It sounds like a Bad Sector developed smack in the middle of the boot files. You may be able to recover the data you need by getting a 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapter which will allow the Laptop Harddrive to be connected to a PC's IDE cable. You can connect it as a Slave to the PC's Master Harddrive or as Cable Select if the PC's drive is configured that way. That will require a jumper on the Laptop drive for either method and those jumpers can be difficult to locate. You can also connect the Laptop Harddrive as a Master to a Slave CD Drive in the Secondary IDE Channel. That would require no jumper on the laptop drive, but would require that the PC's CD Drive be temporarily jumpered as a Slave. Since you will not be using the LT drive as a boot drive, you should be able to access your data by opening it in My Computer and then use Windows Explorer to find and move your data.
I would consider the harddrive a lost cause and replace it with a new one. Bad sectors can sometimes be patched and the data moved with Scandisk in DOS, but the defect remains and will probably grow with time. After you have secured your data elsewhere, if you want to try that, use a utility to clear the drive of partition(s)(the format and all files go with them). A W98 Boot Disk/Startup Floppy with Fdisk at the A:\ Prompt works as well as anything or Delpart.EXE from this link.
Then use the W98 Boot Disk to boot into DOS and an A:\ prompt. Go to Fdisk and make a Primary DOS Partition, then reboot back to the A:\ Prompt and type/enter format C: It may stop when it gets to the bad sector and take a while to recover the allocation unit: this is normal, but it should start again in a few minutes. If it will continue and finish the format, then reboot again to the A:\ prompt and type /enter scandisk/autofix C: If that finishes, the drive may be used in a non-critical function, but I no longer would trust it for a boot drive. If it doesn't finish, deposit the drive in the closest trash bin
leduke30
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May 18th, 2005 16:00
It sounds like a Bad Sector developed smack in the middle of the boot files. You may be able to recover the data you need by getting a 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapter which will allow the Laptop Harddrive to be connected to a PC's IDE cable. You can connect it as a Slave to the PC's Master Harddrive or as Cable Select if the PC's drive is configured that way. That will require a jumper on the Laptop drive for either method and those jumpers can be difficult to locate. You can also connect the Laptop Harddrive as a Master to a Slave CD Drive in the Secondary IDE Channel. That would require no jumper on the laptop drive, but would require that the PC's CD Drive be temporarily jumpered as a Slave. Since you will not be using the LT drive as a boot drive, you should be able to access your data by opening it in My Computer and then use Windows Explorer to find and move your data.
I would consider the harddrive a lost cause and replace it with a new one. Bad sectors can sometimes be patched and the data moved with Scandisk in DOS, but the defect remains and will probably grow with time. After you have secured your data elsewhere, if you want to try that, use a utility to clear the drive of partition(s)(the format and all files go with them). A W98 Boot Disk/Startup Floppy with Fdisk at the A:\ Prompt works as well as anything or Delpart.EXE from this link.
http://www.russelltexas.com/delpart.htm
Then use the W98 Boot Disk to boot into DOS and an A:\ prompt. Go to Fdisk and make a Primary DOS Partition, then reboot back to the A:\ Prompt and type/enter format C: It may stop when it gets to the bad sector and take a while to recover the allocation unit: this is normal, but it should start again in a few minutes. If it will continue and finish the format, then reboot again to the A:\ prompt and type /enter
scandisk/autofix C: If that finishes, the drive may be used in a non-critical function, but I no longer would trust it for a boot drive. If it doesn't finish, deposit the drive in the closest trash bin
Message Edited by leduke30 on 05-18-2005 12:27 PM