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HD died!

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win98 PC

when you turn on the PC it doesnt find the HD

undi initialize failed, no media found

disk boot failure insert system disk & press enter

unable to use a boot disk, even when I change the boot sequence in BIOS to see A drive first

any software to recover the documents left on the PC from the user

11 replies

by dmiles

Check TechRepublic article posted last year titled 200 ways to revive a Hard Drive,you may find some help
Good Luck

by adelhier

If your looking to get the documents off the drive that is some what easy. Just mount the dive in any win98 or later versoin of windows. Then go and take all the files off. I do that all the time it is very easy to do.

Andy

by otl

Had same problem, HD could be found in BIOS but could not boot off any media while HD was installed. Appears the HD electronics are "streaming" across the buss, inhibiting the PC from reading any bootable device. Even "HOT" install (after PC was booted add HD) would not allow access, caused PC to shut down.

Bad news is have not found anyway to revive the HD long enough to get info off it (still stored just in-case another HD with only disk problems is found to swap the electronics).

by lwt

If you do have to swap the hard drive controller board, make sure it is with an identical hard drive (make and size) and that the firmware is identical. Sometimes the firmware number is listed after the model number, it depends on the manufacturer. You may need to check on the manufacturers' web sites for this info.

by theohkm

You need to be able to boot from A-Drive in order to solve the problem.

I suggest that you find a sure drive and a win98 boot disk. This boot disk can be created from Win98 -> Control Panel -> Add Remove Program.

When you have successful boot up the PC, see if C: is available. If not, try FDISK to see if there is any partition. If you see no partition table, it is likely that your system has been infected with virus or the drive has physical problem.

If C: is found, do a scandisk. Transfer the boot files from the floppy or re-install Win98 from CD-ROM.

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