ST3402111AS problems

[hector]

Hi,

I am a bit new to all this stuff - please be gentle!

Story is I have a PC (Dell Optiflex GX520) which reports no boot device on powerup. BIOS says "The drive has been safely put in a frozen state.

Undeterred, I ran GW Scan 5.12 from UBCD on USB flash which tells me SMART=Pass, Quick Test = No errors
Then using Cute Partition Manager, I was perplexed to see 2 hard disks found.

Hdd1
Pri1 NTFS 3.73MB
Pri2 boot NTFS 1.87 GB

Hdd2 Pri1 NTFS 37.25GB

Can someone please explain why I see 2 Hdd's? Is this one and the same physical disk (I can only eyeball one!!)

I would like to set the disk to 1 pri partition and re-install Win XP.

Thanks in anticipation for any help on this
Keith

[labtech]

Can you take a pic of the software presenting the drives/partitions and post here?

[hhddrec]

Can you take a pic of the software presenting the drives/partitions and post here?

yes take pics

Thanks

[sashok07]

No idea why it's showing 2 HDD's; must be a software issue, especially if you can only see one hard drive with your "eyeballs"

To me it looks like your hard drive might have a recovery partition, so if you want to reinstall windows I believe the enter the recovery partition on a dell is Ctrl+F11 during bootup.

If you want a clean slate, meaning reinstall windows xp from scratch I would suggest removing the hard drive and deleting the partition information (sector 0, partition table) or just run HDD Wipe Tool for a few seconds (obviously hard drive would need to be removed from the machine).

You didnt mention anything about data recovery or backing up your data so I'm assuming it's not important (both suggestions wipe the drive clean).

[hector]

Hdd1 might be a pen drive or a SD/MMC memory card, etc ... that the software is picking up.

Oh dear....I think Spildit has given the answer

The Hdd1 could well be the USB memory stick that I formatted as a drive to boot UBCD Its a 2GB Kingston. My Hard drive is 40GB so the numbers seem to make sense.

Will take some screen pics later tonight if time allows, otherwise I am off the case until Monday at least.

No, not interested in recovering any data, just wanting a clean install. Thanks for replies so far.

Keith

[hhddrec]

Hdd1
Pri1 NTFS 3.73MB
Pri2 boot NTFS 1.87 GB

Yes, this is a 2GB pen drive or Memory card.

very god

[hector]

How to remove permanently the frozen state status in BIOS for optiplex GX620 :

Change the SATA Operation from Normal to Combination by doing the following steps:

1) Boot the Machine

2) Press F2 (before the progress bar completes)

3) Use the Up/Down Arrows on keyboard to select the Drives node

4) Press Enter on keyboard to expand the Drives node

5) Use the Up/Down Arrows on keyboard to select the SATA Operation node

6) Press Enter on the keyboard to make changes to the SATA Operation

7) Use the Left/Right Arrows on the keyboard to select Combination

Press Enter on the keyboard to choose the Combination setting

9) Press Esc on the keyboard

10) Use the Left/Right Arrows on the keyboard to select Exit

11) Press Enter on the keyboard

I tried this but it had no effect. The only way I found of clearing it was to remove the CMOS battery for a minute or two. Trouble is after reboot it comes back. So I am left wondering, is my hard drive ok?

Keith

[hhddrec]

How to remove permanently the frozen state status in BIOS for optiplex GX620 :

Change the SATA Operation from Normal to Combination by doing the following steps:

1) Boot the Machine

2) Press F2 (before the progress bar completes)

3) Use the Up/Down Arrows on keyboard to select the Drives node

4) Press Enter on keyboard to expand the Drives node

5) Use the Up/Down Arrows on keyboard to select the SATA Operation node

6) Press Enter on the keyboard to make changes to the SATA Operation

7) Use the Left/Right Arrows on the keyboard to select Combination

Press Enter on the keyboard to choose the Combination setting

9) Press Esc on the keyboard

10) Use the Left/Right Arrows on the keyboard to select Exit

11) Press Enter on the keyboard

I tried this but it had no effect. The only way I found of clearing it was to remove the CMOS battery for a minute or two. Trouble is after reboot it comes back. So I am left wondering, is my hard drive ok?

Keith

Very strange, maybe any robson memory card in PCB?

[fzabkar]

See http://en.community.dell.com/thread/19468989.aspx