[svlug] disk repair

[Jesse Monroy]

The most common problem with most older systems it he corruption of
the Non-volatile RAM. On the older PCs, it usually meant replacing the
CMOS.

As soon as IDE came into being, the drive manufactures were using
self-contained systems. So replacing the main board was one way to
revive the drive. But this meant you had to reinitialize the drive.
Usually some software beyond Spinrite, something that spoke the the
physical drive, versus the virtual drive you get via the IDE (or
equivalent, now a days) interface.

In some cases it was a vicious circle, you need a new board, but you
could only get one from a broken drive -- which usually had lost the
electronics.

Good luck
Jesse


On 5/8/11, Ehud Kaldor <ehud.kaldor at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
> i have a few hard disk malfunctioning. these are older disks and retrieving
> the data is less crucial (though would be nice), but when i connect them to
> my Linux, it says they report the wrong size. fsck, fdisk - all fail doing
> anything (that i know how to do) with them. even SpinRite says it cannot do
> anything with them...
>
> any idea on how to re-live them? as said, data on them is less important,
> but they are a Seagate 160GB and WD 80GB, and i would like to use them.
>
> thanks,
> Ehud
>