Photoshop Gurus Forum
Welcome to Photoshop Gurus forum. Register a free account today to become a member! It's completely free. Once signed in, you'll enjoy an ad-free experience and be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
MrToM
Guru
- Messages
- 3,595
- Likes
- 3,322
Thanks everyone.
Eggy
No warning whatsoever...there one minute, gone the next...without so much as a 'by your leave'...harrumph!
Back in the old days the 'D' drive would have been just a cd-rom or similar so nothing really to worry about, but those days are long gone and now its the drive with all your software installed on it...yay!
So in one way I've not lost any data, well nothing important anyway but I do now have the PITA of the PC trying to run software from a drive that isn't there....great!
Explorer is having a field day.
On a good note, I've got the drive out, fired up and recognised by the system! Trouble is it doesn't last very long so the drive is possibly still good...I'm thinking it's a PCB issue and maybe a bypass cap gone or something....any electronics engineers in da house?
Just thinking out loud...I bought two identical drives at the same time and apart from the worry that the other is going to fail too could I swap the boards over from the good to the bad?
How does the PC recognise the drive letter...from an EEPROM on the board?
Anyone?
Bueller?
Bueller?
Bueller?
Anyone?
Something D-O-O electronics...
...VooDoo electronics.
Hopefully it'll be fully operational by tea-time...when I'll need a tray.
Regards.
MrToM.
Eggy
No warning whatsoever...there one minute, gone the next...without so much as a 'by your leave'...harrumph!
Back in the old days the 'D' drive would have been just a cd-rom or similar so nothing really to worry about, but those days are long gone and now its the drive with all your software installed on it...yay!
So in one way I've not lost any data, well nothing important anyway but I do now have the PITA of the PC trying to run software from a drive that isn't there....great!
Explorer is having a field day.
On a good note, I've got the drive out, fired up and recognised by the system! Trouble is it doesn't last very long so the drive is possibly still good...I'm thinking it's a PCB issue and maybe a bypass cap gone or something....any electronics engineers in da house?
Just thinking out loud...I bought two identical drives at the same time and apart from the worry that the other is going to fail too could I swap the boards over from the good to the bad?
How does the PC recognise the drive letter...from an EEPROM on the board?
Anyone?
Bueller?
Bueller?
Bueller?
Anyone?
Something D-O-O electronics...
...VooDoo electronics.
Hopefully it'll be fully operational by tea-time...when I'll need a tray.
Regards.
MrToM.
Pipsmom
Guru
- Messages
- 920
- Likes
- 932
My hubby builds the buggers ( computers) and he said to solve the problem
You need a external hard drive case with a power cable perferabily with a power cable and a USB Cable. Below is the complete set he used
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00PIFS37Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Put your old hard drive into the case and put in power lead and connect USB cable to your computer and power the computer up. It will reconize it as drive D or E
If the drive is ok it will work as normal like it would inside your computer
You need a external hard drive case with a power cable perferabily with a power cable and a USB Cable. Below is the complete set he used
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00PIFS37Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Put your old hard drive into the case and put in power lead and connect USB cable to your computer and power the computer up. It will reconize it as drive D or E
If the drive is ok it will work as normal like it would inside your computer
fredfish
Guru
- Messages
- 887
- Likes
- 1,247
Hi MrTom.... I dont know how knowledgeable (about computer hardware) you are so I appologise in advance if this is a Grandma and egg sucking situation.
You mention that in the past the D drive would refer to the CD / DVD rom, am I to assume from that that you dont have a CD / DVD installed? Also can I assume this is a desktop and not a laptop?
If the above is the case then (excuse the pun) in the case, on the motherboard, there are likely to be spare eSata sockets you could try to connect the drive to one of those. Also not all cables are equal (including internal cables) so it is possible that the cable has failed, try different cables.
Unfortunately it is also possible (as I know you are aware) that the drive is failing. If you are able to copy the drive image - perhaps using something like Paragon 14 free edition https://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/download.html
It is possible that the system will try to change the default drive letter to something other than D: but that is fairly simple to change - quite how you do this will vary depending on the flavour of OS that you are using but essentially it involves going in to System Settings and changing the settings for your drive . If I remember correctly this could probably also be done within Paragon 14 as well.
As I said if you know this already then please feel free to ignore, but just in case and all that!
Best of luck.
You mention that in the past the D drive would refer to the CD / DVD rom, am I to assume from that that you dont have a CD / DVD installed? Also can I assume this is a desktop and not a laptop?
If the above is the case then (excuse the pun) in the case, on the motherboard, there are likely to be spare eSata sockets you could try to connect the drive to one of those. Also not all cables are equal (including internal cables) so it is possible that the cable has failed, try different cables.
Unfortunately it is also possible (as I know you are aware) that the drive is failing. If you are able to copy the drive image - perhaps using something like Paragon 14 free edition https://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/download.html
It is possible that the system will try to change the default drive letter to something other than D: but that is fairly simple to change - quite how you do this will vary depending on the flavour of OS that you are using but essentially it involves going in to System Settings and changing the settings for your drive . If I remember correctly this could probably also be done within Paragon 14 as well.
As I said if you know this already then please feel free to ignore, but just in case and all that!
Best of luck.
MrToM
Guru
- Messages
- 3,595
- Likes
- 3,322
Thanks very much for your assistance Pipsmom, very much appreciated.
This is exactly what I have already done...
It IS being recognised by the system but [very] shortly after the drive disconnects itself. It's this that leads me to think that the drive is OK but there may be a problem with the board (on the drive, not the mobo).
I've now removed the board, (its external), and found it to be extremely dirty on the contacts between it and the drive chassis...
Just cleaned it and putting back now....hopefully its that simple....(yeah, right!).
I may just meter it out first.
Thanks again.
I'll be back.
Regards.
MrToM.
fredfish
Guru
- Messages
- 887
- Likes
- 1,247
"It IS being recognised by the system but [very] shortly after the drive disconnects itself. It's this that leads me to think that the drive is OK but there may be a problem with the board (on the drive, not the mobo)."
I hadnt noticed this bit - as you know if that is the case then backing up is probably not an option :-(
Best of luck.
Cheers
John
I hadnt noticed this bit - as you know if that is the case then backing up is probably not an option :-(
Best of luck.
Cheers
John
MrToM
Guru
- Messages
- 3,595
- Likes
- 3,322
fredfish
Again, many thanks for the advice.....very much appreciated.
What I meant with the cd-rom thing is that in the good old days the 'D' drive used to always be a cd-rom / dvd-rom, whatever.....so a failure was nothing more serious than it just didn't work.
Nowadays, cd-roms are virtually gone and the 'D' drive now becomes a storage device....failure NOW is much more serious.
In this case I'm losing nothing more than my hair, the system is proving a PITA as it keeps trying to run software from a now non-existent drive and keeps throwing errors about it being missing, (thanks Microsoft), but that's about as far as it goes....just a real PITA.
Re-installing the software to another drive is also proving difficult as the 'system' now thinks that the 'D' drive is the default for installs....and it wont let me change the install location!!!....grrrr.
A minor thing I can live with for now and will start getting into that if I can't fix the drive first.
Many thanks again, and if you have detailed files of how to teach grandmothers to suck eggs then please do share....because I haven't a clue how you do that!
Time to get the oscilloscope out methinks!
Regards.
MrToM.
Again, many thanks for the advice.....very much appreciated.
What I meant with the cd-rom thing is that in the good old days the 'D' drive used to always be a cd-rom / dvd-rom, whatever.....so a failure was nothing more serious than it just didn't work.
Nowadays, cd-roms are virtually gone and the 'D' drive now becomes a storage device....failure NOW is much more serious.
In this case I'm losing nothing more than my hair, the system is proving a PITA as it keeps trying to run software from a now non-existent drive and keeps throwing errors about it being missing, (thanks Microsoft), but that's about as far as it goes....just a real PITA.
Re-installing the software to another drive is also proving difficult as the 'system' now thinks that the 'D' drive is the default for installs....and it wont let me change the install location!!!....grrrr.
A minor thing I can live with for now and will start getting into that if I can't fix the drive first.
Many thanks again, and if you have detailed files of how to teach grandmothers to suck eggs then please do share....because I haven't a clue how you do that!
Time to get the oscilloscope out methinks!
Regards.
MrToM.
While I am not 100% certain, you should be able to swap the drive board if you really think that is the problem. There isn't any permanent on the board, such as specifying the drive letter.
The drive letter is a function of the operating system (Windows). You can change the drive letter using "Disk Management". Click on the search on the toolbar. Type "Computer Management". Start that program. On the left, expand "Storage". Click on "Disk Management". Right click on any of the physical disks on the bottom. There is a context menu item to change the drive letter. You can then make your new drive D and this may make things easier when reinstalling.
Hope this helps. I can empathize.
The drive letter is a function of the operating system (Windows). You can change the drive letter using "Disk Management". Click on the search on the toolbar. Type "Computer Management". Start that program. On the left, expand "Storage". Click on "Disk Management". Right click on any of the physical disks on the bottom. There is a context menu item to change the drive letter. You can then make your new drive D and this may make things easier when reinstalling.
Hope this helps. I can empathize.
MrToM
Guru
- Messages
- 3,595
- Likes
- 3,322
You are correct, you can, with one small caveat.
Further investigation reveals that the 'Flash' memory, (see my earlier image), contains the firmware, date code and site code (whatever that is), collectively known as the 'bios'.
Now, you can buy 'used' but fully operational boards for a tenth the cost of a new drive. As the bios is unique to each drive you need to swap the chip for your original. This is pretty easy to do but would I need to do this if the only difference between my identical drives, apart from the obvious, is the serial number...which is not part of the bios....hmmm....more investigating required.
I could do with retrieving the data on the drive if only for the sheer hell of it but not at the expense of the other drive...and as you say, it may not be the board at all.
I'll keep at it and see what else pops up...I mean who knew you could just buy the boards?
Board on AliExpress
Thank-you for your time to reply, appreciated.
Nor punched cards neither!
Regards.
MrToM.
Last edited:
fredfish
Guru
- Messages
- 887
- Likes
- 1,247
Nor punched cards neither!
Regards.
MrToM.
I suspect that with your current experiences you have felt like punching a few cards yourself!!!
MrToM
Guru
- Messages
- 3,595
- Likes
- 3,322
You're not wrong there!I suspect that with your current experiences you have felt like punching a few cards yourself!!!
Another little annoyance has just reared its ugly head as well.....I'd really like to punch that one! Kind of rounds off my already poopy Monday.
Ho hum.
Regards.
MrToM.
MrToM
Guru
- Messages
- 3,595
- Likes
- 3,322
Please thank your hubby for me....I hadn't really studied the board that much as its late in the day but yeah, for sure I'll go over it and see if I can't reflow a few of the joints....you just never know.
For no other reason than completeness....here is the whole board...
Thanks for posting your hubby's findings, very much appreciated.
Regards.
MrToM.
MrToM
Guru
- Messages
- 3,595
- Likes
- 3,322
Sorry, I've not had time this morning to even look at it let alone do anything with it.
I promise to keep you updated as and when anything happens...next step is to just reflow some of those solder joints just to make sure none of them are dry.
If that fails then I'll order a new [used] board and swap over the bios....for a poultry tenner its worth it.
That could take several weeks to get here so it may go quiet for a while but I'll let ya all know the score.
Thanks again for everyone's help, very much appreciated as always.
Regards.
MrToM.