General Music Chat

Hey Gang,

I was recording in Cool Edit this evening and it started actin weird like long delays before playing back, then it locked up completley, after about 10-15 sec. it came back but said "hard disk failure data will be lost"..I continued but then it went nuts on play back skipping, and outta time, making loud noises....THEN I ended the program and shut the computer down thinkin maybe if I re booted , that would fix it...Well, upon re booted it got to the point where it says "Primary master hard disk failure" and wouldnt go any further..Treid several more times , got the same thing.....Is the computer blown up...Anyone with ANY ifo on what has happened PLEASE RESPOND My whole life is on there, and I didnt have hardly anything backed up..Goitta fix THIS computer if possible..The one IM on now would never run a recording program HHEEELLLPPP....

Thanks,
John

Awwww crap...
Making loud noises through the sound card, or making loud noises from inside the computer case?
Was there anything going on with your power at the time? Good normal flow of electricity? (No storms, power sags, or spikes, etc?)

I'm not sure how much you can figure out on your own, but maybe you can follow the steps here:
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/comp/hdd/fail_Failure.htm

Depending on the brand of your computer, when it tries to boot up hold down one of the keys to go into the BIOS setup screen. It's one of the 'F' keys in a lot of cases.
The reason you need to try this is because you need to select the auto disk detect feature and see if it picks anything up or not. (If it can be seen by the hard disk controller). If it doesnt detect anything, then it's probably physically toasted.

Heres something I found with a list of different keys used to get to the BIOS screen, by brand:
"Here is a list of key sequences for various brand-name computers. If yours is not there, check with your manufacturer or watch for info flashed on-screen when your computer first starts, before Windows begins. It may say "For setup hit..." That will be how to get into the BIOS on your machine.

Acer: - Ctrl+Alt+Esc

ALR PC: (F2) or Ctrl+Alt+Esc

AMI BIOS: (Del), (F1) or (F2)

AST, Advantage, Award, Tandon: - Ctrl+Alt+Esc

Award BIOS: (Del) or Ctrl+Alt+Esc

Compaq: (F10) (do this when the cursor is in the upper right corner of the screen blinking)

Dell: - F1 or Del.

Dell: - Some require pressing reset twice

Dell: - Ctrl + Alt + Enter

DTK BIOS: (Esc)

Gateway 2000: - F1

Hewlett Packard: - F1

IBM:

* Older Models - In order to get into the configuration of the IBM setup screen (CMOS) screen you need to hold down both mouse buttons during boot up.
* Aptiva - Press F1
* IBM PS/2: Ctrl+Alt+Ins after Ctrl+Alt+Del
* IBM PS/2 with reference partition: - Press Ins during boot
* Some PS/2s, such as 75 and 90: - Ctrl Alt ?
* Some PS/2s when pointer at top right of screen: - Ctrl + Ins

NEC: - F2

Packard Bell: - F1 or F2

Phoenix BIOS: (F1), (F2), or Ctrl+Alt+Esc

Phoenix BIOS: - Ctrl+Alt+S

Phoenix BIOS: - Ctrl+S

Phoenix BIOS: - Ctrl+Alt+Ins

Sharp Laptop 9020: - F2

Sony: (F3) while you are starting the PC, then (F2) or (F1)

Tandon computers: - Hold down the key after turning on power

Tandon: - Ctrl+Shift+Esc

Toshiba Laptops: - Toshiba Utility

Toshiba: - Press Esc during boot

Toshiba, Phoenix, late model PS/1 Value Point and 330s: - Press F1 during boot

Olivetti PC Pro: - Shift+Ctrl+Alt + Num Pad Del

Miscellaneous PC’s: - Ctrl + Esc or Ctrl and Alt and +

Zenith: - Ctrl+Alt+Ins "
------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, thats a bunch to chew on I know. I'm not mr. computer wizard myself, but I bet we have one here on the forum.
I still have the first mix of cripes safe and sound, and you can download your own stuff that is on your profile back to something to save it away.
And probably can on whatever other sites youre on too.
You're still without a recording setup for now, but not *all* is lost.

I'll get with you tomorrow on the phone and try to help sort it out if nobody comes to the rescue here.

ZIP, are on here right now???

Yeah. For a few more minutes.
Don't mess with it anymore tonight, just leave the power off for now.

I just looked at the clock..heck, its 1 am EDT..I was gonna se If I could call ya..LOL,,Yeah , i didnt read you post very well..I just now saw where ya said we'd tlk tomorrow...Yeah, it finally booted back up BUT, its glitchin all over the place..Its not consistant...NOW, when it boots, its gets to a certain stage and the computer itself makes a knocking noise..Thats the noise it made when I try to bring something up in cool edit..After that, every website I tried to go to brought up a box that said"WINDOW DELAY WRITE FAILED.. (Device)Hard Disk Vol.1 /system 32/config/Sys Event EVT..Then says this error may be cuase by hard ware or network..It has other boxes that come up that say kinda the same thing...Every website I tried to go to brought these boxes up, then gave a explorer exe error and made me end the program....NOW....at 1:10 am , Im able to get online and surf with no errors popin up , BUT, I havent tried to play any music or open cool edit yet....BUT, the clickin noise upon booting really has me bugged..It did that alot during the few minutes of life in cool edit...AND make it again while booting..Man Im a mess right now, soory for being so long winded...I wont go to bed till at least 5 prolly...LOL
Anyway, I got so much stuff saved this computer Im on now only has 12 GB..Could I link these 2 computers up with CAT 5 cable and tranfer the folders...These 2 computer are linked with CAT 5 to the router...Anyway, we'll talk tomorrow..

Thanks,
John

Must have been a really good recording. Okay, take it easy, John. GT gave you a good link. It'll you what you should do.

LINK: http://help.lockergnome.com/general/Har ... um-59.html

Go there. Register in 2 minutes. Then start a thread there stating your problem and any info you know bout your PC. They usually help out. If they do, it is within hours. If not, check back the following morning. They have a good staff and they've helped me out several times before.

Good luck and don't sweat it.

could just be a bad ide/sata cable
could be hd failure... could be you were out of space and started to overwrite your boot sector
is the hd you use to record the same as your system drive? ie is your op system on a seperate drive from your recordings?
I'd first take a look at yer system drive if yer getting windows to load up...
check the properties on c drive and see how much disk space you have.
I would be careful if you are out of space... you don't want to overwrite any more data.
if this is the issue it's not that bad... you bascially need to buy a new hd, install it, throw winders on it, and then set this old hd as the slave drive and you can then extract the important stuff (you really should have two hd when recording - huge speed advantage)
if this is not it... it is def a hd issue... you could try replacing the ide/sata cable- it's cheap and easy to try

I'd bet my velvet underpants it's a space issue... and if you were overloading this hd you might have really beat it up... clicking noise could be mech prob with disk spinning. you really want to be careful with that disk cause it's about to puke.
keep in mind that your system drive not only needs space to store the progs you use, but it needs about 1gb for a windows swap file and possibly more space for various other temp storage needs. that's why they always say you should have 30% free space on that hd min. the less space you have the more your ops system has to "jump around" the hd and this can beat it up after time. if you never defrag this could be a contributing factor as well.
my advice would be to buy a new sys hd, format and install windows on it,
you'll need to find your ops system disk or sometimes you'll have a sys recovery disk... to be able to reload windows on it...
keep in mind yer gonna lose a ship ton of settings and stuff when you "start anew" with your ops sys.I'm sure one of these guys can walk you thru a format and install, then get lan drivers in, then get vir protection installed, then get win updates, then throw the rest of the drivers on , then reinstall progs...

you could copy folders over cat5 but this will take a lot of time in comparison to a local copy and I'd bet you don't have much time left... plus if the drive to store on only has 12 gigs you could cause the sm prob over there.

"Primary master hard disk failure" and wouldnt go any further..
this just means winders can't see yer primary drive that has winders loaded on it... you may have overwritten the boot sector.
YOU COULD take it out and install on the other comp but any static elec can whipe out all you have - and yer still gonna have to get this guy back up and running.

if you have another hd laying around or you can spend $50 at wal mart then get a hd and I'll be happy to walk you thru format and install as best I can.
first thing first you have to find that windows op system disk so you can reinstall windows on it... where did you get yer comp? did they give you a recovery disk or a copy of winders?

velvet underpants?

Where can I get them?

hard to come buy... which indicates my confidence in my prognosis.... I would never want to be w/o my velvet underpants or my fur lined bathtub.

btw it IS a hd issue, but it could be caused by a bad socket on the motherboard (the place where the drive connects)... this would be bad... as replacing the whole mb is a pain for one who knows not what they do...
so if we knew what kind of space yer working with... that would tell me if it's NOT a socket...
and it COULD be the cord that connects from the socket to the hd...
I would try to rule that out first by replacing the cable... look inside at the hd... what kind of connection is it?is it about a half inch ?(sata) or is it about an inch and a half connection (ide) ?'
it might even say ide 1 next to the connection on the motherboard.
rule that out then proceed to get either an ide or sata hd and at that point if it's a socket you'll experience the sm prob.
I'd bet it's a space issue since you were hogging space with cool edit when the issue surfaced.
cheers

Hey Gang,

I wish I understood half of what you guys were talkin about..Im learnin and processing all this as fast as I can..I might as well be 5 yrs old right now.. .It would be like tryin to explain the workings of the space shuttle to president Lincoln OR ME for that matter..(one in the same) Ive remained a dumbass FAR too long , now I must pay ( back to the cassette 4 tracker I guess.. )...All I can do at this point is parrot back to you guys what I see it doing...Im currently backing some stuff up on a 2 GB thumb drive...I wish I knew how to hook up this other computer up to the bad one so I could utilize the 12 GB in it..
Yeah Mike, I wouldnt know what to even look for if I climbed inside this thing...As soon as I get this thumb drive full Im gonna write down on paper (dont have a printer) everything you guys are sayin and start surgery on this thing...The only thing different that happened this morning was upon boot up, a screen came up and said something about it "being recommended to check VOL 1 Hard Disk ..It went away too quick to really undestand what it was sayin...Anyway, thanks to everyone who is on baord here helpin ..Please stay with me , you guys are all I have...
Thanks again,
John

no prob kid... I'll slow down.

u prob saw a blue and yellow drive check this morning... it'll run if something it needs to boot got corrupted.

JUST PROMISE ME YOU WILL NOT TAKE THIS THING TO THE GEEK SQUAD NO MATTER WHAT!!!

now that we have that outta the way.

if you can access the drive to copy out of it then do this:
r-click start button
select explore
r-click on the drive in question (where u store this data)
select properties
what does the pie chart look like?
is this the "C" drive?

Hey Mike and Gang,

New developments!!! OK...I got cool edit to bring back up the session I was workin on...I start dubbin over an old track adding my new part....Everthing things fine ....Im waiting for it to mix each new move I make so as not to tax it....NOW, as I go, as TIME goes on, it gets sluggish..THEN , it doesnt wanna play back..(takes it 4-5 sec. after I hit play..) THENNNN, the biggie...I click play again AND hear a click/knock (1 time) in the computer itself..Followed by a sound like a jet engine winding down (droping in pitch)..At this point , its froze up so I dont do NOTHING..I let it stay that way for 3-4 min to come upstairs to get online using the other puter to type this message...NOW,.I went back down, and it fixed itself.. I hit play and it played...????...Its kinda like it gets tired and has to rest... ...BUT, it all starts with that "knocking sound ,followed by the winding down jet engine sound...any clues as to whats happening?...Im on my way back down to see whats gonna happen now and PRAY I can finish this session and mix it down...

Ill be back in an hr (or less... ) to give another report..

Thanks,
John

kid, everything I've heard so far leads me to believe it is a hd issue.
still believe step one is checking your space usage. the whine you are hearing is the hd starting up. it may be stopping unexpectedly and then restarting.
cheers
mv