No operating system found (win2ksp4) :-(

[technoid]

Hi all,

A couple nights ago, I turned on one of my older Pentium III PC's with Win2k-sp4 to tinker with, that I rarely turn on nowadays, probably been over a year. It's worked fine for 15 years prior, I've used it a lot as a home theater setup.  So I let this computer stay on overnight, maybe over 6 hours. Then I decided to do a checkdisk on it (error-checking tool) & so after a couple minutes or so, it hung, stopped & said it couldn't find operating system.  Did several reboots & checked bios, but still same thing, no operating system found.  If this thing is hosed, I hope I can retrieve the stuff on it.  How would I first go about starting research & repair on this?   Should I put the boot harddrive (IDE) into an external ide usb drive enclosure & see if I can peek inside? Would that affect boot on this if it got repaired?  Or should I first try to do a recovery console with the 2k CD?   I have never done that before with 2k, so I'm not totally sure what the commands are.  I've done it before with XP, I think, but even then it's been years & I don't remember any details.  I think because I let it on overnight, this might be due to the harddrive getting a bit hot, as it did not have any auto-sleep or some other eco mode enabled.  I did have a fan internally blowing towards the harddrives, but I guess that did not help, but the harddrives were somewhat stacked too close to each other (I would have to show a photo to understand that situation).  This has never happened before in all those 15 years. Now I have to find my copy of the 2k install CD, heh.   Please let me know if you need more details, thanks. 

[Dixel]

4 hours ago, technoid said:

Then I decided to do a checkdisk on it (error-checking tool) & so after a couple minutes or so, it hung, stopped & said it couldn't find operating system. 

Worn out, old HDD had been over-stressed with chkdsk and died.

[jaclaz]

The no operating system found could be both the disk that failed and a filesystem level issue, but also a loose/failed cable.

I would try first thing if it can be seen/accessed (even if RAW) through a USB-IDE converter on another working PC, see if it spins normally, if it makes strange noises, etc.

The recovery console via install CD is not worth the time, it can only fix (maybe) some basic booting issues, but you are surely having some more complex problems than what the recovery console can fix.

I presume that being 2K, the hard disk is relatively small so *any* USB-IDE converter should work (older ones may have a capped capacity of supported hard disks).

Which OS are you running on the "other" PC (the one to which the USB-IDE and hard disk will be connected)?

jaclaz

 

 

[technoid]

Thanks guys.   I haven't done anything yet.  This will be a sad day indeed if this is indeed a hardware failure.   I worked a lot just to get it set up as a home theater PC those years ago, with DVI to projector to get that 1:1 sharp image quality, rather than VGA or component video which are blurrier, as well as surround sound, putting it together as cheaply as possible.  I had thought of backing this boot drive up years ago but never did.   I have to wonder though if this is a drive failure internally (heads, platters etc) & not the drive PCB.  There is a 2nd harddrive inside that is actually the same make & model, i.e. both are same-model Maxtor IDE 40gb drives.   Yes, I guess I will first try moving the drive into a USB external enclosure & will connect it to my Windows 7 laptop & see if it will find anything.  I had already checked the cables & the home theater PC can recognize both drives at startup, so I guess that means both Maxtor drive board electronics are still working.  But I may try swapping the drive board out using the drive board from the 2nd drive, as maybe the next plan, just to be sure, if the usb converter does not work.  I did not think that letting the PC stay on overnight could have possibly done this as I guess the thermal damage just accelerated the wear & tear on these older hard disks, even when there was an internal fan blowing towards the disks.  The disks unfortunately were in a metal support box housing that probably kept the wind from moving over the entire drives, but I never had issues with it before, the fan actually probably did some good anyway over the years.  I will probably check the 2nd drive first & put that in the usb converter enclosure & back that up if it's still good, even if the stuff on the boot drive was more important.   Oy vey.   

[Cocodile]

21 hours ago, jaclaz said:

a filesystem level issue, but also a loose/failed cable.

Must be one hell of coincidence to happen right in the middle of chkdsk.

13 hours ago, technoid said:

I had already checked the cables & the home theater PC can recognize both drives at startup

Yes, old cables were good, the probability they went dead is very low, I too vote for the dead HDD.

As a suggestion, check your power supply, too!

[jaclaz]

A Maxtor 40 GB (I presume a Diamond max) should be like the last series where a hard disk PCB swap was still possible (without transplanting the "ROM") so it is a possibility but DO NOT attempt that before having checked for simpler issues.

Even if doable, the PCB swap procedure has its own risks, the "smooth" chip on those boards liked to heat up and fry easily, if the original disk does not spin and the smooth chip is burnt, DO NOT attempt the PCB swap, as you could burn also the "donor" PCB, example:

https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8991

jaclaz