new HDD for gateway computer

Soundguy · Oct 9, 2007

My broter brought me his gateway computer that was not working. he had just moved and had not had it on in 3mos. Said it had hdd failure on bootup when he hooke dit up. unit is a couple years old maybee.. pentium 4.. etc.. I thought maybee it had just had a low cmos battery and lost hdd params and needed to autodetect.

nope.. turne dthe post codes on, and computer is saying it is a media failure. the small hdd tester in the bios also says it is a media failure. HDD also does not sound like it spins up correctly.. sounds like it continously auto-parks.. etc.. I'm guessing it is toast. it was a wd .. which I've had good luck with that brand.. but i guess there is always 1 or 2 that are bad.

I did try swapping the cable ( 80 pin ).. and also swapping to the other channel onthe controller and telling it to boot there. no change.

Now.. here's the question... that system has a recovery cd, and there is a bios option to boot from the atapi cdrom.. etc... Is this going to be as simple as hitting walmart.. throwing in another hdd, setting it up in bios, and letting the hdd program format it, and then rebooting with the cdrom recovery disc ? and will it then reinstall the software as it was purchased.. including the operating system? Any idea if i'm that lucky.. or will the OS be the issue...

soundguy

SnowRidge · Oct 9, 2007

I'm pretty sure it will set it back to day one. I'm not positive that it doesn't need to find a trace of the old OS. Microsoft has been real nasty about giving any buyer of a system with Winders preinstalled any chance of installing the OS on another machine.

Let us know. I, for one, am curious.

Soundguy · Oct 9, 2007

Gateway is tight lipped as well. Since the unit is out of warranty, -any- service telephone call on it is 35$ and up.. even to just get that answer from them. I'd hate for my brother to go buy a new HDD and slap it in, and it still not work... and buying a new copy of windoes will be almsot as much as a box store computer, once you add in the hdd price.

Anyone here got a gateway and know if it will completely restore off cdrom restore disc to a virgin hdd?

Soundguy

jdbower · Oct 9, 2007

Even if it doesn't work, the new HDD can be slapped into an external case and hooked up to the new computer for backup purposes. In most cases the system restore disks don't need the *exact* OEM hardware configuration, but I can't speak for Gateway in particular.

jwstewar · Oct 9, 2007

It has been awhile since I've restored a Gateway (who buys Gateway now days), but the last time I did it was just like all of the other boxed computers and you could put the new hdd in and it would restore from CD or DVD. If you only have a CD and there is only one, you may be screwed because the actual software may have been on a hidden partition on the old hard drive. If it is DVD or multiple CDs you are probably OK.

Soundguy · Oct 9, 2007

I may be in luck here.. I dug thru the small cd-booklet that came with his gateway.. most of the disc are genericaly labeled.. but one says 'OS reinstall cd' on a little fine print on the clear 'hub' of the cd.. otherwise disc is blue with just a gateway part number on it.... i think i hit paydirt!
And yes.. there were about 5 discs of 'extra' drivers and applications.

soundguy

thanks for the ideas.

MossRoad · Oct 9, 2007

Once you get that thing up and running on the new hard drive and you have time to fiddle with attempting to recover data from the old drive, try this.

Put the old drive in the freezer for an hour or so.
Openthe CP case and remove the CD drive data and power cables.
Install the frozen hard drive using the CD drive data and power cables.
Boot up and see if it detects the old hard drive as it comes up.
If it does, when windows launches, see if you can then see it. If so, immediately copy all of the data off the old drive into a folder on the new drive.
If not, nothing lost but a few minutes of time.

We've had limitted success with this method. Just remember this... if the frozen drive does come up and work, don't shut the PC down for long. It usually only works a couple times to freeze it. After that, not much luck.

Soundguy · Oct 10, 2007

I poppe dinto walmart this am and grabbed the smallest drive they had.. a 160gb.. and have it in the system being formatted by the gateway OS /reinstall cd as we speak.

only 1 hitch so far. The gateway software makes no mention of being service pack one and has a date of 2002.. so I'm not counting on sp1.. since that is the case.. drive is limited to 137mb and is using a drive overlay.. that was a little bit to finagle around to get the gateway cd to startup.. but i managed after trying about 3 times and finally finding the right screen to enter to allow it to boot from the CD AFTER the drive overlay laoded.. etc.

Once i get it all back up and his pre-loaded software installed.. i'll investigate the old hdd. At this point it won't even spin up.. so i think it may be 100% kaput??

thanks for help so far and i will post back.

Also.. no pressure but my bro just calle dme this am and asked if his computer was ready as he needs it to take a college test online next week, and needs to study some DOH!

Soundguy

Amontilado · Oct 11, 2007

Soundguy,

Another item to watch out for, that I ran into redoing an IBM with Windows 2000, is the restore disc only retoring the disk to its original size. THis computer came with a 15gig, which I replaced with an 80gig. After restoring, I had 15gig available, with the rest wasted

. I wanted one partition, so I had use another WIn200 disk to see the entire disk.

Steve

crbr · Oct 11, 2007

NTSF will resolve that.

Soundguy · Oct 12, 2007

Update:

got the drive formatted, single partition, 137mb.. there is another 30mb partition that can be added.

I was correct.. that gateway restore cd bundle only had winxp hom eedition with no service packs installed. Good thing i told the western digital drive install software to only enable it for winxp and not winxp-sp1. Suposedly after i install sp1, I can go back in with western digital drive tools and activate that unused partition, and then windows can fomat it as another logical drive and make use of it,.
Since it only had a 40gig in there.. and he's got 137 now.. I think he'll be fine. I turned on auto updates and setup his dsl settings.. so he should be good to go. Got all his oem software and drivers back in, including printer.. should be just like he had it months ago before moving, sans any personal files. also.. old hdd didn't make it.. tried the freezer just in case. drive doesn't even power up any more.. just buzzes and then clicks and that's it.. not sure what happened to it.. it was a wd 40gig uata from 2002.. etc.

software reinstall was tedious but had no surprises.. except that it was an oem'd ver of winxp home, and didn't require the 'activation' that normal windows xp does. Though the documentation doesn't mention it (DOH!) the winxp install cd and the disc one of the recover cd set are both bootable. In fact.. after trial and error I found that when you boot off disc1, it immediatly asks for the win software cd if no os is detected.. lucky for me it worked that way, as I had thought it was 2 steps.. ie.. install windows.. THEN start the recovery... worked out ok.

( now he tells me his wifes compaq can't find the hdd!!!! ).. what he's doing to kill HDD's I'll never know!! I told hime to give me a few days 'rest' for that one.. I did 'rush' his other cpu as he needed it urgently for school.. however this other is obviously a surf/shopping network machine.. etc..

thanks for everybodies help. much of it was needed, and ALL of it was appreciated.

soundguy

MossRoad · Oct 12, 2007

If you ever get a copy of partition magic you can do some neat stuff. Like make a small partition to initially load the OS, then bring it up to all service packs, updates, etc... then use partition magic to increase the size of the partition to take advantage of the whole drive. Another thing to do is create a small 10G partition above the main partition, then use a product like Ghost to make a complete image of the first partition to a file on the second partition. If the first ever gets monkeyed up, just boot off the ghost disk and restore it from the image on the 2nd partition.

Sorry the freezer trick didn't do you any good. Once you have some time, it may be interesting to open the drive and see what is in there. Sometimes you will see the disks gouged by the head. Sometimes you can plug in the power and watch the head click back and forth, etc... it is interesting to see what goes on in there. Also, you can get yourself some magnets to make a Chalkley cup!

Amontilado · Oct 12, 2007

crbr said:
NTSF will resolve that.

Wasn't a function of the underlying filesystem. The restore disks restored a partition of 15gig. tried reformatting beforehand, but those darn IBM disks restored the system to its original software configuration, period

.

Steve

Soundguy · Oct 14, 2007

I've used ghost many times but not PM.

Suposedly the WD software will be able to 'grow' the partition after the sp update. I know the 'low level' prep the wd software did was for the full drive capacity, then it went back in another seperate step and set the active partition smaller ( 137gb) for the non sp1 xp instalation.

All in all it was pretty painless except the fact that gateway restore disc set is like 5 disc's, and instead of going in linear order.. it asks for different disc's at different times.. ALL thru the restore.. so you can't plop on in and walk away.. you gotta set there and hold it's hand. i did like the fact that othe oem gateway xp disc was pre-activated.. etc.

I've been into many ahard disc.. I did lotsa computer work back inthe early 80's on up until w95 came out when i got out of it. This one I suspect to find a plowed furrow and a loose head.. before it finally up and died it sounded like it was auto parking alot.

in any case.. part 1 of the fiasco is over.. part 2 next week when he brings me his other pc that is suspiciously having a similar problem.. ALSO not finding it's HDD.. I'm again hoping for a low cmos battery and lost drive params.. etc..

thanks again for the help guys... I've never dinked with a gateway except one little itty-bitty one we have in our office in a mine desktop case.. and it's been 'hands free'.. etc..

soundguy

MossRoad said:
If you ever get a copy of partition magic you can do some neat stuff. Like make a small partition to initially load the OS, then bring it up to all service packs, updates, etc... then use partition magic to increase the size of the partition to take advantage of the whole drive. Another thing to do is create a small 10G partition above the main partition, then use a product like Ghost to make a complete image of the first partition to a file on the second partition. If the first ever gets monkeyed up, just boot off the ghost disk and restore it from the image on the 2nd partition.

Sorry the freezer trick didn't do you any good. Once you have some time, it may be interesting to open the drive and see what is in there. Sometimes you will see the disks gouged by the head. Sometimes you can plug in the power and watch the head click back and forth, etc... it is interesting to see what goes on in there. Also, you can get yourself some magnets to make a Chalkley cup!

zeuspaul · Oct 14, 2007

Tapping on the drive while it turns on sometimes starts it spinning. A friend of mine had an old computer with part of the drive casing removed. He gave the drive a spin as the power was turned on to get it going. It may be worth a try if there are old files to be recovered.

Zeuspaul

Soundguy · Oct 14, 2007

I've got it on my desk, just got to remember to get my mini torx bits to work.

soundguy

RobertN · Oct 14, 2007

Soundguy said:
I've got it on my desk, just got to remember to get my mini torx bits to work.

soundguy

I've disassembled a few drives at work; most that I have seen are vacuum sealed(the actual disk). Will they work if you break the seal?

MossRoad · Oct 14, 2007

RobertN said:
I've disassembled a few drives at work; most that I have seen are vacuum sealed(the actual disk). Will they work if you break the seal?

Yep. They'll work.

Soundguy · Oct 15, 2007

The ones I've seen are not vacume sealed.. and in fact have a vent / breather hole with a breather element inside, and even say that if you block the breather hole that you void the warranty...

soundguy