verifying dmi pool data problem

[advan]

(Mods, sorry for this second thread. I think it's more appropriate under this category rather than under ICU? Kindly delete whichever is under the wrong category. Thanks!)


Hello! I have a problem with booting XP. Since the "Great Overhaul" done a few months backs, thanks to you guys, the PC's been running smoothly... until now. The only thing suspicious that I could think of was the yesterday, my computer has been a little slow (but I thought it was due to the fact that Firefox, Thunderbird and 2 graphics programs were all open)... Now that I'm about to work again, when I turned on the PC, it read the drives, but stops at "Verifying DMI pool", pauses a few seconds, then says "A disk read error occurred. Press Ctrl ALT Del to restart"... I do, but the cycle just continues never booting. I've read that the problem may range from BIOS to HDD to a virus

I've checked the CMOS and BIOS, they seem ok. CMOS completely finds the drives and BIOS booting lineup was correct- should I check on specific entries?

Is this a boot file problem or a Windows problem? If yes, how can I fix it? (I was thinking Windows System Restore, but it never reaches that part that offers to Recover to last working point). I tried and the UBCD disc, can I fix it through that?

I also read about "flashing the BIOS" but I've no idea if that's the correct solution for this case (and I'm not exactly sure how to do it either) and there was a warning that this is as the last desperate resort, so I guess that's not an option right now.

The Paragon backup boot flash drive also runs, will that work? but I was hoping restoring would be my last option because I've some work files on the Desktop which I hope won't get erased (it will be if I restore since they weren't included in the last backup) so I'm looking for a solution that only affects the system files? Btw, is there a way to copy those files from C to E drive via DOS mode-- because if there is, I can copy the important files then Restore.

The last time I ran a diagnostic test on the Seagate hard drives was around a month and a half ago and the results were good, and nothing much has happened to the PC (didn't get moved or added any peripherals etc) so I'm hoping this isn't a physical problem??

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[Dude111]

Is there anyway for you to hook the drive up on another computer and run a complete disk scan? (Hopefully thats all it is)

Good luck my friend!

[Kellie Dobbie]

I hope I'm wrong but I suspect its a harddisk failure. If you have a spare harddrive with an OS installed, set that disk as your master drive and the problematic drive as a slave. Start your PC and navigate to the drive letter assigned to your slave disk and copy the files you want to backup.

[advan]

Hello! Thank you for the replies.

I hooked up HDD to be the slave in another PC. This HDD is partitioned into 2 drives (I'll call them "System" and "Data". As a slave, both drives were detected, they are listed under My Computer, however only "Data" has numbers reflected in the Free Space and Total Size columns."System" is just there without values. I tried to see what's in it via the cmd, but entering that drive just results to "Data Error - Cyclic Redundancy"

My questions are:
1. Is this a 100% beyond doubt hardware/physical component failure? Or it just can't be read this time because certain sectors are corrupt (which is also the reason why it couldn't boot when used as a Master? Meaning if this sector can be written over with a fixed copy of codes it'll work?)

2. Can I salvage any files from this drive using some program?

[SuperSparks]

Run the disk diagnostic for your brand of disk drive (if you don't know what make it is run Seatools). Download UBCD and burn it to CD, it has all the disk testing utilities on it plus many more useful tools besides, then just boot with the disc in the drive and select the utility that you want.

Ultimate Boot CD

You may find these instructions helpful for burning the UBCD .iso file to disc:

How can I write (burn) ISO files to CD or DVD?

[advan]

Supersparks, thanks. I did that and during the Seagate Long Test, it reported some errors. There was an option to skip or repair, so I repaired and it reported a "Passed" test result afterwards... but when I re-do the same test to be sure, it reports the same errors which were supposed to have been fixed. And same cycle continues, repair, passed, retest, error, repair passed, etc. Is this the definite sign it's kaput?

If it is, and it's not just a fixable coding error, that's it's a physical problem, I'm just wondering why the data drive still works...

[Shinma]

If under warranty,
Suggest you start RMA.

[SuperSparks]

It definitely sounds like a physical hardware problem. I would suspect that there has been a head crash at some time, which has physically damaged part of the platter. That would explain why other parts of the disk are still OK. However, once you have had a head crash, the resultant dust that is kicked up from the damaged magnetic coating can cause further head crashes (a single particle of smoke is enough, let alone a speck of dust), so I would not trust the drive at all now

[advan]

Sorry for the delayed reply, I was in the midst of trying to restore a backup on a new HDD. thanks for all the feedback, yes, it's beyond repair.

sparks, im just bummed that despite constant checking with the seagate HDD tester and getting good results, this happened without warning. In fairness, it served me well, 6 years but the data loss from the sudden crash is quite troublesome. Is there anything more accurate I could run regularly to monitor HDD health or is it really a "surprise!" thing?

[Shinma]

... constant checking with the seagate HDD tester and getting good results ... Is there anything more accurate I could run regularly to monitor HDD health ...

No.

[SuperSparks]

If my surmise about a head crash is correct, then that is a definite surprise thing. For other problems, it's always worth enabling S.M.A.R.T. reporting in the BIOS. It doesn't pick up every problem, but it can sometimes give advance warning of looming drive problems.