PRI Master HDD Error run setup

[JeffCharger]

I am out of town and my son says the main computer won't boot. It displays the message "PRI Master HDD Error run setup" during boot. I was hoping that the floppy drive had a diskette in it, but he says not. A quick search on the internet indicated that it might be a bios error. Yikes....any ideas or suggestions?

[firtha]

Try running the bios setup at boot time, and check the HDD settings. Sounds like your bios may have forgotten your boot drive. It may have an autosearch to find all drives on the machine, once it finds the missing drive, save the settings...

PS: I usually set the boot order to HDD, CD, floppy. That way if there's a floppy in the drive, it won't matter, it will boot off the hard drive. You have to change this if you ever want to boot from a CD though... which almost never happens.

[MeSteve]

Has anyone been in the box lately? If so there could be a loose or miswired cable to the hard drive.

[BrettS]

I know you'll hate to hear it, but my guess is that the hard drive has failed. I'd suggesting turning the computer off for several hours to allow it to cool down. With any luck that will allow it to restart. If it does come back the first thing you need to do is backup any data that you need because it probably won't last long.

Good luck,
Brett

[MeSteve]

Thats what I was thinking too, as I am working on getting my data off a second internal drive before it fails. If you have the chance I would get another internal HDD and copy straight to that, as it will be faster than trying to burn to a CD/DVD for backup.

[JeffCharger]

thanks guys. I will be home on Sunday and will further test. I am hoping it is something simple, but of course was fearing the worst. Fortunately I have another hard drive on the machine and backup to it regularly - but I still don't want to do a whole setup on it. I guess we'll see!

[Rupp]

Jeff,
If the hard drive has failed wrap in in a plastic baggie and put it in the freeze for 24 hours. Take it out an put it bak into the PC and you might be able to retrieve the contents. This has worked for us at work several times.

[rocco]

And to add to Rupp's post (if that's possible), I've recovered data from drives with failed bearings by running them on their side or upside down.

[JeffCharger]

good ideas....I had forgotten about them. I'll be home tonight and will see what I'm up against.

[JeffCharger]

I have done some preliminary work, and it seems that it doesn't "see" the old hard drive C:. (ouch)

A buddy gave me a copy of BartPE which I was able to load. It sees a "C:" drive but it's the backup drive that used to be called ":F" (I think).

I am going to check the wiring to make sure is all right, then if it is, I'll power off for the night and try again.

UDATE: no success so far. Wiring was fine. You can feel the drive spinning, but it still doesn't see it.
I have put it in the freezer in a zip-lock bag. I'll see if that helps.

So far "I am toast!".

[JeffCharger]

oh well, I ended up buying a new hard drive and rebuilding from backups. Thank goodness hard drive costs have come down. I got a 200 gb drive for about $100 Cdn.