Anyone know anything about SATA drives?

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Anyone know anything about SATA drives?
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Treacodactyl
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 05 8:47 pm Post subject:

This morning OK. PC shut down fine and turned on. Presented with a c0000218 Registry Failure Message and after a bit of digging thought I'd check the disk.

All the connections should be fine as the PC is only a few days old, if I could only find out what RC 7 was I may know where to look but I cannot find any details on SATA diagnostics.

I may be tempted to buy a small SATA drive and cables to try and if there's a problem with the current drive I may reject the whole PC as it's the second problem and I've had no real Tech support from Dell so far.

That's not normally a problem but there's just no useful details with the system.

I'll try emailing Seagate as drive makers have been good in the past.

Thanks for the help, I've looked at sevral foru and no good answers so far.

N.V.M.

Joined: 05 Feb 2005
Posts: 207
Location: British Columbia,Canada,eh!

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 05 8:51 pm Post subject:

"STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}" Error Message When You Install Windows XP
Article ID : 830084
Last Review : August 24, 2004
Revision : 1.0
On this page
SYMPTOMS
CAUSE
RESOLUTION
REFERENCES

SYMPTOMS
When you try to install Microsoft Windows XP on a new hard disk that is formatted with NTFS, you may receive the following error:
Stop: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternate
This error occurs after Windows XP copies the installation files to the hard disk and the computer restarts.
CAUSE
This problem may occur if either of the following conditions is true: � The hardware where you are trying to install Windows XP may not be compatible with Windows XP.
� The hard disk where you are trying to install Windows XP may be damaged.

N.V.M.

Joined: 05 Feb 2005
Posts: 207
Location: British Columbia,Canada,eh!

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 05 8:58 pm Post subject:
if all else fails, set your comp to boot from the cd-rom, (have your winxp disk in the drive), let Windows begin to install and when it get to the screen where it asks you to REPAIR,go into there and run "chkdsk /r"(without the quotes)

Treacodactyl
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 05 9:03 pm Post subject:
I've tried that and after a bit of CD activity I get the c0000218 error. Can you boot from a CD with no Disk Drive?

Treacodactyl
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 05 10:05 pm Post subject:
I've found some more diagnostic tools you can boot to in a hidden partion and the disk check found a couple of errors. Error Code 0F00:0244 Message Block 6728785 Uncorrectable data Error or media is write protected. It found a couple of these but the test didn't complete. I then rebooted and the PC came back to life. Very strange. Thanks for the help.

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 05 10:09 pm Post subject:

Have a look at the Hard Drive's label. The sticker on the top. There you will find the model number - for seagate this probably starts ST.
Google that and you may find a tech manual online, which should give you the error codes...

But- I doubt that its actually going to tell you more than the drive ain't working.
It is often a mistake to take any error message too literally - a read or write failure could be due to a failure in the drive, the connectors or the logic board - its hard for a program to tell the difference!
If it boots partially from the disk before getting a Windows error message, then communication with the disk is not solidly broken- something is being loaded from the disk.
It could be some bad blocks, or a failure pertaining to an entire platter surface...
I hope there's nothing important on that disk.

General point: Total Cost of Ownership only depends partially on the sticker price!

Treacodactyl
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 05 10:23 pm Post subject:
I did get hold of the manual but nothing useful. I think the RC 7 is a general code. The disk is back to life but the PC has crashed again. PC has a McAffee virus package that's up-to-date but I don't know what's happening) The disk seems to be hunting for something but never finding it. I've emailed Dell and will wait for an answer, then I'll email Seagate. Data has been backed up.

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 05 10:42 pm Post subject:

Treacodactyl wrote:

The disk seems to be hunting for something but never finding it.

There is a common disk failure mode, when instructed to go to a particular track/sector it fails to locate it, and gets lost. The heads sweep the disk until they bump the end-stop. Might sound like a "wheee" or a "trundle, trundle" (galloping) followed by a click/bump, a moment's silence then repeat.
Could be a problem with the servo 'markings' on the disk surface, or (much more likely nowadays) the chips on the disk pcb. If its the chip(s), it may work for longer when starting off from cold...
I'd try and do a disk surface check, map out bad blocks, then reformat and reinstall if it passes. If it won't pass, well...

N.V.M.

Joined: 05 Feb 2005
Posts: 207
Location: British Columbia,Canada,eh!

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 05 10:46 pm Post subject:
since its new, i won't bother other than replacing the thing. mumble Dell curse mumble

Lloyd

Joined: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 2699

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 05 11:43 pm Post subject:
Take it back mate. Swap it for another new one and start again. Don't waste your time on it any more.

Treacodactyl
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Thu Feb 10, 05 6:53 am Post subject:
It will go back but it does help to know what's up so Dell will swap it. I hope they just send out a new disk and don't want the whole PC. I think I may get another SATA drive to try. Also as I've just copied my data to the new PC I need to ensure it's removed before sending the disk back. Time to track down a shredder util. I don't fancy people having access to my letters and other details.

Treacodactyl
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Thu Feb 10, 05 6:22 pm Post subject:

Well I have a email reply from Dell saying they think there is a problem and they want the system unit back. It will "approximately take 5 - 7 business days for the system to be collected and repaired"

The question is what else will be broken when I get it back? I've phoned and waiting a manager to call back (no ref given or name of manager

). I either just want a new drive or the whole system will be returned, as it's less than 30 days old.

I'm running a CHKDSK that should fix the disk up enough for me to clean my data and the Seagate tools have also found errors.

I've never had a hard disk fail or know anyone who has so I'm a little worried by the quality of the system. Are disk failures getting more common with the massive capacities?

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45670
Location: Essex

Posted: Thu Feb 10, 05 6:24 pm Post subject:
I've got 3*400gb disks and the one that I ferry from home to work with my backups on it fails regularly, the others don't, always been the same. Have a look at wstore and see how much a similar spec HP is and if its comparable tell Dell to stick it.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Thu Feb 10, 05 6:59 pm Post subject:
I looked at Dabs today (just for prices) and a similar HP unit without the TFT was more expensive than mine with the TFT and more memory. I have run a Dell for several years without a problem, but it did have the 3yr on-site service (never used) and I don't on this system. I'm beginning to think there may be a connection.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45670
Location: Essex

Posted: Thu Feb 10, 05 7:12 pm Post subject:
I've not had technical problems with any of the Dell's I've had, I just know how poor their customer services and support are.

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