Sal needs help...

by 38 replies
46
When she turns on her computer, it says Primary Driver Not Found.

What does his mean and does anyone know what she can do?

Thanks!


Terra
#off topic forum
  • Is it possible it says Primary Drive Not Found?


    If so, try starting here:

    Primary drive 1 not found [Solved] - Dell - Computer Brands




    This provides more detail:
    http://forums.cnet.com/7723-10149_10...ive-not-found/
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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    • That is I think serious, I'm afraid, and from what Sal has said in the past, she has an old computer if still running Windows XP, Most likely the Hard Drive has curled up and died due to it's age, they don't last forever, happened recently to a friend of mine and she spent hundreds of dollars getting the data extracted from the old hard disk, it would not start up (spinning) and cannot be repaired.

      That the worst case scenario of course and I could be wrong. I hope she backed up all her important data and wrote down her passwords.

      Sounds like a new computer to me, not worth perusing any of the old kit, due to it's age.
      • [ 2 ] Thanks

    • Probably does, haha!

      Thanks Dan!

      Terra
  • Lan Ian, Mark is probably right in that the hard drive is probably taking a dirt nap. Couldn't hurt giving it a poke to see if it kicks one last time if not just to get any important data off of it.




    (BTW, what kind of name is "Mark" for an Englishman? I thought you were all named Nigel, Ian, or Worthington.)
    • [2] replies
    • My parents had a dog with a hair lip.
    • Lan Ian ? Who the hell is Lan Ian ? I thought it was just Ian ?

      You mean to tell me all these years...
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  • If she is running XP, have her put the XP install CD in the CD drive, boot off of it to dos, and try fdisk/mbr to see if that clears up the problem. If it does, sectors are starting to go bad, and it's time to get a trial version of Acronis Migrate Easy and copy the hard drive to a new one asap.


    If that doesn't work, try Riffle's suggestion to give the hard drive a rap with a screwdriver..if that works, the head is sticking and the hard drive is not long for this world...time to get a trial version of Acronis Migrate Easy, and do the same as above.


    Let me know if this helps.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I hate to say it, but the others are likely right. MY average for disk drives has been about 10 years or even more, but some will die before 3 years. She got a lot of use out of it. I HOPE she has a current FULL backup, etc... If not, I would suggest:

    1. Treat it like a BRICK! Pretend it is worthless, and a BRICK!
    2. Get a nice NEW disk drive that is compatible with some drive standard she has. It should be AT LEAST as big as her current drive. I hate to say it, but this part might be near impossible. If she can do it, GREAT! BTW if she doesn't have a friend to help her, and knows NOTHING about the drive, even a good picture of the slot or pins on the connectors will help a LOT. I would suggest NOT physically removing the old drive, but it may have a readable label, etc...
    3. Switch the old drive connections to the new drive. So the old drive is TOTALLY electrically isolated and WON'T even SPIN!
    4. Use whatever compatible distribution she has to get the new drive up and running. If it is too large, simply partition it. If she has extra dead space, FORGET IT! THAT can be used LATER if she upgrades again. Older systems have limits that today seem very low. But there are two basic types of limits here. One is the logical size of the drive, and one is the physical size of the drive.
    5. When all looks fine, and you are up to basic functionality, get the second drive hooked up.
    6. The SECOND the computer reboots, copy all you can from the old drive to the new. Even with a TOTAL failure, you have a decent chance of success.

    It will take a while, but the total cost of the parts, if she goes state of the art, with an external enclosure for the old drive, it could cost less than $200. Finding a drive might be a chore though, because the standards may have changed like 3 times since she started using that system. If she goes to a NEW system, and tries the same thing, and has an old MFM, RLL, or IDE drive, she COULD try looking for an adapter. They have some neat ones you can plug the drive into like it was a card. If she can't do something like that, maybe best buy or some such place could. Otherwise, it IS just a brick!

    BTW hitting a drive is tricky. I wouldn't recommend it. You COULD cause a head crash. If you do, it could destroy everything on your disk, so this should be viewed as a LAST RESORT. fdisk/mbr IS worth a try. Newer systems have at least 2 copies of the mbr and the fdisk/mbr could make sure it is accessible, and get it off of a bad area.

    Steve
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    • Thanks, guys.

      Sal works 3rd shift and went to sleep shortly after we talked.

      I called her back and left a voice mail for her. She'll call me back either when she gets up before she goes to work, or tomorrow when she gets off work.

      I'll let her know everything you have all said then.

      If it helps at all, it worked fine when she last used it yesterday. Today she thought it might need cleaning and blew it out. I'm not sure with what. Then she got the message after that.

      Hopefully, I got that right.


      Terra
      • [2] replies
  • Banned
    Yeah ... sounds like the big hard drive crash.
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    • As for a new computer, Sal could pick one up quite cheaply, she already has an lcd monitor so can keep that.

      Tiger Direct online is one of the cheapest places as they do new and re-conditioned either tower or flat base units. You can pick em up for not far over 200 bucks. Wal-Mart even, they do cheap towers on their own

      Best go for one that has Windows 7 which is not too dissimilar to XP in usage but much more stable. Windows 8.1 is what I have and will look daunting by comparison, however I go straight to the desktop and have made it pretty much what Windows 7 looks like by installing the Free Windows Shell program, (google it.)

      All the stuff above is mostly for really savvy people who might try and get stuff of their old hard drive using various methods. If you cant do that or don't have a computer person to do that for you... I can assure you, This is the quickest way to be back online. Get a new one.

      Depends if important data is not backed up or not as to how far you would be prepared to go with salvaging it. If you do your email via online sites like Gmail or Yahoo for example and do not use Outlook or Outlook Express to download it down to your computer then at least you have all your contacts safe.

      A few thoughts to relate back.
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  • PS...Make sure she touches something metal to make sure she eliminates any static electricity from her body before touching anything in the PC. She may want to stand on something like a rubber welcome mat to be extra sure.


    Just a small shock from static electricity in the wrong place can do a lot of damage.
  • No matter what have her keep the old drive. I've had luck putting a failing drive into an external sub case and finding and extracting data, not so good for reinstalling programs though.


    As for others, a good backup program is required, since it's not if a drive dies, it's when! If your strapped for cash check out :
    Redo Backup Bare Metal Restore Solution GUI Backup Open Source GPL Recovery

    Best of luck to basal!

    Jack
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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    • YEAH, I have one of those adapters, mine is for IDE to USB, I mentioned about earlier. As I recall, I got it from tiger plus. As for reinstalling, Microsoft has made it WELL known that they WILL NOT HELP in such endeavors! MOST programs require a registry, or are in some way configured through the setup and, of course, they may have system area dlls. Such programs must be moved in an all as replacement, or nothing fashion. So if you plan to get stuff from the old drive, and don't do something like copy all stuff to the new drive, it probably won't work with the programs. You will likely have to reinstall the programs as you did originally.

      Steve
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  • As Jack recommended, have her keep the drive as she may be able to pull data from it with the proper cable/enclosure bought from Amazon.
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    • She intends to. Actually she has someone who's going to do that for her. It's part of her plan.


      Terra
      • [1] reply
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