Pinoy Tech Zone

A favicon, shortcut for Favorites Icon, adds a subtle touch of individuality to a website. It is a graphic which is typically displayed next to the website’s name in a browser’s bookmarks or address bar.

Most favicons have a dimension of 16 x 16 pixels, and use the .ico file format. Some newer browsers, however, already support .gif and .png.

1. Download the ICO plugin for Adobe Photoshop at the Telegraphics website. To install, extract the file to your Photoshop's file format folder. This is typically located at C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS2\Plug-Ins\File Formats

Take note that you can use other tools to create favicons. I also use Microangelo and IrfanView. I have a personal preference in the Photoshop-plugin technique because of its flexibility.

2. Using your favorite graphics program (such as Adobe Photoshop or Macromedia Fireworks), create a new canvas. It is recommended that you use a canvas size with a multiple of 16, such as 64 x 64 pixels.

3. Create your graphic. Keep it simple, and don't apply too much anti-aliasing.
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4. Resize your graphic to 16 x 16 pixels. If you are using Adobe Photoshop, navigate to Image > Image Size, and enter 16 pixels in Width and Height. Next, to minimize blurring, select Bicubic Sharper from the drop down. Click OK.

If the graphic looks blurry, experiment with the aliasing and the sharpening filters.

5. It’s now time to convert your image to the .ico format. If you created your file in another graphics program, load it now in Photoshop. From the menu, go to File > Save As. The Save As dialog box will appear. Under Format, select ICO (Windows Icon) from the dropdown. In File name, enter favicon. Click Save.

6. Upload the favicon.ico file in your web directory.

7. In the web pages that you want your favicon to appear, include the following code between the head tags:

link rel="shortcut icon" href="/main/images/favicon.ico

Make sure that you enter the correct path to your favicon in the code. For example, for this website, the following code was used:

link rel="shortcut icon href="/main/images/favicon.ico



source:
http://www.chette.com

Why do so several people love Windows Vista? One of the major reasons is the unbelievable themes that are existing for your desktop. The whole thing from the wallpaper, icons and toolbars can now be personalized. Let's get appear at how to modify a theme.

To choose a desktop theme, trail the below steps:

• go to your desktop and true click on some blank space.
• scroll down to "personalize" and click.
• A conversation box will come up that says: "Personalize manifestation and sounds." correct below it are seven headers. Decide "theme" which is the sixth item, or second to the last item.
• A dialog box appears with the title "theme settings."
• Beneath "theme", you have a little box with a drop down bill of fare. If you click on the rocket, Windows Vista gives you four choices: present theme, Windows Vista, Windows Classic and surf (the peruse option permit you to get a theme that you saved in exact folder. When you want peruse, Vista robotically takes you to you downloads folder wherever you saved the vista theme).
• When you snap on any of the four choices, you get a sample of the theme. Decide one by clicking "apply" or "OK". If you don't similar to any of what you perceive and choose to glue to what you have, merely click "cancel" or shut the dialog box.

Few Things Worth Noting

• Don't baffle Windows vista themes with the pre-built themes in Word 2007, control Point 2007 and Excel 2007. Every of these programs has it’s possess themes package.
• You can locate numerous themes for your desktop by typing in vista themes in several search engines. A good number of the themes are free.
• If you occur to like a theme you adage on the Web, build certain you download it to a file that your keep in mind. Also, build certain that your virus program is up-to-date previous to you download a theme. Some viruses are masked as themes so are careful.
If you're in fact into themes and like to make your have for fun, then you should be a "skinning fan" (themes are from time to time called skins). According to Andy Rat bone, noted Windows specialist, you can employ a third party program like Window Blinds and can download any theme they have at a very unassuming fee. What's even improved is a number of these vista themes are free.
Hope this helps people find ongoing on their way to creating their personal desktop.


By irfan haider 15/05/2009

In computing terminology, a ‘malicious code’ is a term used for computer viruses and programs designed to cause damage to computers. Other types of destructive PC worms are known as Internet virus including the examples like Worms and Trojans.

Outlined below is the description of different kinds of computer viruses:

Program/File Infector

Falling under the category of parasitic viruses, a program or file infector attempts to infect the files with extension code like .exe, .com, .drv, .dil, .bin, .ovl, and .sys. It gets activate along with the execution of executable file containing virus. The virus then loads itself into memory and replicates itself to other executable files when these files are opened or run.

The File Infector virus can destroy the content contained in files and cause irreversible damage to them. Some file viruses have also operated as email worm and Trojan horse.

The best way to disinfect files infected by the file virus is to delete them and restore from back up.

Macro Computer Virus

A macro computer virus is a virus written in a language built into a software application such as a word processor. For example: Microsoft Office has the macro language built into its application. This is why most of its application programs are affected by macro computer virus.

Macro viruses are generally created using the macro recorder or Visual Basic for Applications. The applications that are the most prone to this antivirus are Word Documents, Excel Spreadsheets, Power Point Presentation, and Access Database. The virus infects templates of these documents and therefore every file that the user opens gets affected. Some common macro computer viruses are Auto Exec, Auto New, Auto Open, Auto Close, and Auto Exit.

The auto macros can be disabled by using the command ‘DisableAutoMacros’ in any macro that is written. Another way to remove it is by holding down the shift key while opening a document.

Multi-Partite Virus

It behaves in the same way as other computer viruses do. As the name signifies, they are sometimes more than one type. These are hybrids and are known as multi-partite virus.

Polymorphic Viruses

It is a kind of virus which produces different but operational copies for itself. Its attack is considered to be extremely dangerous as virus detectors will not be able to detect all instances of virus attacks simultaneously. And this is one of the reasons why it is known to be strategically designed.

Stealth Viruses

A stealth virus uses different mechanisms to prevent recognition by antivirus software. It tries to escape detection either by redirecting the disk head to head to read another sector or modifying the file size shown in the Directory listing.

Classification of some viruses is not possible as they are the file type viruses which start behaving as computer worms with an activation code.

It's pretty clear that PDF files are the new "must use" when it comes to document handling. Who doesn't use a PDF nowadays? They are smaller than other similar files, can be viewed on Windows, Linux and MAC, and anyone can protect their PDF files with encryption and password. Because of the wide variety of free conversion tools available today, everybody can convert whatever files they want to PDF.

Students use a large variety of operating systems on their computers. Teachers can make sure that their courses will be viewed properly by converting them to PDF files. Universal deployment is maybe the most important asset of PDF format.

Companies and business users can keep their internal documents as PDF files, benefiting from their smaller size and making sure those files are read only by employees who know the password. PDF security is another important feature that made the PDF format so popular.

Finally, home users are using PDF files because Adobe did a very smart thing: Adobe Acrobat Reader is used only for viewing PDF files and is free. This way they made sure PDF format is available for everybody.

After PDF files became widely used, some new needs appeared. Users wanted to extract only a couple of pages from a PDF files. This could be done only by using dedicated software: a PDF splitter tool. Also, somebody at one point wanted to combine two or more PDF documents into a single file. They needed a PDF merger tool. Adobe made those tools, but they were not free. And because of their branding and marketing costs, those tools were pretty expensive.

Luckily, free tools emerged during time, but they were not developed by Adobe. Third party publishers made them available to public use, trying to gain a market share.

PDF Sam is the most popular tool that can be used to merge and combine PDF files. Originally started on the Source Forge platform, it is developed in Java and comes in two editions: a free one, and for those who donate any amount, an enhanced edition. It offers the basic PDF split and PDF merge operation, and in the enhanced version, file encryption.

Adolix Split and Merge PDF is quite a young entry in this market. Adolix developed this tool in Visual Basic, and focused on the graphical user interface. Their aim was to make it as user-friendly as posible. Following PDF Sam steps, Adolix's tool was first available as a free edition. Users could split and merge PDF files with just a few mouse clicks. At some point they also offered a Professional edition. Users could merge more than 5 files at once and split large documents into PDF files with the PRO version.

Other vendors also released tools to handle the split and merge PDF process. Adult PDF, Very PDF, AcroPDF and NitroPDF are only a few of the companies that entered the market with free or paid versions of those type of tools.

According to some studies, there are more than 60 domain names being registered worldwide per second. No doubt, it is very important to be creative and choosy in case of domain name selection. Being short, logical and accurate does make the domain name catchy and memorable.

If a new enterprise needs to register its domain, it must certainly contact a domain registrar. The process of domain name registration is fairly simple. The first step is to decide what kind of domain needs to be acquired. While the most common choices are .com or.net, a company can also opt for .info or .biz for its website. The next step is to determine the period. Most registrars have certain plans which range from one year to ten years. Companies are also offered for contract renews once it expires.

Another significant aspect of domain registration is the cost involved as per the length of contract. It is always recommended to snoop around or search for domain name registration referrals before opting for a registrar. Beware of some established domain name registrars that provide domain registration at rates which are 200 percent more expensive than what standard registrars charge.

Opting For an Appropriate Domain Name:

Choosing a domain name can sometimes be tricky. However, following some useful and simple tips can result better traffic and minimize the chances of duplication.

Be Short: Lengthy domain names are more prone to spelling errors while typing into the browser. It is a fallacy that long domain names tend to be more descriptive. Actually, long names are difficult to remember. A short, but catchy domain name does the best trick for attracting traffic.

Be Logical: During the process of domain registration, it is very important to register a name that logically matches the theme or purpose of the website. For example, if a site is all about digital cameras, one should register bestdigicams.com. One can even use the name of the enterprise as a domain name. For instance, if the name of the company is XYZ, one should register as xyz.com.

Be Accurate: Being accurate with domain name is crucial, especially if the domain name registrar has a minimum qualified period for refund. One should always spell check before the domain name registration process. However, registrars refund within 5 days of registration if there is something wrong.

Besides, it is essential to know the different aspects of domain registration to acquire a new domain name. A good knowledge about the domain name registrar is important, which is an organization that acts as middleman between the registry and the client website. Your domain name registration service provider helps you by offering the right options for selecting a suitable web address or host name.

Since the creation and wide-spread usage of the internet by people all over the world, information and creativity, as well as the distribution of both, has blossomed immensely. One facet of this spreading creativity is that of the web-based television show. This medium has a tendency to be comedic in nature, being the genre most easily expressed and digested in the common short episode times featured. Unlike its mainstream broadcast counterpart, the web-based television series is historically noted for its low production values, most shows starting out in a YouTube sort of fashion or featured on independent websites. However, over the years, web shows have grown in general popularity. A notable example of this is 'lonlygirl15,' which eventually received commercial attention and sponsorship. Before its end, 'lonelygirl15' garnered over 100 million views in a little more than two years. Web television has risen still further in popularity, with numerous spin-offs and other ideas thrown into the mix. It now even has its own awards program, called the Streamy Awards.

Among the countless web programs in existence today, there are a few that stand out. 'Homestarrunner.com' is a flash-cartoon series based upon unique characters and their interactions. Most notable about this site is that they have never utilized any method of sponsorship. Their popularity has been spread entirely by reputation, and they have become self-sustaining on merchandise. The series has several features, most popular being Strong Bad Emails, but does numerous other short 'toons' with the other characters. The show is quite successful in its humorous attempt, but it tends towards young-adult, clean humor. Very little can be found offensive about it, but that is not always what people are looking for.

A more raunchy or risque style of humor can be found in the machinima series 'Red vs. Blue'. There is foul language and violence to be had for the viewer who prefers it. The series is based upon and filmed using the video game 'Halo,' and has had numerous seasons. It provides an example of a show that is not self-sustaining; it is intensely popular, but the various creators still retain their own jobs.

Breaking into the middle-ground of this is the live-action web-television series featured on YouTube known as 'The Guild.' It is another comedy show based upon a 'World of Warcraft' guild that meets in real life and is put together by a group of improvisation artists. The jokes in the program do not always succeed, and some fall entirely flat, but overall the show is generally funny and compelling.

One of the few web programs to escape from the comedy genre is the science-fiction/fantasy story 'Sanctuary.' This live-action show, created by the producer and director of the 'Stargate' series, follows the story of terrifying and monstrous creatures both human and not and the struggle to confine the malicious ones and protect the benign. The show's success lead the Sci-Fi channel to pick it up for traditional television broadcast. However, typical of the genre, sometimes the acting leaves something to be desired.

Since its creation, web television has seen remarkable changes. Even though today there are still dozens of ignored or fledgling shows, a few have broken through and become intensely popular. As the internet continues to expand, this style of programming can do nothing but grow.

The processor is considered as the heart of any computer which is listed first in all the computer market. The specification listing will indicate in the spec sheet about the model, brand and also the processor speed whereas on the other hand, the information with regard to marketing will highlight only the rating of the speed. Due to this fact, the customers or the buyers would find it very tough to predict the quality of the machine. It is a common fact that the processor that runs at a particular speed in a particular model will not maintain the same speed for the other models that are manufactured by the same producer. Let us now see about the various categories of the processors and their function.

Some of the processors will be considered as outdated due to the stoppage of their production and the prevailing stock will be sold for the economy systems or the refurbished old systems. These processors will take long time for running a programme or an application and in some cases this will not run the software available in the market presently. Hence, it is better to avoid purchase of the computers with this type of processors. Consideration can be given only if the system is required for the fundamental functions like web browsing or word processing.

Some of the processors are very economical with superior performance which the companies would have stopped production. These types of processors can be categorized into two. The first one is the older high end processors for which the production is stopped and the other one is the new and low end budget processors. The high end processors which are discontinued from the market will give a better result in terms of their function like a little lower clock speed and also the processor’s architecture allows it to perform well in most of the computing errands when compared to the new processors.

The performance of the middle end processors is superior and gives the desired result for the money spent. Even though, it is not considered as the very fast processor in the market, it’s performance in the all the aspects seems to be enormous. These processors do not have the life span as for the high end processors.

These processors lie on the top of all the processors and in particular when the question of processing power arises. A laptop can be rated as a superior one only when it is fitted with a good processor. The customer may have to shell out a little more money for purchase of these types of laptops. The processors that are manufactured and marketed today are of superior quality and rated as premium when compared to the middle end and low end processors. These processors even though the rate is nearly double the rate of low and middle end processor; the performance, when compared, is in the range of 25% to 50% higher.

Many notebook users neglect one of the most important aspects of using the gadget, i.e, protecting it from overheating. Maintaining the temperature of the laptop computers is another way of enhancing its performance. The user should know and understand the safest operating temperature for a notebook.

How to find the temperature:

The temperature of the laptop can affect the performance of the device. But, the prime aspect of consideration is to find the notebook temperature. Here are some of the useful ways how you find the notebook temperature so that you can avoid the causes responsible for overheat of the machine.

Usually the notebooks come with software to keep track of the temperature. While purchasing notebook, look for the utility software meant to find the notebook temperature. Generally, the software is not a part of the Operating System of the computer, but a part of software provided by the manufacturer.

Apart from the preinstalled software you can download free software from the Internet. They are available with instructions of using them and help you find the temperature of your laptop. Few laptop users with technical mind use thermal sensor to keep track of the temperature of their machines.

How to keep your notebook from overheat:

Now that you are able to find the temperature of your notebook, you have to take necessary steps to maintain the temperature and protect the machine from overheating to keep the machine cool. In fact, it is an effective and cost-effective way of increasing the notebook performance.

If you feel that your notebook is getting too hot, it is high time it needs a break. Shut down the machine and allow it to cool. Also, try to place your notebook on a flat surface. You can find rubber feet that allow airflow to the lower side of the notebook. When you are using the machine placing it on a bed or any other such surfaces chances are there your laptop may not get enough air.

Alternatively, you can work with your laptop placing it on your lap if want to work away from the desk to allow proper airflow. You can also place a towel underneath to avoid the heat. Also, try to raise your notebook from the surface allowing increase of airflow to the lower surface. You can even use a laptop stand to rest your laptop on it.

Many people keep their laptop on even after placing them inside the laptop case as it is convenient to take the machine out of the bag, open the screen and work immediately. But, the environment inside the notebook case is generally warm and it can get warmer with the already switched-on computer. It can cause harm to the hardware of your laptop. It is better to shutdown the notebook before placing it in the notebook case.

It is common among the laptop users to keep the computer plugged in throughout the working hours. The constant flow of electricity will not only reduce the performance of the battery but also increase the heat of the battery. It will eventually overheat the laptop. It is very essential to charge your computer as long as necessary, otherwise unplug the charger once the battery is full.

Another way you can keep your laptop from overheat is by buying a laptop cooler. Of course it is a pricy choice, but it can provide cool air to the underside of the notebook. Now, enhancing the performance of your notebook is in your hand. While using your notebook, make sure that it does not get overheat.

There have been lots of confusions whether Sony playstation 3 is better than Microsoft Xbox 360 or the other way round. Both consoles boast good indy support with games like Braid on XBLA and PixelJunk games on PSN. Both are available with big titles like Street Fighter HD and Mega Man. So, what are the differences between the two consoles?

CPU:

The CPU of Xbox 360 has vector processing power and a dot product instruction. The console also has three general purpose CPU cores and each core has 128 vector registers per hardware thread with a shared 1 MB L2 cache and a dot product instruction. The CPU of Sony Playstation 3 allows an environment where 87.5% work is DSP calculation and 12.5% work is general purpose computing.

GPU:

The GPU of Xbox 360 is more powerful than that of Sony playstation 3. The Xbox 360 GPU has larger number of transistors and the total programmable GFLOPs number is almost equal. In order to add additional floating point options for graphics rendering the PS3 has extra seven DSPs on the Cell. On the other hand the three general purpose cores of Xbox 360 with dot products instructions and custom D3D are tailored for true graphics related calculations.

Multithreading and balanced designs are other features of the Xbox360`s GPU. the automatic shader load balancing, full rate texture fetching in the vertex shader, programmable triangle tesselator, memory export features, programmable vertex fetching are the other features of the Xbox 360 that contribute to the rendering performance of the gadget.

Bandwidth:

For a total system bandwidth of 48 GB/s, the Playstation 3 has 25.6 GB/s of RDRAM bandwidth and 22.4 GB/s of GDDR3 bandwidth. On the other hand, for a 278.4 GB/s total system bandwidth the Xbox 360 has a 256 GB/s of EDRAM bandwidth and 22.4 GB/s of GDDR3 bandwidth. PS3 try to compensate the lack of memory by using Z and color compression.

Multimedia:

When it comes to multimedia, the major advantage of PS3 is that it can stream media and also allow the users to store media on it. In case of Xbox 360 it is like a media extender and does not allow you to save your AVI files on the hard drive. Again, PS3 is, till date, the only Blu-Ray playing video game console. It has high video quality, responsive controls and also it supports all the latest features.

Backwards Compatibility:

In case of backwards compatibility Xbox 360 excels PS3. The PS3 does not support any PS2 library as it does not have PS2 functionality. Alternatively, you can buy a used 20GB or 60GB if you want a backwards compatible PS2. This can be considered as one of the drawbacks of PS3. However, Microsoft has allowed backwards compatibility for Xbox 360 and the online library if the console is adding original XBOX games regularly.

Open Source Operating System:

Playstation3 is the only gaming console that allows the user to install Linux, it does not allow to play games while operating in Linux though. Microsoft is planning to upgrade Xbox 360 and working on a version of Linux that can be installed on the console.

PS3 simplifies the choice for import gamers and is a completely region free gaming console. Xbox 360 has superior graphic power and its GPU allows it to perform at high resolution. With Playstation 3, some of the games require mandatory installation to the hard drive, whereas with Xbox 360, you have the choice of installation.

Both the video game consoles have their own strengths and shortcomings, and both are tremendously successful.

In the early 1980's, the video games were first introduced. They created a sensation in the gaming world and made people very much crazier about such gaming actions. Then with the easy reach of computers the system of computer gaming came into existence. These electronic gaming activities gained a wide popularity among the masses and people of different age group. Moreover, the puzzle, racing and WWF games are some of the examples of the most preferred gaming categories which are played on computers. Moreover, the video games are considered to be very challenging and exciting means of entertainment for people of all age groups. Nowadays kids, teenagers and people from different age groups spend most of their time enjoying the gaming actions on the computer and Internet. Everyone, can find many suitable suitable genre according to their likes and preferences on the Internet.

Nintendo DS, is one of the best examples of gaming consoles. This console is easy to use and fascinating interactive activities can be played on the device. This console has been designed keeping in mind, the needs of everyone. Whether you are a child, a teenager, an adult or anyone, you can play games on this console very easily. This gadget is very popular among the masses. The DS gaming gadget can easily download all types of games. The console users can also easily access games from all the Nintendo Systems and other systems such as Sega by subscribing for their services.

This console has been made for all age group people. The Nintendo DS games are supported with Nintendo Wi-Fi connection which is a free online connectivity. It allows the users to interact with some one in between the game. This gaming widget weighs just 300 grams. Moreover, this gadget comes with 2 separate 3-inches TFT LCD screen. The physical dimensions of this console is 148.7 x 84.7 x 28.9 mm. This widget comes in two colour options. One is sleek black and the second one is stylish white. The users can opt for the device colour, according to their choice. Moreover, 1.65 volts is required for operating this device.

The built-in CPU of this high end gadget comes enabled with 2 Arm processors, an Arm 946E-S main CPU and ARM7TDMI co-processor. They are available at clock speeds of 67 MHz and 33 MHz. The gadget even has 256 KB of Serial Flash Memory. Furthermore, the device comes supported with Wireless 802.11 and Nintendo Original Protocol. The Wi-Fi built-in support with 802.11 Wireless Network Connection would further assist you in wide variety of ways.

Today, many web sites are coming up and as such it is very easy to search for free of cost games from these gaming websites. The users can play and download online games free of cost. There are many game options also to select from. Puzzles, Super Mario, shooting, chess, fairy tale, cricket and so on are some of the examples of most preferred games which are accessed by most of the users on-line.

The Nintendo DS games can be played even by the multiple players. There is a built-in microphone in the widget, which would allow the individual to access some other games also while they are currently playing a game. Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Pokémon etc are some of the gaming categories which are easily downloadable and most often are also preloaded in the memory of these consoles. A 56K modem adapter and a Broadband adapter are also the part of accessories which are needed for the Nintendo DS games club.

Streaming media is basically technology that enables you to listen to music and view video in real-time over the Internet without lengthy downloads.
There are many things to consider when participating in or offering an interactive course live via satellite using streaming media webcasts. Here are the main concerns:

The students should have access to a classroom setting that has the proper resources to support participation in live streaming media broadcasts and distance learning in general. Communication between the students, instructor and support staff is extremely important as well. Contact information for technical support, including the broadcasting site’s technical support group, and the technical support for the remote sites, should be readily available to students as well as instructors. It cannot be stressed enough that technical support is absolutely necessary on both ends of the spectrum for live satellite webcasts to be successful. Should there be an issue with the webcast, a means to fix the issue should be readily available.

Once the correct setting, for receiving the live satellite webcasts as well as the broadcasting site itself is ready, there are a few more things to consider. It is imperative that archives of the streaming media broadcasts; copies of the presentation, lecture notes, and worksheets should be available and accessible. Course broadcasts should be accessible to those people with disabilities. For example, a person who is hearing impaired would have difficulties participating in the course if the type of course delivery relied heavily on audio materials.

Schools are not the only groups who choose to use live satellite webcasts for educational purposes. More and more hospitals and health education centers are also using live satellite webcasts to reach the general public. Often times parents and health officials are invited to watch a webcast regarding the latest in research and technology regarding a particular health issue.
In some cases, those who participate in viewing a webcast will receive continuing education credits.

The advancement of technology has made it easier for many people to either state their cause to a large audience, educate those who want to learn as well as allow those who are physically unable to leave their home a way to participate.
If you take all of the above into consideration and prepare everything according to what needs to be done, live streaming media webcasts can be effective and viable alternatives for participating in or delivering many different types of courses.

Click2Call provides the facility of making and receiving calls over a web page. Click2Call facilitates the sales representatives to make fine communication with their respective customers.

In addition, a study showed that around 30% to 40% of potential customers speak with sales representatives before placing any orders. Even though, a well-defined web page answers and solves almost all the issues of a customer, yet they would still call up a well-informed person before placing an order. Therefore, Click2Call enables smooth communication between a seller and buyer.

There are various advantages of Click to Call and they are as follows:

1. It facilitates easy communication between the consumer and buyer, thus making the business to flourish and makes it easy for the consumers to contact the business as and when required.

2. It helps in building loyalty amongst customers and generates substantial revenue.

3. The business also has an added advantage of stocking only those products that has been ordered by the customers, thus avoiding losses and wastage of products.

4. Customer queries can be solved immediately and this helps the customers to save time.

Moreover, Click2Call is different from other calling facilities such as Push-N-Talk. In Push-N-Talk, the users need to activate a call directly from the web for which the individual has to use the microphone or activate the speaker to communicate. On the other hand, Click2Call is extremely easy to use, as it directly makes use of the web to activate a call by particularly mentioning the receiver’s contact number.

A website, interchangeably referred to as “online business card” or “web address”, has tremendous potential in getting your message and idea across global communities, which other promotional media may be found wanting. Today, it has catapulted marketing into the realm of content, audio and video plus person to person interaction carried over chat rooms still made possible by an accessible online address, transcending time and space. With no territorial boundaries, having a website is an indispensable tool for an entrepreneur who wishes to bring his products or service to global attention.

Products and services are sold by the minute online; shopping carts have never ceased raking in dollars, round the clock, for the website that hosts them. A businessman who wants to thrive in the 21st century and beyond needs to embrace the call of the times: acquire and manage a company website or be left behind.

With a website, even while you sleep, your business is on its feet, holding its own against competition. Through online strategies, such as search engine optimization and internet marketing, your business is always at the threshold of converting every search query, into a possible conversion, long after the regular sales agent in a traditional business has gone home. Such is the 24/7 power of a website to welcome traffic and create sales for your business, even when you are not watching.

A business that has no website will eventually fade into oblivion; it simply cannot outlast competition. Large or small business has lost its size definition when competition is brought in the forefront of the worldwide web. Businesses, which have the winning edge, are those with online presence, no matter how sparse is the number of people that run them. It’s not about size, it’s about visibility.

It is online where most people, nowadays conduct their search for information that leads them to your door. Without a website, where would your potential customer go to find you? Only your next door neighbor will not bother to sit in front of the PC to place order for your shoe; the rest will seek out the same pair of shoes among online stores that offer not just convenience but a plethora of choices, which a customer can feast his eyes on, minus the perspiration.

To compete globally, you have to take up the challenge of being seen, read and heard on the web. Nothing can bring your business more effectively to your online audience than that piece of space on your website; you appropriately call “Home”.

Satellite radio is the hottest trend in radio entertainment for your car, home, and office. The freedom from commercials and static is an exhilarating experience. No longer do you have listen to obnoxious jingles and hot air. No longer are you condemned to choose between dead air and Country & Western when traveling in rural areas.

Commercial-Free, Digital-Quality Sound

All of these problems are solved with satellite radio. And there is nothing else in the radio world that can compete with its digital quality sound. Satellite can provide uninterrupted listening pleasure anywhere in the world.

The only problem is deciding upon which satellite radio provider to choose. The top 2 contenders are Sirius and XM Radio. If you want satellite radio, you are immediately faced with the issue of how to choose between them.

XM Radio, First In The Sky

XM Radio established its presence first, and has a market share of 2 million listeners. XM has had the time to establish an excellent system of 68 commercial-free music channels with an incredible array of music. It also adds 33 channels of news, sports, talk shows, and entertainment to its programming mix. To top it off, XM has revolutionized the satellite radio world by providing 21 channels of up-to-date weather and traffic for most of the major metropolitan areas in the United States.

Sirius, Radio Innovator On Satellite TV

Sirius may be the comparative upstart, but it offers some advantages of its own. New contacts with DISH Network satellite television have given Sirius access to more than 10 million subscribers. It provides more than 120 channels if you add up all of the music, sports, information and entertainment.

For sports, Sirius is hard to beat. It broadcasts live games for professional football and hockey leagues, as well as many other sporting events. Sirius will also be the home of Howard Stern in 2006.

New Technology, New Listening Experience

So, whether you choose XM Radio for experience and staying power, or cast your vote for the innovations of Sirius, there's no reason to wait. Satellite radio is to broadcast radio as the VCR was to television. You can have it all -- without commercials! So what are you waiting for -- pick one.

System error 5 (Access is denied)

This error code may be due to missing permission to access the remote computer share resources. If you are allow to access share resources. You should be able to use the net view command and access the remote server as follow:

C:\>net view \\ServerA.x-security.net
Shared resources at \\ServerAx-security.net

Share name Type Used as Comment

-----------------------------------------------------
NETLOGON...Disk...Logon server share
SYSVOL..........Disk...Logon server share
The command completed successfully.

Beside the permission to access server, you also have to made sure that your account is allow to connect to the resource server remotely and that the Netlogon service is running. No restriction of GPO to your account as well. Else you will experience the following error.

C:\>net view \\ServerA.x-security.net
System error 5 has occurred.
Access is denied.

Freeze it

1. When the problem is data-read errors off the platters themselves, freeze the hard drive overnight. It makes the data more 'readable,' but for a one-shot deal. If this data is critical, and you have a replacement hard drive (which, if it's a drive failure, you probably do), then you can hook up your frozen hard drive and immediately fetch the data off before it warms up.

2. If the problem is heat related, put the drive in the freezer for about 15 minutes to cool it down...sometimes this gets the drive up long enough to copy any critical files...

3. Put the drive in a waterproof sealed bag, put it in the freezer for an hour or so, then have another go. The drive was up long enough to get the data ghosted to another drive.
a.)The first thing you want to do is run a disk utility like Norton disk doctor or wddiag (if it's a western digital drive) to verify whether the drive is working mechanically or not.
b.) If it is a master boot record problem, sometimes running Fdisk/mbr will correct the problem.
c.) It could also be a virus, and a program like F-prot will look at the drive as a physical unit

4. Take the drive out and put it in a freezer for 30 minutes. Then reinstall it into the file server. Quickly mirror the drive onto another and got rid of the bad drive. In stand alone client systems, the method had the most luck with reviving drives from death has been removing the drive, firmly tapping the top of its case several times, and then re-installing it making sure all cables are secure.

5. If the drive is not spinning, remove it from the computer and 'spin' the drive on a flat smooth surface (much like spin the bottle). This will usually free the drive and when placed back in the machine, it will boot. You should immediately back up your data after a successful boot, because the problem will return.

6. When a drive has failed after it has been running for a short period, remove it from the machine and placed it in a freezer for a couple of hours, then hook it up again. It sometimes will run long enough to remove the data to another safe storage medium.

7. Remove the drive from the PC, place it in the freezer for a day, then quickly put it back in the machine and try to access it.

8. If you bring the temperature of the hard drive down to the freezing point by putting it in a freezer first and then taking it back out, somehow the condensation from bringing it back to room temperature helps revive it for about 20 minutes. It can be repeated about 5-6 times tops. Long enough to get out any important files that need to be backed up. It has been proven to work a number of times.

9. Metal contracts when it is cold.... so the platters shrink and increase the clearance for the read/write heads.
• Turn off the server.
• Take out the failing hard drive and wrap a static bag around it.
• Throw it in the freezer conveniently located in the break room.
• Pray for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.ays to revive a hard drivetechrepublic.com
• Leaving the hard drive in the bag, quickly plug the drive back into the server. (Just plug the in cables and go.)
• Cross fingers, turn it on, and move all data off the drive as fast as you can! Then add a tape drive and start backing the dumb thing up!

10. Here are some drive recovery tricks that have worked. Try booting the drive and copying the data off after every step.

• Hold the drive upside down, making gravity change the head geometry ever so slightly. Vertical is also another option.

• Slightly rap the drive with your knuckle, (but nowhere near hard enough to damage the drive).

• Try the drive in another machine, (slight drive voltage change assumed to be the miracle worker here).

• Rap the drive just SLIGHTLY harder than you did above in 2.

• Freeze the hard drive in the freezer for two hours, and place in a plastic zip lock bag to prevent condensation from forming on the drive when you plug it back into the system, (head geometry, electrical resistance lowered, electrical contact points adjusted, etc., assumed to be the miracle here).

• After the drive warms up to room temperature or better, rap it even harder with your knuckle this time.

• Repeat all of above steps on next day.

11. Wrap the HD in a Ziplock bag and slam it in the freezer for 12 hours. Pull it out the next day and very quickly plug it into machine, copying quickly as possible until the drive dies again, repeating until all files are copied and safe. If.....that don’t work, move onto the extreme heat. A Shrink wrap gun works best, but a hairdryer will do the trick if that is all you have. Wrap one end of the HD in a towel and use the shrink wrap gun or dryer to heat the hard drive. Very quickly plug it in and copy files until finished. Repeat until all necessary files are copied and you are done. You may not think it works, but when you are down to that as your last option...it does.

12. Carefully remove it from the computer. Place it in the freezer for 24 hours, then put it back in the computer. You should have approximately 30 minutes of good spin time left before a final and much more permanent shut down. This problem often arises from a catastrophic hard disk crash bearings are usually the culprit, coupled with badly worn read/write heads. You can opt for the more drastic cooling technique—a C02 fire extinguisher...

13. Here is a solution for really dead drives: ones that won't spin or ones that make those funny grinding noises, put the drive in the fridge for a few hours. This can shrink up something inside that might let it run long enough to get critical data. If not, try the freezer for a few more.

14. Things that have done in the past that worked:
• Remove the drive, grab it, and shake the hell out of it: "What could it hurt? It's not working anyway…."

• Place the drive in a freezer for about 10 minutes.

• Open the drive case in a laminar flow-hood, and give it a spin. (Once it was closed up and reinstalled, it worked long enough to suck the data off of it.)

• Swap the logic board with one on another drive of the same type.

15. Possible solutions:
• Lightly tap the side of the drive case with a screwdriver—no power
• Lightly tap the side of the drive case with a screwdriver–—power on
• Advanced Cold soak the drive: Freeze in a zip-lock bag
• Spray drive case with inverted can of canned air
• Lightly slap the drive on a desk top: (mild frustration)
• Repeated hammering of the drive on a desk top: (last resort—total frustration only)


16. Invalid media type treatment:
• Basics Boot with a FAT32 Windows 95 boot disk
• Sys the drive
• Advanced fdisk /mbr
• Check for a virus from a known clean boot disk
• These are but a few techniques for the doomed platters. These techniques can be used in conjunction with one another to arrive at the desired solution.

17. Place the drive in a static-free bag, then place the drive and static-free bag into a ziplock bag to seal out moisture. Place this into a freezer turned to as low as possible for 24 hours. After 24 hours, pull the drive out and immediately put it into a computer (the faster the better) that boots to a floppy and has another hard drive to transfer data to. If the drive wasn't damaged too much previously, you should be able to pull some data off before the metal of the drive heats up and starts destroying the data storage platters. You can repeat the process only if you shut down almost immediately and go through the 24 hour freeze process again. Chances are that the first time attempt will be the only chance to recover data.


Drop it

18. Turning the drive upside down and setting it on top of the power supply (which seemed to remove "a static charge" that had built up). Use various Disk Manager packages to "talk" to drives with FAT/NTFS corruptions just to recover the data. If drives are being reformatted from an operating system that doesn't want to "fully go away", the disk manager software has also worked in this scenario to get rid of the old and allow you to reformat with the new. Of course, there's always the "drop it from 4-5" onto a flat hard surface" or "smack the side of the case with the flat of your hand" approaches. Believe it or not, both techniques have worked. Rumor has it that sometimes the heads "stick" to the platters during parking/cooldown.

19. Sometimes a hard drive that has been running since nearly forever won't spin up after being shutdown for a while. This can be caused by the heads sticking to the platter. As a last resort, drop the drive onto a firm surface from approximately eight inches. Inevitably, this will solve the problem and the drive is useable long enough to remove the data.

20. Pull it out and over a thin carpet, drop it 6" squarely on all 4 sides, repeating this 2 or 3 times. Approximately a 50 percent successful boot-up rate, usually enough to copy the data off.

21. This is a one-time fix—long enough to revive HD to get data. Take the HD out of the computer and squarely drop it on the closed side of the drive (to your bench) with perhaps a little slam. This seems to free up the bearings long enough to copy data off of the hard drive.
www.techrepublic.com


Hit it

22. Possible solution:
• Check CMOS settings to make sure the drive setting are what they should be—the CMOS battery could be dead or the user may have changed the settings. A bad hard drive could cause the Autodetect to misread settings.
• Boot from a floppy disk and run fdisk/mbr to restore the backup copy of the master boot record.
• Image the drive with drive copy program to a new drive.
• It’s possible the HDD controller is bad. Try the drive in another machine.
• Boot from a floppy attach to a network drive or have a secondary drive installed and if you can access the data copy it off to there.
• The drive could have a stiction problem. Tap it gently on the sides, preferably with a rubber mallet.

23. Sometimes the drive is having trouble "spinning up." Obviously, the drive is on its last legs but a rap on the drive case will sometimes free it to spin up. This will allow the system to boot so the data can be backed up before the drive goes into the trash...

24. Older disks can develop a sticking problem. It is a combination of weak motor and surface-to-surface tension between the disk and heads. This problem usually shows up on older disks that have been running a few years (usually 24 hours a day) and then shut down for service or other reasons. When you try to start up again, the disk will not spin and you get disk errors trying to boot. After checking for the usual problems (power, cables, jumpers, etc.) and finding that the drive was in fact not spinning, jarring the disk with palm (of hand, not PDA). Some times have to be a little more violent to get it to start and had to use a hammer.

25. If the hard drive isn't making noise and when you place your hand on it (not on the PC Board side, but on the metal casing), you don't feel any vibration from the drive, you may have a sticking problem (some older drives with a variety of drive lube no longer used have this problem). If the above describes the symptoms you're seeing, try rapping around the drive case with the plastic handle of a screwdriver. This will quite often remedy the stiction and allow the drive to come back up as normal.

26. A few things can be performed on a crashed drive before declaring it DEAD:
• Touch the drive (or listen to it) to feel whether it's spinning. Some drives gradually suffer from spin-up problem but otherwise work fine once spinning. If it doesn't spin at power up, gently knock on the side the drive once or twice to jump start it. This works best if you knock on the drive approx. one or two seconds after power is applied. Repeat the procedure a few times and add a little more force if necessary. Remember that too much force can permanently damage the drive, but again, you have nothing too lose at this point.
• If drive spins normally and stays spinning, try listening for irregular sounds emitting from the drive. A series of 'clicking' sound usually signifies multiple bad sectors including the boot sector that can prevent drive from booting. If drive 'Auto Detect' is enabled, make sure that its signature is shown at boot screen. If not, drive is certainly suffered from major hardware failure.
• Check system's CPU to make sure it's not overheating (CPU can run warm, but should not be hot) due to a failed cooling fan, etc. Overheating the CPU can cause the system to be unbootable or cause the system to reboot itself frequently.
• You could use another system to test the problematic drive to make sure that the controller is not at fault. Try both "Auto" and "User Type" (where you manually enter the drive's parameters) settings.
• Try booting with a floppy and run 'fdisk' to view drive information. Some drives suddenly lost all of their data possibly due to corrupted FAT, but otherwise, continue to work fine once initialized and formatted. In many cases, FAT can be restored by executing Norton Utilities from floppy.
• If all failed and data from drive must be retrieved, you can try swapping its hardware (drive's main board) with similar working drive. Though this procedure can void drive warranty, but your data is more important, right? Or else, you try services that can save your data from dead drive for a fee.

27. Put CMOS back to auto for HD and see if it sees an HD at all. Put in a bootable floppy—can you see the HD? (Don't forget to write protect the floppy in case this was a virus.) Now try EZ-Drive. Some versions (I have several on hand with different advanced options) show what parameters the hard drive is set to in CMOS and what parameters the drive was formatted with. The second set is important. Sometimes the BIOS doesn't auto correctly. Listen to the HD. If it powers up normally by sound (no strong thumping sound) and the platters seem to spin up, you still have a chance. If the drive spins up and then down or if it emits a strong thumping sound, the hard drive is toast and only a professional recovery company with a clean room can help. If the HD doesn't spin up at all, occasionally you can gently slam it down to get stuck platters unstuck and it will spin up long enough to back up your data. The HD is toast physically at this point, and it needs to be replaced before trying the slam technique. There were also a few older HDs that had the flywheel exposed, and you could nudge it slightly and they would spin up long enough to back up the data. Again these are last resort techniques and you ARE planning on replacing the HD anyway. From here, one of several software products are available to assist you as long as the drive spins up physically to assist the technician. Most of these products can read drives with damaged FAT tables or missing sectors. And it could be just a simple matter of losing the Active attribute for the partition! Also, viruses can cause this by blasting the partition table, and some of the professional revival products can assist from here.

28. If the drive is not spinning up on power-on, lightly rap on the side of the drive enclosure with the handle of a screwdriver while listening for the platters to begin to spool-up. If it doesn’t spin up, increase the pressure of each rap until it does start spinning. I've gone to the extreme of picking up an externally mounted full height 5.25" disk drive and slamming it continuously on the desk while it was starting up. You can use a third-party utility like RESCUE that reads the drive directly using its own operating system and saving individual files and directories to another drive.

29. Before you do the following, make sure that the controller is not the problem or a cable on backwards, etc., by taking the drive out of the computer and putting into another one to see if it’s the computer causing the problem. If the other items have been checked, then do (what we call) the slam test If the drive is dead the only thing you can really do is: Find out if the person needs any important info that you might be able to get off of computer. If person has data they cannot live without and the drive is not running, take the drive out of the computer and slam it down to the desktop to get the motor running. Nine out of 10 times, this will get the motor running long enough to get data.

30. Perform a combination of the tasks described below.

• Test the motherboard BIOS/CMOS battery. Often, the hard drive is just fine. But, the internal battery is dead. Some computers like a few Packard Bells have LBA and 32-bit mode turned off by default. Those settings may have been enabled during assembly, but now that the battery is dead they are set back to factory settings (when the user turns his/her computer off) rendering the hard drive inaccessible. Solution: Change the internal battery and enable CMOS LBA/32-bit mode.

• Ask if the computer has been moved recently. Often, when computers are moved, data cables are detached from hard drives and/or motherboards. Obviously, without a data or power cable, a hard drive will never work. Solution: Reattach cables and be prepare to actually replace them.

• Worst case scenario. It is the hard drive that does not seem to respond. Then, replace the hard drive with a new Master drive and install the faulty drive as a Slave drive. Make sure you install the same Operating System used by the Slave on the Master. Then, proceed to probe the Slave drive. Ideally, at this point you should use diagnostics tools such as Micro-Scope from Micro2000. If you have experience, you should not close the computer box making sure that the Slave drive is within reach. Twice, I have been able to restart a hard drive after gently banging on it (once as Slave and once as a Master.) Don't miss the boat. Even if you happen to restart the faulty Slave drive, you must copy your info to the Master so that you are not placed in the same situation again because the next time you may not be as lucky. The above procedure works whether the drive is an IDE or SCSI drive. However, when using SCSI hard drive, you may have to test the SCSI card as well. I am leaving now to fix a drive that belongs to a RAID pack because it seems to be out of the scope of this drive quiz.

31. When a drive is really gone—cannot be read at all—due to a physical failure, employ a trick that has yet to fail me.
• Install the replacement as an additional drive.
• Remove the bad drive and smite it firmly on both edges (bang it on something solid)!
• Reinstall it, reboot, and it will work long enough to get the data copied to the replacement drive.
• If it's the boot drive that's bad, mirror the boot partition to the replacement drive, then break the mirror, remove the bad drive rejumper, and boot to the new one.

The rest of the solutions

32. First step is to remove the drive from the machine. Second, hold the drive flat in your palms. Third, shake the drive a few times in an up-and-down motion, like you're trying to hammer a nail. Don't let the drive hit the floor though, works every time.

33. Take the drive, and suspend it 4" over a plastic carpet tool (one of those things you see in an office to help the chair wheels go). Then let it "fall" while still holding it, twice on each long edge, then once flat on top and bottom. You want firm, but not too hard raps on the plastic. I find that the carpet underneath seems to cushion the blow just enough. This appears to work on drives with stuck read-write heads most of the time. If the center bearing is locked up, nothing short of a miracle will bring it back. In any case, have a second drive ready to receive your files when you attempt to restart.

34. Always try to reset the defaults in the setup first.
• Then reboot see if the computer holds the info to see if the on-board battery is dead. It’s simple to replace and could save a lot of time.
• If not, maybe a voltage surge hit the cmos and cleared it. This could take some time to find the settings the manufacturer used.
• Or find out if the hard drive had an overlay on it—older proprietary systems used them a lot. If so, try reinstalling the overlay and see if that brings back c:\.

35. Dead disk drives? There's a bunch of steps to take if the drive weren’t being recognized by either the auto setup or manual entry.

• Check your Master/Slave/Standalone jumper settings and make sure they are correct and don't conflict with another device on the same IDE channel.

• Check for bent pins on the connectors.

• Try a known good cable—Floppy and IDE cables often seem to go down the gurgler at the worst possible time for some unknown reason.

• Try a known good drive on your IDE channel and check the channel. If it doesn't respond: Try another IDE port (if there's two). Disable onboard IDE and try another I/O card (one that’s known to be good of course)

• Try the disk in another PC.

• Here's where it starts getting tricky. By now you must be reasonably convinced you have a bad case of galloping disk rot. On some drives (not all), if you have an identical same model drive, you can swap over the logic board. This will let you know if it is the embedded controller on the logic board. With luck, your disk will roar into life and you can suck the data off onto somewhere safe.

• If your disk is making a hideous noise like a peg-legged man with a vacuum cleaner on a wooden floor (whirrr, clunk, whirrr, clunk....), then it is likely you have a dropped head. This is where you have start making decisions about how much your data is worth, because to go any further is going to cost big time and may require factory technicians to try and repair the disk in a clean-room environment. If your data was that important, then it would have been backed up. (Of course it would have been, they all respond in loud voices)

36. Get an identical Hard Drive and swap out the Logic Unit (Electronic Board). Set your CMOS to autodetect You’re good to go!!!

• Check cables are on and are the correct way round.

• Check jumpers to ensure the disk has the correct setting (depending on otherisks or CD-ROM used on the same controller, if any).

• Check Bios setting for Model of PC is current. Download latest version if necessary.

• Boot from DOS floppy, use FDISK to check if disk can be seen. If the disk is there, then I would suggest using GHOST or similar to copy the image from disk to disk.

• If the disk was not apparently running, swap the disk out and install it into a PC that was working. The options here would be to have the 'faulty' disk as the master or slave depending on your situation.

• If installed and works as master, ghost the image to the network. If installed as slave, boot the PC and use ghost to copy from disk to disk or to Network.

• If disk was still in a state of absolute failure, I would suggest contacting the disk manufacturer to ask their advice. They may have some low-level disk checking/repairing software.

37. First, try flashing the CMOS. If the battery is built into the system board (I bet it is), then find the CMOS jumper, pull it–—or move it from pins 1-2 to 2-3—then kick the power on for a few seconds. Power down; put the CMOS jumper where it started. If the battery is removable, then pull the battery and flash the CMOS. Try rebooting. If that doesn't work, put the Quick Restore disks in, reboot, and exit to DOS when you get the chance. Now, depending on how this QR was put together, you may have to change to a virtual –drive—possibly N: and then the TOOLS directory. You may be able to do this straight from the A: or C: prompt. Run the command FDISK /MBR and reboot. If it still doesn't work, then I would have to check into a disk utility you can run from a bootable floppy (assuming you can even get that far). Don't have a whole bunch of experience with those. The next step after that is to just swallow hard and kiss that data bye-bye.

38. The following is the normal procedure used at a company (before sending the hard drive to a data recovery agency).

• Return the BIOS to the original state. If "auto" for hard drive then "auto,” otherwise to "user defined" with LBA enabled for Microsoft's operating systems.

• If the system still doesn't boot off the hard drive, then boot off a write-protected bootable floppy using the same operating system and version as what is on the C: drive.

• If there is no hardware error during the boot process, see if the c: drive can be accessed at all. If it can be accessed and files and directories can be viewed, now is a good time to back up files if the physical condition of the hard drive is suspect.

• Check the hard drive with an antivirus program. Sometimes computer viruses damage the boot sector. A good antivirus program will identify the problem and may even correct the situation.

• If there is no virus found on the c: drive, then run "sys c:" to restore the boot files to the hard drive. Only run the sys command if you are sure the BIOS settings are the same for the hard drive as before the problem was reported. One way to check this is to look at the file and directory structure of the drive. If you see garbage, then the settings are probably not the same (or the FAT was corrupted). Reboot the system after running sys.

• If the drive boots, you're almost done. If not, then reboot off the diskette and scan the drive for errors. Reinstall the operating system without formatting the drive.

• If the drive makes any unusual sounds or doesn't spin, then your best option is to send the drive to a data recovery agency. Attempting to recover data from a physically damaged disk usually results in further damage to the drive and little chance of recovering any data later.

39. I hope you have good luck on your data recovery. Usually, the first thing I do is to pray, then scold the user GENTLY for not making backups. I hope they never ask to see MY backups.

• Pull the disk. Put it in a known working machine. This gets you out of the malfunctioning environment and into a controlled space, YOUR workbench.

• Try "Auto config" to set the drive type.

• If "Auto config" does not find the correct drive type, you have two options:Read the actual specs off the drive label (this may or may not work, depending upon whether the setup tech used them or not).Use a disk utility to read the specs off of the drive.

• If this does not work, is the drive spinning?If not, try to "shock" it by setting it flat upon the table top, applying power, and rapping it on the side a couple of times with a plastic-faced hammer or handle of a screwdriver. Don't be afraid to rap it pretty good, these little guys are pretty sturdy nowadays, and worst case...you already have a broken drive! (Often you will hear the drive spin up immediately.) Time to BACK UP (Grab the data and run).If it is spinning, power it down and clean the connector with the cleaner of your choice.

• Sometimes, it helps to remove the PC board from the drive and reinstall it. (Connector problem again.)

• Disk utilities like SpinRite, Disk First Aid, or Disk Rescue are useful (but only if the drive is actually spinning.) In every case, back up the data the minute you see anything that even looks like a directory. Have a drive ready to put it on. I like to have a disk drive connected to my test machine and put everything there ASAP. You might be advised to use the "new" drive that will go into the user's machine. Don't put the "bad" drive back unless you just like to make service calls over again.

40. In order to make the best use of a drive that may be failing, one could take
the following steps:

• Check the system to see if the drive will detect and boot up successfully.

• If the drive is not detecting properly on the system, check to see if the problem can be solved in the systems bios, by either manually reconfiguring the drive, or by autodetecting it.

• If the drive simply will not work in that system, try putting it in another system that is working properly with a similar hard drive (the same drive type and/or size if possible). If the drive works in this system, but not in the original system, then perhaps the old system has more serious problems such as a bad IDE controller.

• Try booting up on the drive. If it will not boot properly, try FDISK or some other partition viewer to see if it has valid partitions defined. If no valid partitions are defined, or if partitions are unformatted, then the data may be lost. Try redefining to the exact same partitions that were known to exist before the problems were encountered. If you have a working drive at this point, but no data, then it is likely that data is gone. If irreplaceable data was lost, you can try bringing the drive to a hardware shop for professional data retrieval.

• If any of these attempts to revive the drive has succeeded, then immediately bring the system up and back up any important files to another drive or to removable media. Run scandisk and/or any other drive checking utilities. If serious problems are found with the drive, or if you have suspicion that the drive will continue having more problems like this, then prepare to replace the drive. While you still have a working system, make a complete backup if possible. Perhaps the entire drive image can still be retrieved and copied onto the new drive, and no system re-install will be necessary.

41. Start with the basics:
• Reseat the IDE cable at all connection points, checking for bent pins.
• Use a different power connector to the hard disk and make sure it is the only device connected to that branch.
• Clear the BIOS settings. If the above three did not bring it back:
• I'd look at next trying a different IDE cable.
• If that didn't help, try slaving the drive to another hard disk.
• The big problem in the way you described the failure is that there is no communications between the hard disk and the IDE interface. However, if your new master drive does not autotype (even when by itself), look into getting that old drive onto a different IDE interface (like a different machine). New master did autotype but still can't see the old drive? During power up, use the fat end of a screwdriver to gently tap the outside of the suspect hard disk. Sometimes the arm gets stuck and a gentle tap will free it.

42. If the drive does not work at all.
• Open up the case.
• Locate and remove the Hard Disk Drive.
• Tap on the side of the hard drive with a screwdriver a few times (not too hard).
• Re-install the drive and start the PC.
• If the PC boots to Windows, backup all data files via MS backup.
• If the PC won’t boot to Windows, follow the above instructions.

43. First establish the correct drive characteristics (cylinders, sectors, kapazität usw.) from the drive or from internet if not printed on the casing.
• Check all cables and connections (Power, EIDE, or SCSI).
• Turn on the Power and correct the BIOS.
• Watch for failures such as controller failure during bios check.
• Listen for unpleasant noises (after head crash).
• If the PC won't boot from disk, use a boot disk in the floppy and establish if drive C is available.
• If not, try Fdisk and see if a drive is visible (if not, it's starting to look bad...).
• If visible and reachable, copy any important data to floppy disk (if possible) or another drive if available.
• Revive the boot block, and try booting from the drive again.
• If the drive wasn't visible, then remove the drive and try to revive it in another PC.
• Sometimes removing the drive and gently shaking it can help to revive it if the user hasn't been using his PC on a regular basis, especially in older PCs.
• Anyway, this a problem one can spend hours with, it just depends on how important the data was. Only cowards work with a backup!!!!

44. The most successful methods I have used are:
• Find a computer with the exact same operating system that you can use as a surrogate host. This works best if the secondary IDE channel is unused, allowing the private use of that channel by the ailing drive, and usually eliminating the need of changing jumpers.

• Go to the drive's manufacturer's Web site (or use a drive parameters database) to get the actual physical drive parameters.

• Set the surrogate computer's BIOS parameters to expect the ailing drive and turn it off. Auto is the best initial setting. Make sure the second IDE channel is enabled and power management is off, at least for the hard drives.

• Cable the ailing drive to the surrogate computer's secondary IDE channel using a reasonably long IDE cable (see reason for long cable below).

• If the drive does not spin during power up when it should (note that some SCSI drives have delayed spin ups), take the drive, hold it in the fingertips of both hands (spider on a mirror style), and rotate the drive's casing around the disk platters inside suddenly (the reason for the long IDE cable). The most effective motion is to prepare by rotating slowly to a starting position where your fingers are turned "up toward" your chest as far as is comfortable for you wrists, then suddenly rotate "down out" from your chest as far as is comfortable, and then immediately snap back to the original position. This technique works by moving the casing with respect to the platters based on the principle of inertia and will often allow a drive with "frozen" bearings to spin up one more time. Do not expect this technique to work twice!

• If the drive does not spin up, see a drive/data recovery lab that has the ability to disassemble the drive to get at the platters and recover the data from them by using specialized clean room equipment. When performed by a qualified lab, this process is quite successful, but very expensive—backups are much cheaper! Choose the right lab, you usually only get one shot...

• If the computer recognizes the drive, proceed on to recovering the data by any means you desire. Note that since the drive is not the boot drive and host operating system, all of the boot and operating system information are accessible on "in use" files!

• If the computer does not recognize the drive, especially if set to Auto, go to the BIOS and set the drive parameters to the manufacturer specified values and reboot. If still no recognition, try adjusting the values for sector translation. There are several options for the primary translation type (Normal, LBA, Large, etc.), but please note that there may be other settings that also effect drive communications. These other settings usually have values of Yes/No. Some of these other settings are "large drive" (note there are many different names for this setting), "enhanced mode,” and "block mode.” The important thing is to try different combinations of any of the settings that effect hard drive communications for the second IDE channel. Hint, make a list of all of the possible combinations and check off each one as you try it.

• Most important, try not to let anything (e.g., operating system or "fix-it" programs) mess with the disk contents until you have exhausted all other avenues of access. These programs are great, but should be reserved as the first line of defense against software corruption and the last resort for hardware corruption. If your problem is a hardware issue, these programs will usually "finish the job" in terms of denying you the possibility of recovering you data. Only use them AFTER the hardware problem has been corrected.

45. The Hard Disk Assembly (HDA) is usually separate from the IDE controller board. If the controller board is the bad part, the data is still good, you just cannot get to it. The symptoms for this are: Disk not spinning up at all, "drive not found," or "no boot disk available" type messages.
I've swapped the data module (HDA) from the bad drive controller to a good replacement drive. Usually it's just 4-6 screws and a couple small cables. Use static care procedures as always when working with computer parts. If the data is good, send the new HDA and bad board back to be fixed, put the good drive (with original data) back in, reboot, and away you go.

46. Assuming that drive is not using a bios modifier like those used to make older motherboards support larger drives, I would use the following steps even considering that you state the user had "Tried" to manually enter the settings in setup and also tried auto. The user may not know what they are doing. I also would not trust the error codes. I would assume the error codes are only letting us know there is a problem but would not trust the codes to give an accurate description of what the problem is.

• In setup, Try IDE Auto Detect to see if the bios can even see the drive. If yes, then I would use that setting and everything should be OK. If yes, and the drive still does not boot, I would use fdisk/mbr in case the Master boot record was destroyed. If no, then I would go to step 2.

• Open the box and check all power and data cables. (I have seen Molex type power connectors lose a connection intermittently even if they are plugged in tightly) you need to wiggle them around. (I have also seen one case where the data cable came loose when the computer was moved). If cables were the problem, then you should be okay now. If you still have a problem, go to step 3.

• Other Drives are bad and interfering with the boot disk In case anything else is sharing the IDE bus with the drive, e.g., a CD-ROM, then disconnect anything that is also connected to the IDE bus and recheck the Master/Slave settings if necessary and try again.

• Possibly a faster way to check if the problem is the drive or something else, remove the drive and plug it into another computer and see if the other computer can detect the drive. If yes, then the problem is a cable, motherboard, etc. on the computer, so go to step 5.

• CMOS or Flash problem. Put the drive or at least a drive back on the computer with the problem. Go to setup and reload the bios from defaults and then redo the settings and save. Then try the IDE auto detect. If this does not work and your system has flash upgrades, then reload the flash. Might as well check for upgrades before refreshing. After refreshing, then again reload the defaults and save settings. Reboot into setup and try the auto detects again. If the BIOS can now see the drive but the drive still does not boot, then you may need to reload the OS or at least replace the necessary drivers. If the thing still is not working, then it is most likely a defective drive and you will need to decide how badly you need the data on the drive. If you need the data, then I would send the drive to a data recovery lab that can extract the data from a dead drive and save the data to a tape, CD, HD, etc. This can be expensive but may be worth it.

47. First thing I would do is to check the BIOS to make the sure the disk is set to Auto and doesn't have any settings in it. Then I would reboot the computer using the Win95/98 Setup disk and run fdisk to check to make sure that there are partitions visible. If there are no partitions visible, then I would have to assume that the data on the drive has departed. Next, if I do see a partition, then I will exit fdisk and go right the C drive. I would run a directory on it to see if all of the files are intact. If they have strange names and numbers, then the drive has suffered a serious malfunction and the data is not retrievable. If the directory appears to be in good shape, then I would use Drive Image to make a image file of the hard drive and move it to either a zip disk or a CD-ROM, for the next time this happens.

48. Get a second Hard Drive larger than the current broke or fairly non-functioning one.
Make Disk #1 OLD Drive Slave and the new one Master because you want the new one to become your Primary Boot Drive.Format and FDISK the New Drive into one or two partitions. I do two for personal reasons, Format c: so it's bootable.Restart machine with the L&F disk in and follow the on screen prompts, and it will COPY all the data you choose. When it’s complete, it will give you a report of success and/or failure on particular files. And as long as the hard drive is not physically destroyed, you will be able to copy over all the recoverable data. The nice thing about this is it COPIES only—no writing to the messed-up drive. I used this very successfully on a drive that the FAT became corrupt on and would not ID or boot up on.

49. Install the hard drive on other machine that is running same OS. If the disk partition is FAT or FAT32, you can start the machine by using WIN98 system diskette without install the hard drive on other machine. We found some problems with hard drive that happen after few minutes of work. In this case, you should disconnect the hard drive from power (by turning off the machine) for few minutes, then turn it on and back up immediately until it will be warm again and you'll not be able to read the data. Do it until you'll have all files copied. If you have same drive (SAME MODEL), you can replace the unreachable disk's main board and trying to read the data.

50. There is no one way to this matter to the disk drive quiz. So I am going to give it a try. I have had this problem in the past, actually a few times. Checked to see if there are any viruses that affected the Fat table of the drive, and then used a hard drive that was sys'ed and set the other one as slave. If that didn't work use ex: Norton disk doctor or any other disk examiner and see if that was able to correct the problem. Run it off the first hard drive. One other way it could be done is if you knew that the controller board on the hard drive was bad is to replace that board with a exact one off of another PC and go back into setup and use auto to reconfigure.

51. Maybe try the following;
• Boot from a bootable disk that every good IT tech has and carries. Now you should carry bootable Windows 98 disks with files like Fdisk, Format, Chkdsk, and other diagnostics files. Now if you have an NT system with NTFS, you can boot with OS2 bootable diskettes; with will read NTFS.

• If the BIOS still sees the HD but you cannot access it, your Master Boot Record may be defective. If this is so you may be able to recover it with the following command (Fdisk/mbr). This should recover the master boot record so you can read the drive.

• After that, you may be able to run DOS base backup software. Make sure that you realize long file names are not supported by DOS.

• If you wish to copy files to a different one, maybe you can use XCOPY32 to copy LFNs.Of course, if the user was not backing up the system before this would be a good time to buy backup software since you will be in the store for the new HD. You may also use software like GHOST to make a image of the HD when it is running and install this image and ghost software to a bootable CD. When the system does crash, which will happen no matter what you do, remember to always plan for the worse. If you make the CD bootable, you can recover from a crash just by booting from the CD. Another suggestion I would have is have an Application disk that contains all the applications and a different one for data. Keep a good daily backup of the data disk and maybe a backup of the application drive when major changes are performed.

52. Run diagnostic, check post, check for error messages. These could indicate controller failure, etc, Try hard drive as slave in another computer. If the above does not get access to the data, contact manufacturer and overnight drive to them. They may be able to fix the drive enough to get the data off of it or repair it without erasing the data. Sell them a new hard drive and a tape back up or jaz drive, etc. It is best to max out the sales to them at this point as expensive lessons are usually the best learned. If they call again with the same problem, no backups etc., give them the number of your competition.

53. Check or swap the power supply to see if it's putting out the proper voltage. This can give a disk failure message during bootup.

54. I would remove the hard drive, set it as a slave and install it in another computer as a slave.

• 1. Copy data to another location. Run scan disk and defrag if drive will run at all. Reinstall in original computer and try it. If still fails, go to step 2.

• 2. I would remove the hard drive, set it as a slave, and install it in another computer as a slave. Copy data to another location. Reformat the drive, install a copy of startup files, then all other files if they do not contain errors (try opening them on the host computer).

• 3. If the above fails, install a new hard drive and salvage as much data and files as possible.

55. Try the hard drive as a secondary IDE in another computer, (e.g.: your own, seeing as you are so nice). After booting, burn the info on CD, and run the disk utilities from your computer.

56. If the drive 0 cannot be accessed at all, not even by the Setup program, it could be that the cables inside the machine are not properly connected, or cracked suddenly (heat always dries the plastic wire cover and sometimes it breaks).

• If you don't hear the hard disk noise when you turn on the machine, it can also be that the hard disk is not receiving any power. In this case I would also check the power cable and the connections.

• If all is well connected and receiving power, the I/O controller (onboard or on a separate card) may be damaged. try to connect the ribbon to the other existing port(s). sometimes connect the hard drive to another computer too.

• If the I/O controller is fine, the hard disk is receiving power, then boot from a diskette. always keep DOS diskettes in all versions (5.0, 6.0, 6.22).

• Try to access C:\> If it doesn't work, I try the setup program again. Auto configure will not work? Use USER and type in the parameters written on the hard disk. If it still doesn't work if when you enter C:\ the computer returns "Bad command ..." or "Invalid drive...,” or anything for that matter, try Norton utilities or another third-party hard disk utility.

• If it is a Western Digital, I will try EZDrive tools. If nothing works, I tell the client to be more serious about backing up next time.

57. Complete hard drive failure (catastrophic hardware failure within drive) (clunking, etc.–)send out to a lab if data is critical. Can attempt to manually configure drive in bios–—open case and get heads, cylinders, etc., if bios won't auto detect. If that fails…Place drive in another system, attempt auto detect, etc. If the drive is detectable, but not bootable, solution will depend on whether it’s home system, whether it has network access, etc. By far the easiest solution is making a Ghost image (Symantec) and use Ghost Explorer to extract essential files. Gives you a backup and allows you to extract files that frequently aren't even accessible on a corrupt drive in a DOS or Windows session when attempting data recovery. A Ghost image can either be sent to another drive in a system or using a boot disk or with network protocols (copied to a network drive). With the "ghost" image, you can check the drive and start over if the failure is not drive hardware related.

58. Try going into setup cmos and correcting the hard drive settings (primary master) from Auto to
User/LBA, whatever it was supposed to be; exit and save settings. If this does not work, order Symantec's Ghost and make a clone. Hope this works. Of course, you could try reinstalling the operating system after formatting but you'd lose all data without a backup.

59. Well, since you said you were going to replace the drive, I see the options as these:
• Boot from a floppy with a full set of DOS utilities, double checking BIOS settings, fdisk, etc.…
• Use Interlnk and Intersvr and start a xfer
• Yank the drive out, change it to a slave, stick it in a functioning computer and xcopy/Ghost
• Maybe the MBR is bad, try copying one over with Sys command...
• God forbid you should send the drive to a 'Data Recovery' place...

60. Go to bios and ask the machine to automatically detect the hard drive. Sometimes it loses the hard drive due to a virus or faulty battery.If the machine finds the hard drive, go in and do a virus scan. If the battery made the bios lose the info, you shouldn't shut off the machine until the hard drive data files are backed up. Monkey B virus will alter the boot sector and make the hard drive disappear. Sometimes you have to be sure that in bios the machine will boot to A and then C and then make sure it has recognized the C drive in bios and then do a virus scan.

61. If you can't access the BIOS or the C drive through a boot disk, then the next step you need to do is shut down the computer and pull out the hard drive. Once you have the hard drive out you need to douse it in lighter fluid and immediately expose the non-functioning hard drive to an open flame.Although the last step is of great controversy, it will bring great satisfaction to know humans will always have the last word.

62. The answer to the hard drive question is more complex than you may think, but the bottom line is that you really need to know how damaged is your hard drive or rather how much functionality is left in the hard drive.
•First, try to approach the problem by distinguishing if it is a hardware or software issue. If the problem is software-related, for example, the operating system is corrupted, the hard drive can be attached as a "slave" and the important data copied to the "master" bootable drive. Many times that approach can be used even for hardware-related problems, for example, when the hard drive is getting flaky, but it's not broken yet.

•It is a lot easier to prepare yourself for the broken hard drive, but to really motivate yourself for any preventive steps, you'd have to answer the question: would I be still OK if my hard drive crashes today? Also, how much time do I want to spent for a data and/or system recovery?

•Over years, I was developing many different methods of data recovery and backup, therefore the following is the fastest and probably the most reliable method of doing so. First of all, install the OS with all the associated programs and utilities including MS Office, Internet browsers, etc.

•When you test everything and you're sure that everything is the way you want, you can take an image of your hard drive by using Norton Ghost.

•For the files that you create from now on until next computer crash, create a folder called "data" and in that folder subdirectories for MS Office, PhotoShop, etc.
•From now on, all you have to do is to backup your "data" directory to the CD and copy the Ghost image to the second CD, and if you need to restore your system, it would take you anywhere from 5 to 20 min to have everything back where it was.

63. I have a really quick, no real science approach to this problem. Assuming that the drive will still spin, there is a quick, however with some risk involved, solution.
In past situations, I have successfully accessed a damaged drive by "replacing the drive.”
This method involves the EXACT SAME DRIVE as the one in question.

• Step 1 With all power off, remove the hard drive in question and place it on the side where it can be easily accessed.

• Step 2 Install the "NEW" drive (a drive of the same type, and manufacturer).

• Step 3 Start the system up and get it to recognize the new drive. It is important to only start a command line session. Remember that we are only trying to copy some files here—this is an emergency maneuver. Also, the drive must be formatted the same as the drive we are questioning here.

• Step 4 With the system RUNNING (be careful, this is the risky part I told you about, do it in this sequence), VERY QUICKLY detach the power umbilical from the running drive. Then detach the data ribbon cable from the running drive.

• Step 5 VERY CAREFULLY reach for our drive in question and attach the data ribbon cable to it. Next, VERY QUICKLY place all four contacts simultaneously in contact with the drives power connection.

• Step 6 Now enter at the keyboard some command—I use the DIR command. You should see the list of files for the questionable drive that you have HOT PLUGGED into this system. You should now be able to access the files needed to get you over the hump!
• What has happened? The system "thinks" it has the bootable drive you started it with and will allow you to use the device with the exception of booting with it, of course! This approach works quite well on drives that have sector one physically trashed.

64. First: I boot from a floppy and run a program called "IDEID" that will identify the drive. I then compare these results with what is in the BIOS. I also will see if the BIOS can automatically and correctly identify the drive. If not, I use the user-defined fields.

• Second: A.) I boot from a floppy and do a virus scan on drive C:. If C is there.
• B.) If C is not there, carry a few older hard drives with various boot managers on them. Make drive master and boot from it letting boot manager load. This would allow to see their drive if you used the right boot manager.
• C.) If no boot manager is being used, and C is not present, use Norton's "NDD/REBUILD" to recover the dos partitions. NOTE: ALWAYS MAKE THE UNDO DISK! If C is now seen, step B may need to be repeated.

• Third: With C back, I'll identify the version of Dos/Win9X on the system—I carry boot files for all versions back to MS-DOS 3.3.

• Fourth: Boot off of C if possible, "SYS C:" if it is not possible, Reboot!

• Fifth: Use Drive Image to Dupe to an image on a 8.4 GB (remember the 8.4-GB limit!) drive that I carry with me. I let the customer put in a password so they feel secure in my not looking at their data. The above is predicated on the fact that the drive will spin up. If it doesn't, I sometimes have luck in placing the drive upside-down. Sometimes, I'll quickly spin my wrist when I turn the power on. The upside-down mostly worked on the ST1120A/ST3120A drives (Seagate 120M). I have no definitive answer as to why. The ST138R had a problem with what I call "STICTION.” This is my opinion, Seagate! I theorize that the armature would get stuck between the poles of the magnetic fields. In any case, those days are mostly gone. This is usually the extent that I go to. After this, the customer must decide if the data on the drive is worth the cost of the recovery. I end by selling the customer a new drive and restoring their data from the image. This is usually on a second visit since I don't make it a habit of stocking drives for sale in my van.

65. This has worked about 6-8 times over the last 5 years...
I have found the drive is not spinning...
If this is the problem, just remove it and rotate the drive quickly and immediately reverse direction.
You may have to repeat 2-3 times. It works for a while...
This appears to be more of a problem with old Laptops.

67. Since it didn't specify, I will keep this somewhat general.
• The first step would be to boot off of a DOS startup disk and see if you can access drive C. If you can, then you at least know that you can manually save some crucial files on the machine. If the C drive is not accessible, then you need to go into the CMOS settings and see if the proper drive parameters are entered. If it is a newer machine, you can sometimes find a section in CMOS that will query the hard drive and determine the proper settings.
• If there is no such section, then you need to open up the computer and see if the drive settings, like heads, cylinders, sectors/track, etc, are listed on the drive.
• If none are found, get the drive make and model number and go to the company's Web site and get the parameters. Now go back into CMOS and enter the proper settings for your HD. Hopefully this will solve the problem since it was mentioned that the person had been in trying to input the setting themselves.
• If the drive still won't boot, and you are getting a "non system disk" error, I have found that sometimes you can copy the sys.com program onto your startup disk (I keep a generic boot disk around with various files like fdisk, format.com, sys.com, etc on it.) and at the A: prompt type sys c: which transfers the system files to the HD.
• If you are instead getting Invalid drive specification errors, you probably aren't able to access the HD at all, even at a DOS prompt. If this is the case, you probably need to try reviving the drive with a program like Norton Disk Doctor. You have probably lost partition info or your File Allocation Table (FAT.) These are things that Norton DD can sometimes fix. If none of these things works, it is probably a lost cause. Write it off to experience. Everyone gets this fatal wake up call every once in a while to remind them about backing up crucial data.

68. Examine all connections inside and outside the PC to ensure they are secure. Remove and label the suspect drive. Make sure all fans are operating correctly. Obtain a replacement hard drive and install the operating system and Web browsing capabilities. Retain the box in which your replacement drive was shipped in case you need to ship your suspect drive away to a media recovery firm. Visit the Web site of the hard drive vendor and download the latest version of the vendor's diagnostic program as well as information regarding drive's geometry and jumper options. Determine the keyboard strokes to get into setup mode as well as setting up disk drives for auto detect, etc. Have an ample supply of blank formatted diskettes readily available. Make sure you have space available to copy any needed files from the suspect drive. Make a boot diskette. FDISK, FORMAT, EDIT, SCANDISK, CD-ROM drivers, and the hard drive vendors diagnostic programs should all be on the diskette.

• Install the suspect drive as a slave. Carefully handle the suspect drive as to not bump it around at all. It may be in a _very_ fragile state at this time. Close the PC’s case or otherwise ensure that there is positive air flow across the suspect drive.

• Take a break, think about how you will do the following carefully and as fast as possible to avoid possibly damaging the drive further.

• Turn on the monitor, insert your diskette from step one. Turn on the PC and go into setup. Determine whether or not the setup program auto-detects the suspect drive. If auto-detect is OK, the disk drive's controller is OK and proceed to the next step. If auto-detect is not OK, the hard drives controller card(s) are faulty. Try substituting a different controller card from another drive of the same type, if available. Assuming the controller is faulty and swapping the external controller card does not fix the trouble, you have a choice of sending the drive off to have the controller card repaired in a clean room or to abandon your data.

• If the auto-detection was OK, let the PC boot with your diskette. Use FDISK and see if it detects the suspect drive as a partition. If FDISK does not see the drive, you have an internal problem, quite possibly a damaged read/write head or an internal IC. You now have a choice of sending the drive off to be repaired in a clean room or abandoning your data.

• If FDISK detected the partition, you may have a damaged file structure. Boot the PC with your diskette and then do something simple like a DIR. You are not ready to even think about writing anything to the suspect drive at this time! If you can not do a DIR, you may be able to recover the drive with Norton or your own favorite program. Keep and label recovery diskettes (don't reuse them), you might need to backtrack.

• If you can do a DIR, try booting up your machine normally. It may be possible to copy directories and files across to your new drive. Give priority to the user's data such as mail files, data files, settings, and similar. You probably want to try copying the registry files as well.

• After you have copied the user’s data, try SCANDISK with the thorough option. Always save the files and always make recovery diskettes. The saved files may just need to be examined and renamed. 9.) If there are any bad spots on the suspect disk, try repairing them with the vendor's diagnostic tools.

• After you are satisfied you have recovered all of the data from the suspect drive, do a low level format with the vendor's diagnostic program. Do an FDISK and an operating system format and then reuse the drive as you wish. A second hard drive in a system makes a reasonable place to do quick backups as well as for swap files, temporary files, temporary internet files, and the like.

69. Not all hard drive problems are hard drive problems. I had a situation like this just recently. Computer booted with a 'fixed disk 0 failure'. Turns out the drive itself was okayI—it was a motherboard problem, possibly a bad IDE connector. I had recently put in a new motherboard, so I swapped the old one back in and the hard disk worked fine!

70. The first thing I would do is pull in a BIOS upgrade from the PC manufacturer and flash the system.You said that the user got into the Setup and changed the settings. If an upgrade for the BIOS does not find the drive and auto detect the it, then get out the tools and open the machine up to have a look at it's guts. Remove the HDD and get the info off of it and manually enter it into the settings.

71. First thing I would do is eliminate possible problem areas.
• Switch the drive to the secondary IDE chain and see if it auto configs. If not, try it in another machine if that is possible (it is possible in my lab).Hopefully, you'd be able to get a drive letter and boot up to recover data.

• If neither of these work (and you're usually lucky if they do), then it's time to boot to a virus scan floppy and scan the boot sector for viruses.

• If there are none, then I'd move to a third-party utility, like NDD, and give that a whirl. If all of those fail, then I send it out to a data recovery center and drop 1,200 bucks of my company's money to recover data that the developer should have backed up in the first place.

72. After the routine checks of CMOS and drive settings etc., the most important step would be to clone the drive first as it is. I would recommend a program such as ghost, but there are others available. After completing the drive clone, work with the drive that you cloned and not the original drive. You can use a program called On The Wire or Drive Wizard. These programs will attempt to rebuild the various different aspects of the drive, FAT tables, Directory Structures, Files Structure etc. In most cases, you can at least get enough of the drive back to get to that important data, and never risk the original drive.

73. Make sure you put the drive type back to Auto in the CMOS. Then listen to hear if the drive is even spinning up. If the drive isn't spinning up, you can try the old tap technique to try and wake up the drive. If you are able to wake the drive, have the user backup important files immediately. Then replace.
•If the dive is spinning but it still isn't seen by the POST, then you need to try and locate a drive of the same make and model. Swapping the controllers on the two drives may allow you to access the data.
•If neither of these techniques help, then I usually tell the user to have a good cry, and then start over. But this time make sure you backup important files on a regular basis.

74. The way I would approach this is to use one of several disk-cloning programs such as Drive Copy or Norton Ghost. Both of these programs create boot disks that you can use to "rescue" a failing or error prone hard drive. You boot with this disk and then select either copying a partition to another partition (on another drive) or simply clone the entire hard drive. This process is very fast (depending on the machine) and very reliable. It copies all files and even preserved FAT setup and partitions when cloning a hard drive. Another excellent tool to have in your arsenal is the Norton Boot Disks that will have the Dos versions of Norton scan disk and disk doctor as well as the Unerase and Unformat. These tools can restore lost files and correct and identify many more problems than just Microsoft scandisk even when using the 'scandisk /all' command. Also, try replacing the IDE cable(s) to eliminate the possibility that there is a bad cable. If the error still
happens, then the hard drive has probably failed. There is a remote chance that using MaxBlast or a similar hard drive utility from its manufacturer will at least identify and hopefully repair the problem. Otherwise...remember hindsight is always 20/20. Especially after you lose data...

75. There would be a couple of points to check before going into recovery mode:
1. Is LBA mode on or off? Toggling it and setting drive type to auto may help.
2. Was a Disk Manager type program in use? If it was, refreshing the MBR with the Disk Manager may do the trick. If first has been tried and answer to the second question is no, I would use a low level disk editor to discover the bounds of the partitions, first and last cylinder. Remaining data, number of heads, and sectors per track can be worked out easily.

76. Of the many different solutions that could solve this problem, I will start with the easiest.
• First, does the drive even power up? (Do you hear the platters spinning?) If not, check all connections. Otherwise, you have just acquired another paperweight (since you will have to resort to snail mail until you can get online again).
• If you do hear the platters spinning, I would resort to trying the simple options in BIOS such as LBA mode on or off and HDD Block mode. Change them to their opposite state and try to reboot now. There are aftermarket utilities that can detect the logical parameters of a drive such as DrivePro by Microhouse. This handy (old) tool has gotten me out of many jams in the 486 HDD world. It will tell you the parameters that the drive was set up for so that you may manually enter them into the HDD config. section of BIOS. This is also handy if you happen to be the (not so) proud owner of a drive with an overlay installed. If that is the case, you will probably want to use the overlay install disk to repair or replace the overlay.
• The problem could be related to the HDD controller. Try replacing it. I could rant for a long time on other solutions, but I don't have time to get into it that deep.

77. Hard drive failures can result from a number of causes.
• First line of business is to talk with the client: Was the machine recently moved? Were any boards recently installed? A cable may have come loose during one of these operations. Check external causes, e.g. loose and/or oxidized connectors. Don't discard the possibility of little rodents–—I've seen flat cable gnawed through by these little critters.
• Don't forget to check the power cable to the drive–—no juice, no data.
• There's always a possibility that the on-board controller is shot, so to eliminate that factor I would remove the drive, jumper it to be drive 1 and install it in a known good machine.
• That done, I turn to a setup program called EZDrive by Micro House International. With it you can read and configure drive setup data, backup and restore track 0 or copy an entire partition.
• Summing up: First of all, be a good listener. Observe carefully, use good tools and be creative. I got a call from a client who had been away for three weeks and had gotten back to find his machine wouldn't boot up. When I listened to his machine as it was turned on, I noticed that the drive motor wasn't spinning. Since we live in a very high humidity climate (the Amazon Rain Forest), I had an idea of what had happened. I politely asked him if he would get me a glass of water, as it was quite hot that day. As soon as he left the room I gave his drive a smart rap on the back with my knuckles. The motor immediately started spinning and by the time he came back with refreshments, Windows 95 was up and running. I emphasized the need to maintain regular backups and to purchase a good de-humidifier. I also suggested that next time he was away, he have his wife run the computer for a couple hours a day. He never pressed me as to how I got the machine running, and I thought it prudent not to offer that information.

78. How about stiction? Remove the hard drive and give it a couple of firm twists while holding it in the palm of your hand. This will free the drive from the combination of static and friction that has caused the problem. Re-install the physical drive and it should boot. Back-up the data and replace the drive ASAP.

79. If you are going to replace the hard drive, then use ghost software and copy the hard drive you want to the other hard drive. Then once it is copied, try reinstalling windows. That will usually copy any files that could be causing the problem. If not, then reformat the hard drive, then reinstall Windows. If that doesn't cure it, then you will need to do a deltree, and erase Windows, reformat, then run windows again. This always works for me..

80. Listen for the disk to see if it is spinning. If not, take the drive out of the system and rap it on the side. Hook it back up and see if it spins. This is for an IDE drive.

81. I'd add another HDD as master and the questionable drive as slave.
• Boot off the good drive and try accessing the bad one.
• If the bad drive is accessible then I'd install whatever O/S the user had previously on the bad drive. Once the O/S is installed, go to the bad drive to recover any data needed.
• If the bad drive wasn't able to be seen as master, then I'd try once more to access the drive using SETUP to add the drive specs according the manufacturer.
• If this still doesn't work, then they are out of luck.They can pay a good chunk of change and have the data recovered from a company that deals with that sort of thing, and buy another HDD and start all over again. P.S. I'd also put a password on the setup to make sure that any new drives won't be changed accidentally—since users never make mistakes. It's always the software or hardware to blame.

82. First we must determine if this is a setup issue or a hard drive issue.
• Is the floppy drive properly recognized and working? Connect another hard drive to this system to verify the setup is okay.
• If the setup is working, then we must look at the hard drive itself.
• When powered up, does the drive spin?
• Does it just sit there and "click, click, click?” If it spins, it could be controller failure.
• Can you obtain another controller for this drive and swap it? Try it again.
• If the drive does not spin, it could be a symptom of "stiction.”
• If it is "stiction,” you will most likely be able to assist the drive to spin up to allow it to boot and then backup the data. The way you help the drive to spin up is simple.
• Remove all mounting hardware that is securing the drive to the system.
• With the drive held in your hand horizontally with both power and ribbon cables attached, turn on the system and rotate the drive with a flick of your wrist.
• Keep the drive on the same horizontal plane as you flick your wrist twisting the drive as you would spin a top to make it spin. If the problem was stiction, the drive should now be spinning and you on your way to retrieving the data. If the drive is just sitting there "clicking, clicking, clicking,” good luck! Please remember the only 100 percent way to keep your data safe is BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP. Use the tools provided in your operating system to scandisk regularly or obtain a disk utility program like Norton Utilities to take the best car of your hard drive possible. However, hard drives are sometimes like light bulbs—when you turn them on, turning off the power may mark the last time they will ever work!

83. I have in the past found that if you can find another hard drive of the same make and model, you can remove the circuit board from the dead hard drive and replace it with the one from the good hard drive. Many times the board is the problem, and it has saved the files and me several times. Of course, when you get the files off you need, scrape the bad drive and replace it with a new hard drive. I am taking in consideration that the tech doing this knows how to properly set up a drive—very important.

84. After going through the usual hoops, checking the BIOS setting, and booting with a boot disk.
With the current pricing on hard drives, I don't fight with drives any more, I pull out my copy of Lost and Found by Power Quest and let it detect the drive.
• If it does, I will then install a drive equal to or greater than the old drive as master and set the old drive as slave.
• I reboot and rerun (LF) and let it backup the drive.
• If the drive is three years or less old, then the manufacturer will cover the warranty and we are all happy. This all assumes that the new master was seen by the BIOS. This works 95 percent of the time for me—game over, other than some diagnostics.
• If not, then I would reboot with the new drive by itself and see if it is detected.
• If not, I would install an IDE card and disable the onboard IDE, reboot and run (LF). This will work 99.9 percent of the time and allows me to back up all of the data on the old drive.
• With the data backed up to the new drive and the old drive still as slave, it should now be able to boot the system. If it boots, I would check to see if the slave is visible. If it is, then double check to see if all the important data was backed up. For grins, I would now try to boot the old drive from the IDE card. If it boots, then a possible motherboard problem and would take some more time.

85. Simple,
• Move the defunct hard drive to secondary slave, or master or whatever is unused—but don't hook the IDE cable up yet.
• (Precaution) Install a new hard drive as primary master set it to 'ACTIVE.' With fdisk, format, install Windows, power down, hook IDE cable up to the defunct HD, reboot, set BIOS to show the drive, and then copy all the files (data files only please!) over from the defunct HD to the new one. Power down, remove HD, change bios to reflect no HD there, and you’re done.
• Alternatives are using ARCO RAID IDE controllers to back the data up from one drive (Primary/defunct) to Mirror/NEW)) and then remove Arco raid (Duplidisk) and install new Hard drive as primary master.
• Also, you can use EZ Drive, GHOST, or one of several other software methods to copy or mirror the hard drive. If you have bad sectors on the original, you'll quite likely have bad data on the new drive where the bad sectors were on the old.
• If the old drive won't spin up, or can't be recognized in BIOS whatsoever, power down and up (Power completely off each time) relentlessly until is it detected (BIOS set to AUTO for that drive). You will possibly get lucky once in 30 boots.
• Once up, do your work, because it may be the last time it comes on. Also, try letting the computer cool down for several hours, remove the drive to get it out of a warm case, and let it cool down. Then try it cold.
• (Thermal deficiency may cause it to fail when hot.) In the same vein, if it is cool, then let it just sit there with power on it for thirty minutes, then just reboot for about 30 times (Don't power down.) This may work too. Of course, let's do first things last.
• Replace your IDE cable, remove the other IDE cable from the motherboard. I have seen CD-ROMs fail that rendered sound cards, network cards, and OS’s brain-dead.
• Simply removing the CD ROM from the IDE cable was all it took to prove this point, and fix the computer. (Hey! HD is fineI—it's the CD that is tying up the IDE bus and IRQ/DMA controller!) No data loss. I probably missed some of the better tricks, but generally, that should solve what is solvable.

86. Check to see if the primary hard drive ribbon is correctly attached or connected to the Motherboard and Hard drive.Make sure it's not loose.Or check the ribbon itself—make sure it still good. This usually solves the "invalid drive specification" and "BIOS Auto HD detection not finding the HD."

87. Do the normal ritual of making sure power and IDE cables are tight, and changing the IDE cable. Is the drive spinning? If not, then:
• Remove the drive and connect it back up outside the case.
• Power up the box and give the drive a quick twist to see if it will spin up.
• Try the drive on a known good working machine as a slave, if you can get it up in the cmos.
• If you still have no response, find a functioning drive that is identical (same make/model) and swap the circuit boards. This usually does the trick, unless the original drive has a physical error. (i.e. bad motor or platters) Last resort—send out to a data recovery business.

88. Depends on why it's dead. On older drives, it was quite common for the heads to stick to the platter. It would not have the torque to start, so it couldn't work.
• Best method in that case was to put a long extension on the power cable, leave the data line off and with the drive between your palms, quickly rotate the drive and at the same time power on. Try both clockwise and counter clockwise. One should work if it's a "stiction" issue.
• If the drive spins and has a problem with the logic board, it's sometimes possible to swap the electronics without opening up the disk cavity, but that's a last resort.

89. This has happened here several times.
•I install the new hard drive, make it a bootable partition, and install the operating system.
•Then place the old drive on the secondary disk position and copy the contents to the new drive.
•Usually into a folder called OLD DRIVE. This provides a directory tree map for where to place the files.
•Then after reinstalling all the software, original files can be placed back into the proper place on the new drive. Very rarely does this procedure not work for me.

90. This is a common situation. And, it has turned out to be a simple resolution (most of the time).
• Use a portable backup tape drive that runs from the parallel port (Trakker).

• Use DOS Client and a boot floppy to get the box on the LAN then map a drive with NET USE and XCOPY the important files to the LAN. Of course, the boot floppy method works for about 75 percent of the failures. If the boot floppy fails, I try using FDISK/mbr to rebuild the Master Boot Record. This is successful 5-10 percent of the time. Since the user mentioned in the quiz had messed around with the BIOS, it's possible the settings are wrong and even more probable that the jumper on the drive is misconfigured because, although the user "didn't do anything," that new CD-ROM they installed is on the same controller as the hard drive. The disappointing part of making a hard drive spin back to life exists in the 10-15 percent that are actual physical failures that will require depot level repair to extract any data. A very expensive process.

91. Well, this may sound strange, but it's worked for me before. (That is, if booting off a floppy still won't gain you access...and there are strange sounds coming from the drive...)

• Shut down the power and remove the case cover to gain access to the drive. Remove the drive from the case, but leave it connected to power and ribbon cable. (If the ribbon connector cable isn't long enough, attach one that is.)
• Now, hold the drive in your hands and kick on the power (use an assistant if you'd like). As soon as the power comes on, twist the hard drive quick and fast in your hands. (Kind of like steering a car hard right). This sudden "torqueing" is sometimes enough to "break" a drive free, allowing it to spin...usually for one last time. (Have a Zip or second drive already ready to gain access to the files.)
• A slight variation on this (once again with long power and ribbon cables) is to set the drive down on a flat surface (non-conductive please!) so that it can be "spun" while flat.

92. The symptoms you describe would lead me to believe that the drive lost power or died. Maybe the Molex power connector worked loose. I would use the following steps even considering that you state the user had "tried" to manually enter the settings in setup and also tried auto. The user may not know what they are doing.

• Try IDE Auto Detect to see if the bios can even see the drive. If yes, then I would use that setting and everything should be OK. If yes and the drive still does not boot, I would use fdisk/mbr in case the Master boot record was destroyed. If no then I would go to step 2.

• Open the box and check all power and data cables. I have seen Molex type power connectors lose a connection intermittently I have also seen one case where the data cable came loose when the computer was moved. If cables were the problem, then you should be okay now. If you still have a problem go to step 3.

• Remove the drive and plug it into another computer and see if the other computer can detect the drive. If yes then the problem is a cable, motherboard, etc. on the computer and needs to be replaced. If the thing still is not working, then it is most likely a defective drive and you will need to decide how badly you need the data on the drive. If you need the data then I would send the drive to a data recovery lab that can extract the data from a dead drive and save the data to a tape, CD, HD etc. This can be expensive but may be worth it.

93. You have to troubleshoot from the hardware up:
• Swap the IDE cable to eliminate that as a cause. Also, check any jumper settings, and remove
• any other drives from that cable.

• Set the drive type back to Auto. If drive ID isn't taking place, then you can't communicate with the drive anyway.

• If you can't hear the platters spin up or the heads doing their "positioning dance,” and it's a few
• years old, it might have a "sticktion" problem caused by the lubricant on the platters sticking to the
• heads. With the PC off, give the hard drive a couple of sharp taps on the side with the handle of a
• screwdriver! Then power it up again.

• If all the hardware seems to be functional, you'll have to see if you can get at the data.

• Depending on the manufacturer and model, the drive might require a special boot-time driver to
• access the full capacity of the drive. Two examples are Ontrack Disk Manager, or Maxtor's EZDrive. This driver usually resides in the root directory of the system drive or the MBR, and if it is lost, the system won't be able to correctly see the drive partitions. On some later 486s and early Pentiums, even though they can read the drive information into the BIOS, they still cannot
• properly translate the CHS information. This can lead you to believe that the computer can use
• the full capacity of the drive, while in fact, it cannot. Try re-installing a translation driver using
• original software, if the drive came with it. This should not require any formatting of the drive or
• loss of information.

• Run FDISK and view the partition information. If FDISK cannot access the drive, then the
• hardware is still messed up, and you need to back up a couple of steps until that is corrected.

• Try switching the drive into a new machine you KNOW will support its capacity natively.

• If none of these steps works, and you are certain the drives hardware is functional, then get a
• data recovery software such as Tiramisu, or as a last resort, try fdisk/mbr.

94. I have tried only a couple of steps on my own:
• If you are a "computer person" you would have brought a bootable floppy with you. Boot off the floppy and hopefully you can read the c: drive then.
• Opening up the box and slapping the hard drive can revive the hard drive if the servomotor is "frozen."
• I have turned the data cable around and powered on, and after about two seconds, turned the box off and then put the cable on correctly. Powered on the box and the system found the hard drive.
• I have used the utility Speed Stor in the passed to tell the CMOS about the hard drive if the CMOS could not be read from the system. Of course you have to know the head and sector size.

95. This procedure assumes you do not hear any "grinding noises" or other evidence of a physical damage, i.e. worn-out bearings, dragging read heads, etc. If you do, then the HDD is "toast" and you might as well offer your customer your condolences as the HDD has just headed to the big computer in the sky and it's cheaper these days to replace the HDD then to repair it.
First, Check the CMOS settings and verify they agree with those preprinted on the HDrive's Label, If not preprinted on the label, either use a program like EZ-Drive to obtain the correct values or remove the hard drive and connect it to a known newer motherboard and use that board’s CMOS setup utility to detect the proper values. Try rebooting to the C:\ prompt on the new board. If successful, reinstall the hard drive to the original board. Then ensure the CMOS settings on the original board agree. Adjust as necessary. Try rebooting. If the your lucky your finished. If not try the second step. Second, if the first step didn't solve the problem, then the FAT Table may be corrupted. Use a utility like EZ-Drive, which usually can be downloaded from any of the Major HDrive OEM's Web site, to switch to a backup version of the FAT (file allocation table). Usually there is a backup of the FAT on the HDD, but switching to it requires the use of a HDD utility like EZ-Drive. Follow the instructions for the Advance Options to switch FATs, then reboot. If reboot to the C:\ prompt is successful, AND you can access your data files, Run SCANDISK from the DOS prompt to verify the integrity of the FAT. Then do a cursory search of the HDD for any documents you may have recently created. If you can get a good DIR listing of
them, you're done—smoke' em if you got em!. If not, then try third step. Third, this step will result in the total and absolute loss of all data on the hard drive and should only be used as a last resort. You can use the DOS commands, "FDISK, FORMAT C: /S", to reformat the HDD
and reinstall the operating system. Better yet, using a HDD utility like EZ-Drive accomplishes this in about one tenth the time. Make sure you have a bootable floppy disk that includes any special device drivers and programs to access your peripheral equipment (like the CD-ROM) so you can complete the OS installation. If your computer system came with a restoration disk, you could reinstall the COMPLETE OPERATING SYSTEM AND ALL SOFTWARE. Alternatively, once the HDD has been reformatted and the HDD set up, you should now be able to reinstall the complete operating system, (WIN31, WIN95, WIN98, MAC, LINUX etc.) and all your application software from the original distribution CDs or Disks.

96.First I would check the HD and write down all the numbers. Name of manufacturer, Model #, serial#, Hds, Sectors, landing zone, etc
•Second, I would enter into setup mode and check the settings for HD1 and or HD2, if any. Check advances settings to see if LBA or any other settings have been changed.
•If I have another PC that’s the same, I would compare all CMOS settings.
•If not, go online to the manufacturer site support and find the model. Print out all settings for the
CMOS and any jumpers that may be on the drive.
•Check the power supply plug for the 5.5 (+ or -) voltage. Set the CMOS and jumpers accordingly.
Boot the machine.
•If the drive still does not come up, boot to a MS-DOS 6.2 Boot disk. C: dir.

97. This solution comes from the "been there, done that—multiple times.”
• First, get physical access to being able to see the disk drive and then use some type of diagnostic utility (off a boot floppy) to see if the drive is even recognized.
• If there are no lights on the controller and the diagnostics do not identify a valid drive, then you can usually recover quite easily.
• Get yourself another identical disk (with no important data on it) and swap the controllers. I have used this method to recover 3 different disks.
• If the controller lights come on and the diagnostic program recognizes your drive, but the disk is still not accessible, then most likely it is "frozen" internally. There have been several drives that have had this problem in the past
• Anyway, since we are not going to keep this troublesome drive, remove it from the machine and gently tap the side with a screwdriver.
• Put it back in and see if the motor will start the drive spinning. If it does—get the data backed up immediately and then either get rid of the disk or use it as a non-critical storage area.
• Once a drive has this problem, the solution has been known to work multiple times and the problem usually re-occurs after a reboot/shutdown sequence.

98. Invalid drive specification. If drive is IDE:
• Use the CMOS IDE auto detection. Try to use both LBA mode and normal mode. Reboot and see what (if any) failure comes up.
• Boot from a floppy (this is critical that the user knows what version of OS he/she is running: 95, 95b, 98, 98b, etc.). Use FDISK after this to see if the drive is present. If so, SYS the drive and reboot (crossing eyes, fingers, and toes).
• Tear into the computer and make sure the cabling is correct. For good measure, reseat the HDD cable (both ends) and power cable. Turn system on briefly to ensure the HDD is spinning up.
• Try using the secondary controller on the motherboard (being sure to make the CMOS change as well).
• Try a different IDE cable.
• If none of the above steps work, it must be 4th down and time to "punt." If the data is irreplaceable and critical, call Onsite for a quote on data recovery.

If drive is SCSI:
• Use the controller utilities to see if the card settings are correct.

99. Solutions:
• Boot computer from a bootable disk, load CD-ROM drivers. Then run ndd's (Norton Disk Doctor) revive option, this will revive the mbr (master boot record) and all the data.
• Make the faulty drive slave drive on a system running Win95/98. Try to backup data as much as possible, then shutdown the system and then make the faulty drive as primary drive and boot from a floppy drive and run fdisk.
• If it doesn’t work, then boot the system with faulty drive as primary drive with a dos/windows bootable disk, then run hard disk manager (e.g. Seagate's DM).

100. The first thing I do is see if the drive is spinning. Many times the drive just gets stuck and a small tap will get the drive spinning again. If that is the case and the drive does come back after some mechanical agitation, I "Ghost" the drive to a new replacement as fast as I can.
If the drive is spinning but still not accessible, I have had luck making it a slave drive with a known
working master. Sometimes that helps. Once I get access, I copy as fast as I can because I know every minute is borrowed time. When the FAT has become corrupt, I have tried third party recovery tools with little success. If the FAT backup is no good, I am at a loss (short of sending it out to a data recovery service).



101. Check the parameters in the CMOS and verify they are correct. If they are, I would attempt to boot off of a floppy to see if I could get to the hard drive, sometimes the MBR is bad but you can still boot to a floppy an copy the info to disk





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