Digital, found the proper diagnotics from their website based on model number.  I've tried to run it from the floppy upon boot up, but I get:  Invalid system disk.  Replace disk etc...  Then when I run it in Windows (doomed to failure I know) it says:  Causeway error 9, unrecoverable error.  

I've tried running diskcheckup.  I get this:

Drive 0  SMART enabled

IDE REGISTERS:

Features: 0x0             Sector Count: 0x1       Sector Number: 0x1

Cylinder Low: 0x0       Cylinder High: 0x0       Drive Head: 0xA0

Command: 0x50



DRIVE INFORMATION:

Serial Number: WD-WMA6R4420466

FirmWare Rev: 18.20D18

Model Number: WDC WD400BB-53AUA1

Cylinders: 16383       Heads: 16             Sectors per track: 63

Cur Cyls: 16383       Cur Heads: 16             Cur Sectors/Track: 63

Bytes per track: 57600       Bytes per sector: 914

Gen Config: 17018       Buffer Type: 3             Buffer Size: 4096

Vendor Unique: 10 0 E       More Vendor Unique: 0x8010

ECC Size: 40             Double Word IO: 0       Capabilities: 12032

PIO Timing: 640       DMA Timing: 0       BS: 7

Current Sector Capacity: 16514064       Total Addressable Sectors: 78165360

Mult. Sector Stuff: 272       Single Word DMA: 0       Multi Word DMA: 7



SMART ATTRIBUTES:

ID      Description                         Raw Value      Status       Value       Worst      Threshold

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1      Raw Read Error Rate                   0         OK       200        1        51

3      Spin Up Time                          2966ms      OK       117        94        21

4      Start/Stop Count                      3983      OK       97        97        40

5      Reallocated Sector Count              14        OK       196        196        112

7      Seek Error Rate                       0         OK       200        200        51

9      Power On Time                         12112      OK       84        84        0

A      Spin Retry Count                      2         OK       100        97        51

B      Calibration Retry Count               0         OK       100        98        51

C      Power Cycle Count                     1464      OK       99        99        0

C4      Reallocation Event Count              14        OK       186        186        0

C5      Current Pending Sector Count          0         OK       200        135        0

C6      Offline Scan Incorrect. Sector Count  438       OK       133        133        0

C7      Ultra ATA CRC Error Count             13        OK       200        253        0

C8      Write Error Count                     12109      FAIL     1        1        51



Thats it.  Any ideas what I do now??

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!

After saving the data you need, you can turn off the SMART feature in the Bios if you want and keep on using the HDD and your system.

But ONLY if what you're doing is not sensistive, i.e., if disk dies you have no problems.

Depending on your hardware (old? moderately old?) it may be worth replacing the HDD, but this is something you have to decide yourself.

Good luck,

Zee

Correction:

Not IF disk dies, but rather WHEN...

It will rather sooner, than later.

Zee

imwmt,

Yep, you have a bad disk.  Hard disk are not expensive to replace. Good luck!

Rats!  Oh well.  Thanks for all your help everybody...

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Zee