Why My HD show "primary drive fail"

[ocoy81]

My HDD DiamondMax Plus 9 160GB ATA/133, S/N Y4538GCE, 6Y160L0042611

at bios appear message "primary drive fails", how to fix it, and why this happen ?

I'm newbie in HDD repair.....

Thanks Before.....

[hddguy]

Sounds like you may have an issue with your HDD service area. Is the HDD visible in BIOS? What does it identify itself as? Have you tried using MHDD to see if it is accessible?

[BlackST]

The drive has some internal failure, either electrical, mechanical or firmware related. If you can exclude cabling or power problems, here's how to fix it, at your option :

1) Buy expensive HW diagnostic tools , manage how to use them and this can probably fix the firmware related problems and give you access to data
2) Figure out where exactly is the problem (the drive clicks ? does not spin up at all ? ) maybe there are very small chances to fix it i.e. the PCB is fried.
3) Go and ask a pro to diagnose and, if he has the proper tools and knowledge, he will be able to fix it and get the data back .

Anyone can remotely repair your drive with just this short description. Only can give a little advice, at your own risk . You decide what your data is worth. Maybe this is not the right place for such a problem, you better go to a "decent" local computer store and get everything checked.

About why this happen... if you have or had a car, and are not 18 y.o. , at least once in a lifetime you should have experienced a dead battery : last night you parked the car, turned the key, everything was OK. The morning after, POOF !!!
Do batteries and HDDs have to send emails or warn the users of imminent failure ? They may fail anytime for internal or EXTERNAL reason (including misuse, power surge etc.)

P.S. please READ the forum, use the SEARCH function , use GOOGLE and find something that fits your problem and/or things that can apply. This forum is not Maxtor help desk.

[ocoy81]

Sounds like you may have an issue with your HDD service area. Is the HDD visible in BIOS? What does it identify itself as? Have you tried using MHDD to see if it is accessible?

Yes.... it's visible in BIOS..... but after that appear message "primary drive fails" i must press F1 to continue.
How to Identify it and how to use MHDD... sorry because I'M newbie.....

@BlackST
thanks for appreciated, I think MAXTOR is HDD too, and this is HDD forum I don't have money to buy expensive tools, But i want to fix it, and i ask in here.

[rchadwick]

Sounds like you have a S.M.A.R.T. failure. If the drive still works after hitting F1, the message you get means the drive thinks it's about to fail. Don't think in terms of fixing the drive, simply replace it. If there's anything important on the drive, get it NOW.

If there is important data on the drive, and you can't access it, that's a different story.

[rameez]

or maybe it has already failed . Tell us by which name hdd is detecting .

[abidhafeez]

Hey ocoy81!
I have come across problem like this many times and I only repair Maxtor drives.The problem with your drive is when you go through the BIOS it doesn't show you its serial number.So the serial number of that drives is missing in its firmware.The means you have got your module 31 corrupted in its SA-A.You will have to download module 31 from SA-B and upload it in SA-A and then it will work perfectly.But alas! you don't have any repairing tool with which you could work on its SAs and firmware.

Regards,
Abid Hafeez.

[BlackST]

In fact, it's pointless. Can someone do it for a reasonable fee?