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daveyeisley
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Post by inthecorridors Fri Jun 18, 2010 5:26 am

Yeah, so, I just decide to bite the bullet and remake Miow the hard way instead of waiting and praying for a behind the scenes fix, and to back up the big "10%-of-my-grade-in-the-fall-AND-the-basis-for-all-further-work-my-last-year-of-college" project I'm working on over the summer... especially because I need to get it ready to be shipped to where I'm staying in NY during my internship... but in the morning, because dammit, I'm tired...

and that was the last time my computer was willing to boot.

I notice an error message telling me about a HD error in one of my RAID drives during that pre-Windows boot stuff. Port 5, Drive
model ST3500320AS, Serial # 9QM5H9YO. When it goes past that, I get the screen saying
Windows screwed up trying to boot, would you like to try to boot in safe
mode? Doesn't work no matter what I choose. If I try safe mode I get
to the point where the mouse cursor appears, I get a black background
that says safe mode in white at the bottom... and nothing else. If I try a regular mode, I get a blank black screen, a white cursor, and nothing else.

Uncle who built the thing for me says, "It is referring to a particular
SATA Port on the motherboard, check
connections on the hard drives and the sata ports on the motherboard
(small cables running into connections on the lower corner of the
motherboard). If you can get your project backed up in safe mode then
do so soon, just in case." Everything's firmly connected.


HALLLLLLLLLLLLP.
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Post by eeriegeek Fri Jun 18, 2010 8:57 am

Yikes... not good! Do you know how the RAID was configured? Also its worth actually unplugging and replugging the SATA connectors firmly (in the same ports). The SATA connector design is terrible and I have one computer that required this once in a while to keep the bits flowing. I often hot-melt glue my SATA connectors to the hard drives once I'm sure they're working.
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Post by daveyeisley Fri Jun 18, 2010 10:25 am

OK.

Most important thing is getting that project backed up, correct?

Before fiddling with anything regarding the hard drives/RAID, lets get that taken care of.

To access the files on your drive, you will need to use another computer (like the one you posted from maybe?) to burn a bootable CD rom from what is called an ISO file.

To do this, you will need to download the ISO file. Get it here.
You will need to scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the "End" link to go to the last page of the thread and then scroll all the way down again to see the download link. The file is about 300 megabytes, not overly huge, but still big enough to take a while to finish downloading.

Once you have that ISO file completely downloaded, you will need to burn it to a blank CD using your working computer(ask me if you need instructions for this), and then put the CD in your computer that is having the issues booting.

Note: for burning the ISO file to CD, I recommend using a burn speed no faster than 4x. If you are given the option to set burn speed, keep this in mind, because faster burns often have errors, or issues being read by some CD drives.

Make sure the computer having problems is set to boot from CD first in the BIOS. For a handy guide to check and make sure of this, have a read through this tutorial. Some of the screenshots will not match exactly what you will see, just try to interpret them as best you can, and ask me to clarify anything you get stuck on.

If all goes well, the system will boot to the new CD (instead of the hard drive), and you will be given a menu.
Select "Mini Windows XP" from the list. This should cause the system to load up a stripped-down temporary version of Windows XP. The only thing we want here is to get access to the hard drive so we can either burn that project to a CD, or copy it to a USB drive (for transfer to another computer).

Go into 'My Computer' and then the C drive, and look for your file. If you had it saved on your desktop, it will be under Documents and Settings>*your username*>Desktop>*whatever folder you might have made for it*.

If you choose to burn to CD, you will need to use the InfraRecorder program included in Mini Windows XP. If there is no open window for the Hiren's BootCD WinTools menu, then double click the icon on the desktop with the same name. This will pull up the menu window. Now click the 'menu' link in the upper left of the little window, go down to Backup, and then select InfraRrecorder. When the program opens, select new data disc. Drag the file or files you want to burn from the top window pane to the bottom one. Then put a blank CD in the drive, and burn the disc.

There are two caveats to all this:

First, depending on how password security was worked, and where the project file was saved, and what permissions are set for it, the mini windows XP may or may not be able to actually access the file. It *should* still be able to copy it or burn it to CD(I hope).

Second, I recall that your uncle set up the SATA drives as a RAID(0). RAID 0 is called a 'striped' RAID. A 'striped' raid means that the drives are set up to work as a single drive which is actually larger than either of the two drives is on their own... this makes for lots more space on a single partition, but if one drive goes down, it means that not only will the OS not boot, but some of the data may be compromised, as it was 'striped' between both drives... meaning parts of the file are on both drives... and if some of those parts are not accessible, the file is incomplete, and hence unusable. This is why I don't like RAID 0. I will either just use two separate drive with two separate partitions, or I will build a RAID(1), which mirrors the drives so that each drive has a full copy of everything on the other (although you effectively only have half as much storage as with RAID 0.)

If the RAID 0 ends up making the drives unreadable in mini windows XP, then there is only one way I know of to try and fix the problem, and it is specific to how the RAID controller works on that motherboard. The manufacturer's webpage for the board you have should be here. If you do not have the user's manual, you may be able to download it from the webpage. Basically, we need to know how the RAID utility for the motherboard works (it is somewhat similar to the BIOS, and you need to enter the utility before windows loads, etc) so that we can attempt to 'repair' the RAID. A caution on this process: we need to make sure we know how the utility works, because it is possible by choosing the wrong option, that the utility may recreate the raid from scratch, erasing all data, rather than simply repairing the problem with the existing raid.

Now you have some info, and some instructions to get started on. Good luck, I am crossing my fingers for you. If you get stuck, have problems, etc, post back here and we will work through it.


Last edited by daveyeisley on Thu Nov 25, 2010 9:42 am; edited 3 times in total
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Post by Ra Cha Chongo Fri Jun 18, 2010 10:51 am

Oh bugger. Matt's computer hath not a CD burner. I think some of the ones at school might. Hopefully the ones at the library do because the security at the regular buildings might not allow me in since I'm not reg'd for summer classes. Clearly I need to check on this. >_<

Remind me to mail you cookies or something when everything's sorted!
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Post by daveyeisley Fri Jun 18, 2010 10:56 am

I haven't helped fix anything yet. Please understand, without being able to sit in front of the machine, I am only able to offer general advice, and that I may not be aware of specific things or issues that might prevent my advice from being usable. I *hope* that these steps will work, but I fear that due to the striped raid, and/or password protection, we may not have a way to get at those files until the RAID is repaired.

Heck, it is even possible the syslinux kernel that BootCD uses may not even load properly on that motherboard. There are other PE (pre-install environments) that we may be able to try in that case, but if you dont have access to a convenient CD burner, I would feel terrible about you wasting trips to burn CDs that dont work Sad

I am going to PM you my cellphone number, as well as my AIM username.
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Post by Ra Cha Chongo Fri Jun 18, 2010 11:04 am

Yeah, but you're at least giving me something to do other than stare at the nonworking computer stupidly and frantically and taking the time to explain it all very clearly... and have done so before Razz I appreciate it even if I end up having to do something else!
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Post by inthecorridors Fri Jun 18, 2010 11:08 am

Whups. Clearly forgot to log Mr. Chongo out Razz
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Post by daveyeisley Fri Jun 18, 2010 11:31 am

I sent that contact info to both RCC and your account.
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Post by daveyeisley Fri Jun 18, 2010 11:38 am

I logged into the chatbox on the main page of the forums as well. So, now you should have ample ways to reach me if needed.
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Post by inthecorridors Fri Jun 18, 2010 11:45 am

Aw, thanks! Um, crap, I had something else I was going to say/ask/something, but I ate some dark chocolate forgetting just how awful my body is when confronted with caffeine... whoops. *distinctly green of face and shaky of hands*
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Post by daveyeisley Fri Jun 18, 2010 4:07 pm

Hope you are feeling a little better, and that you are making progress on getting your project backed up.
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Post by inthecorridors Sat Jun 19, 2010 5:18 am

Better now. Lesson re-learned. School buildings are closed til Monday when summer quarter starts so that method of getting the CD Figured out which friend still in town has a laptop w/ CD burner, but she's gotta work til 8 tonight... so about then I finally get to see if I can recover any of my data. If the data's recoverable at all, it *should* be fairly straightforward as I don't have any passwording or anything on the computer or any files. The weird way it's all turning out, I might even end up saving a bundle of money on getting it to myself in NY. Of course at this point I'd rather have my data and still have to pay the arm and leg to get it to me... probably be chewing my nails til she gets off work.
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Post by daveyeisley Sat Jun 19, 2010 3:04 pm

One note: if you do attempt to download the ISO file and then burn it to disc. be sure when you start your burning program that you select whatever option to 'burn an image to disc', because that is whatthe ISO file is, a CD-image file. If you just drag the ISO file into a 'compilation' and burn it that way, the data we need to use from the ISO will not be 'decompressed' into a usable format.... if that makes any sense Smile
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Post by inthecorridors Tue Jun 22, 2010 5:24 am

Should finally have access to a CD-burning computer today. Only... a Mac might be the only thing I can get at. >_< Oy vey. Is that gonna screw anything up if I burn the sorta-boot-disc thing from a Mac?
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Post by Ra Cha Chongo Tue Jun 22, 2010 12:11 pm

So, I got fed up and ret-con'ed Matt's birthday to include getting an external DVD/CD writer. CD burns... PC boots... files copying... now to find out if they're intact in a few minutes...
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Post by daveyeisley Tue Jun 22, 2010 12:16 pm

Well.... it *should* work fine.

The ISO format is a standard that should work in both PC and Mac. You should be able to download and burn the ISO fine.

Once you have the ISO converted into an actual CD, because the content of the ISO was made for a PC, the CD will not work on a Mac.
Should work fine on your PC, though. Good luck Smile
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Post by inthecorridors Tue Jun 22, 2010 4:05 pm

SUCCESSFUL RETRIEVAL.

HALP. Icon_cheers
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Post by The Amethyst Dragon Tue Jun 22, 2010 4:13 pm

HALP. Icon_cheers
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Post by RustyDios Tue Jun 22, 2010 5:48 pm

Yaay !!!! HALP. Icon_cheers
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Post by daveyeisley Tue Jun 22, 2010 8:21 pm

Well... hot damn.

I will say, you did a hell of a job to get it working on the first try!

Superb work Smile
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Post by Eric of Atrophy Tue Jun 22, 2010 9:48 pm

Woohoo! Don'tcha love it when a tech-plan comes together? HALP. Icon_razz
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Post by inthecorridors Wed Jun 23, 2010 4:26 am

Buy external writer, burn CD, insert CD into crippled computer, power on, press key helpfully noted on screen to choose boot order, boot from CD, Mini Windows, spend 15 minutes transferring files, have to scramble out the door for 3 hours unable to inspect the files to see if they worked, rush home, test files, cheer loudly, celebrate with cheesecake.

Seems so simple, but what's the secret? Do just what the helpful support personnel says when it's over your head and don't get fancy Razz

Of course, now it's got to get shipped out posthaste and I won't make it on the foolish game for another few days to a week unless I steal time on Mr. Chongo's computer while he's sleeping...
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Post by daveyeisley Wed Jun 23, 2010 11:22 am

You would be amazed how many people have trouble following very specific directions, or don't stop and ask a question when something doesn't work. And then, when they 'fiddle' and make it worse, you have to try and figure out exactly what they did.... *rolls eyes*

A couple of quotes that are funny because they are typically true:

"About 99% of computer problems sit in front of the monitor."

"The problem with common sense is that most people are morons."

And my absolute favorite:

Helpdesk: Double click on "My Computer"

User: I can't see your computer.

Helpdesk: No, double click on "My Computer" on your computer.

User: Huh?

Helpdesk: There is an icon on your computer labeled "My Computer". Double click on it.

User: What's your computer doing on mine?
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Post by daveyeisley Sat Jun 26, 2010 12:15 am

As an aside... the ISO I recommended above is extremely useful in emergency situations, and I highly recommend everyone download it, and burn a copy to CD, then perhaps test it using my directions to make sure you can boot your computer with it. If it works, put it in a safe place where you won't lose it.

If you have issues burning the CD or getting into mini Windows XP, feel free to ask me questions via PM. If you end up having an emergency, and need help using the CD, you may also PM me.


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Post by inthecorridors Sat Jun 26, 2010 4:58 am

You would be amazed how many people have trouble following very specific directions...

Nah. I go to art school where people seem to think that assignment criteria viciously murder their creativity. Razz


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