eljohn101
asked on
Backup hard drive gives non-system disk error
I have a backup hard drive that had been running fine for months. After I disconnected the system and moved it around, then reconnected, I got a non-system disk error. By trail and error I figured out that if I disconnected the backup drive everything works fine.
But, the hard drive is fine if I plug it in to a different desktop. It was originally the backup drive on the second system when it belonged to someone else, when I picked it up I salvaged the hard drive fro my 'first line' system.
- the first system is a ZT Systems 7332 Ma, AMD Phenom II X4 processor, running Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit
- the second system is a HP, Intel Core2, running Windows 7 Home Premium, 32-bit
- Seagate 1TB Barracuda 7200.11 drive
But, the hard drive is fine if I plug it in to a different desktop. It was originally the backup drive on the second system when it belonged to someone else, when I picked it up I salvaged the hard drive fro my 'first line' system.
- the first system is a ZT Systems 7332 Ma, AMD Phenom II X4 processor, running Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit
- the second system is a HP, Intel Core2, running Windows 7 Home Premium, 32-bit
- Seagate 1TB Barracuda 7200.11 drive
probably it got another drive letter, so : try giving it a fixed drive letter, eg X:
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html
ASKER
On about the 7th time I tried plugging it in, the backup disk ran fine on my main system. I then switched it back to the salvaged system (where it had been running fine earlier that day) and I got the non-system disk error again.
Could there be something flakey about the hard drive itself? Maybe sometimes it spins up fine and sometimes it doesn't?
Could there be something flakey about the hard drive itself? Maybe sometimes it spins up fine and sometimes it doesn't?
Is the backup drive bootable? If not, as it looks, the salvage system appears to be trying to boot from the backup drive. You either need to adjust the bios and/or the cabling as I noted previously.
did you give it a fixed disk letter on the flakey PC ?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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Is the backup drive an internal or external drive? Is it USB/Sata/IDE?
ASKER
Thanks for the suggestions, all.
- backup is flaky on both systems. Sometimes it works fine on both. Sometimes cause non system disk error.
- it is SATA
- one odd thing - since I salvaged it, it says only ~ 600GB available, even though it is a 1TB drive. But nothing listed in the directory as to where the 400 GB is. I did not try re-formatting the drive.
- am going out of town tomorrow, will get back to this on Saturday
- backup is flaky on both systems. Sometimes it works fine on both. Sometimes cause non system disk error.
- it is SATA
- one odd thing - since I salvaged it, it says only ~ 600GB available, even though it is a 1TB drive. But nothing listed in the directory as to where the 400 GB is. I did not try re-formatting the drive.
- am going out of town tomorrow, will get back to this on Saturday
it looks like the disk drive has problems
best is to recover your data - if you can't copy it, use recovery soft - here some links :
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm pc Inspector -FREE -
http://www.piriform.com/recuva/download/standard FREE - Recuva
http://www.stellarinfo.com/ Stellar
http://www.runtime.org/ GetDataBack
http://www.ontrack.com/ Ontrack
http://www.recovermyfiles.com/ RecoverMyFiles
http://www.snapfiles.
note: if you can take the disk out of the external case, and hook it to a sata cable, that is the best way (and the fastest) to handle these problems
best is to recover your data - if you can't copy it, use recovery soft - here some links :
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm pc Inspector -FREE -
http://www.piriform.com/recuva/download/standard FREE - Recuva
http://www.stellarinfo.com/ Stellar
http://www.runtime.org/ GetDataBack
http://www.ontrack.com/ Ontrack
http://www.recovermyfiles.com/ RecoverMyFiles
http://www.snapfiles.
note: if you can take the disk out of the external case, and hook it to a sata cable, that is the best way (and the fastest) to handle these problems
ASKER
nobus -
Since this is the backup drive, the data is still OK on my main drive. If it really is a drive problem, sounds like I just need to get a new one. And yes, it is on a SATA connector, not an external/USB one (sorry I didn't state that earlier).
Since this is the backup drive, the data is still OK on my main drive. If it really is a drive problem, sounds like I just need to get a new one. And yes, it is on a SATA connector, not an external/USB one (sorry I didn't state that earlier).
then i would run a diag, and if that has no errors, follow it up with a chkdsk
if still problems, you cna also run HDDRegenerator, irt saved many drives for me
http://www.dposoft.net/hdd.html
if still problems, you cna also run HDDRegenerator, irt saved many drives for me
http://www.dposoft.net/hdd.html
ASKER
Swapping the cables did the trick, though not clear why this is the case since I didn't open the box until after the non-system disk errors start.
Ran Tools -> error checking and no errors found, so it appears the disk itself is OK
Thanks for all the inputs
Ran Tools -> error checking and no errors found, so it appears the disk itself is OK
Thanks for all the inputs
ASKER
Swapping the cabling worked
Make sure your primary boot disk is in sata port 0. Then add the other hard and optical drives in order after that.
e.g.
primary drive - port 0
backup drive - port 1
cd/dvd - port 2