H A N D O U T : I D E N T I F Y I N G A N D M I T I G A T I N G H A R D D R I V E I S S U E S

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1 Revision Date: 5/31/2013 Time 1.0 Hour KEY POINT S A hard drive making a clicking sound is caused by the unloading and loading its heads. However, clicking, grinding or squealing means the hard drive may be failing. The main cause for the no boot device issue is when the MBR is damaged or missing You may need to change your computer's BIOS settings to configure what drive to boot your computer from. RAID 0 should never be used on critical systems Check Disk (CHKDSK) is used to check the integrity of a disk and display a status report COMM ON SYMPTOM S Read/write failure Slow System Performance may be caused by: Lack of hard drive space Data corruption Missing software updates Outdated drivers Bad hardware Corrupt Operating System MITIGATING HARD DRIVE ISSUES TROU BLE SHOOTING STEPS OR TOOLS Check Your Hard Disk for Errors using the Check Disk function in Windows 7 Run Performance Troubleshooter StartControl PanelTroubleshootingclick Check for performance issues link under System and Security Follow the Wizard to run diagnostics to performance. Perform Error! Reference source not found. Disable background programs Check Device Manger for hardware conflicts Loud clicking noise coming from inside the computer. If you ve ruled out the fans, the next thing to check is the hard drive(s) Failure to boot can be caused from a damaged or missing MBR or if the drive you are trying to boot from is not in the right order in the BIOS. Drive not recognized If you suspect your hard drive is failing, backup your data immediately using an External and then proceed to Check Your Hard Disk for Errors Normally hard drives making noise are failing and the only solution is to replace it. If you get an Invalid System Disk error: Remove any media in the CD/DVD drive or Set your BIOS to start with the Hard Disk To fix the MBR: Use System Restore from the System Recovery Disk. For External hard drives 1. Start by verifying the cables are securely connected to the drive. 2. If the USB cable that came with a Y-Cable, connect both to USB ports found on the back of your computer. This will ensure your drive is getting the appropriate power. 3. Go to Disk Management to troubleshoot the hard drive. Cyanna Education Services, 2013 Page 1

2 Missing operating system error 1. Check if there is a disk in your DVD drive that is not a Windows Operating System Disk. If there is, remove it and try to reboot again. If there is no disk in the drive: RAID not found RAID stops working 1. Reboot from System Repair Disk. 2. Choose Repair your computer 3. Select the operating system after the installer searches for Windows installation, and click Next. 4. Then click Startup Repair. It will automatically fix problems that are preventing Windows from starting. More than likely, the Windows drivers are not current Go to the Internet and download the current driver for the hardware Check that all cables are connected and power is getting to the drive(s) Use the diagnostic indicator lights to help troubleshoot the problem Usually the drives need to be replaced Depending on the RAID system used, the data that was on the hard drive that failed cannot be recovered (RAID 0) TOOLS SCRE WDRIVER Is an essential tool when taking your computer case apart to get to the internal components. You can get scredrivers from computer supply stores. NOTE: It is not recommended using a magnetic tip screwdriver when working inside the computer as many disks are magnetized. EXTERNA L HARD DRIVE An external hard drive is a drive that is outside of the computer case and has its own protective case or enclosure. Most external hard drives support the IDE interface and are slightly bigger than a hard drive itself. When purchasing an external hard drive you can buy a full external hard drive system that consists of both the hard drive and the enclosure, or you can purchase just the enclosure to hold your own hard drive. External hard drives may contain a fan for cooling and are popular because they are portable devices and can be stored securely under lock and key since they are not inside the computer. An external hard drive is connected to the computer system with a single high-speed interface cable, usually with plug-and-play interfaces such as USB or FireWire. Cyanna Education Services, 2013 Page 2

3 WAYS T O FORMATTING YOUR HA RD DRI VE Windows offers a variety of way to format your hard drive. You can use the Command Prompt and use either Fdisk or Format command or with Windows XP and greater, From the Control panel use the Disk Management tool in the Computer Management Utility. Before you format your hard drive do the following: 1. Backup any data that is on the disk if it is not new 2. Know the type of file system you want to use 3. Make sure the BIOS will support the new disk 4. Make sure you have a startup disk FORM AT The format command is a Command Prompt command used to format a specified partition on a hard drive (internal or external) or flash drive to a specified file system. The syntax is: format drive: [/q] [/c] [/x] [/fs:file-system] [/r:revision] [/v:label] [/p:count] [/?] drive: = This is the letter of the drive/partition that you want to format. /q = This option will quick format the drive, meaning it will be formatted without a bad sector search. I do not recommend doing this in most situations. /c = You can enable file and folder compression using this format command option. This is only available when formatting a drive to NTFS. /x = This format command option will cause the drive to dismount, if it has to, before the format. /fs:file-system = This option specifies the file system you want to format the drive: to. Options for file-system include FAT, FAT32, exfat, NTFS, or UDF. /r:revision = This option forces the format to a specific version of UDF. Options for revision include 2.50, 2.01, 2.00, 1.50, and If no revision is specified, 2.01 is assumed. The /r: switch can only be used when using /fs:udf. /v:label = Use this option with the format command to specify a volume label. If you don't use this option to specify a label, you'll be asked to after the format is complete. /p:count = This format command option writes zeros to every sector of the drive: once. If you specify a count, a different random number will be written to the entire drive that many times after the zero writing is complete. You can not use the /p option with the /q option. Beginning in Windows Vista, /p is assumed unless you use /q [KB941961]. /? = Use the help switch with the format command to show detailed help about the command's several options, including ones I did not mention above like /a, /f, /t, /l, /n, /s, and /d. Executing format /? is the same as using the help command to execute help format. Using the command prompt type: format e: /q /fs:ntfs Note: For Windows Vista and later use Disk Management to create, delete and format partitions using both FAT and NTFS. FDISK The Fdisk tool is an MS-DOS-based utility used in early Windows version that you can use to partition a hard disk. FAT file systems only. Cyanna Education Services, 2013 Page 3

4 FILE RE COVERY SOFTWARE Many free file recovery programs exist that can help recover your accidentally deleted files. These file recovery programs can help you "undelete" files on your computer. Files you have deleted and then recently emptied from your Recycle Bin are often still present on your hard drive (or USB drive, or media card, etc.) and can be recovered using free file recovery software. Note: You can greatly increase the chance of recovering a file by minimizing your computer use as soon as possible. There are many software vendors, both free and paid, that provide software that is easy to use, and has optional advanced features as well Just ensure they come from a safe Internet site before downloading. DISK MANAGEME NT 1. If the drive is still unrecognized, check to see if the drive appears in Disk Management. To open Disk Management, right click Computer and choose Manage. Disk Management is found on the left under Storage. 2. In Disk Management, drives are listed as Disk 0, Disk 1, etc. Disk 0 is assigned as the primary hard drive on your computer (the c: drive). Depending on the number of drives or partitions on your system the external drive will commonly be identified as Disk 1 or Disk If the drive has a letter assigned, minimize the Disk Management window and open Computer. If the drive letter appears in Computer, the drive is properly recognized by the system. 4. To manually assign a drive letter, bring up Disk Management and right click on the capacity of the drive. 5. Choose Change Drive Letter and Path from the menu. 6. Select Change and select an available letter from the drop box. Note: Choose a drive letter that does not already appear in Computer. 7. If the drive shows Unknown, right click on the word Unknown and choose Initialize. Follow the wizard, accepting the defaults. The drive should now be labeled Unallocated. 8. If the drive shows as Unallocated, right click on the word Unallocated and choose New Partition (2000/XP) or New Simple Volume (Vista/Win7). Follow the wizard, accepting the default settings. Clicking finish will begin the format process. The format will generally take 10-15min, but can vary depending on drive size. When the format is complete the drive can be found under Computer labeled New Volume. 9. If you wish to change the name of the drive, right click on the for the drive icon and choose rename from the menu. CHE CK YOUR HARD D ISK FOR ERR OR S 1. Open Computer click Start, and then click Computer. 2. Right-click the hard disk drive that you want to check, and then click Properties. 3. Click the Tools tab, and under Error-checking section, click Check Now button. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. 4. To automatically repair problems with files and folders that the scan detects, select Automatically fix file system errors. Otherwise, the disk check will simply report problems but not fix them. Cyanna Education Services, 2013 Page 4

5 5. To perform a thorough disk check, select Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors. This scan attempts to find and repair physical errors on the hard disk itself, and it can take much longer to complete. 6. To check for both file errors and physical errors, select both Automatically fix file system errors and Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors. 7. Click Start. Cyanna Education Services, 2013 Page 5