On Tue, 30 Jun 1998 04:47:21 +0500 Mansoor Butt <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
>Hello , I'm new to the list. My hard disk is not showing good signs.
>After every few weeks it gives the message "primary hdc failure. press
f1 to
>resume" on boot up. I pull the power cable to the hard disk and place
>it back and the problem goes away but after a week or two again the same
>problem. Also the light of the hard disk goes on even when nothing is
>being
>read or written to the disk. When I turn the computer on the light of
>the hd goes on at once and  remains on till well after win95 is loaded.
>Also
>when I shut down the computer the hd light remains on for about 15
>seconds even after the "it is now safe to shutdown your computer"
message. Is
>this some thing to worry about. My hard disk is seagate 1.2 GB.

         If there are no other symptoms, like data corruption, etc...
Read on...
         Sounds like a bad power cable to me.  Most of the other symptoms
can
be explained away as normal operation. My HD continues to grind away
after
my desk top icons are "in place".   I try to give it time to finish,
unless I am in a
hurry. Seems to start cleaner that way...  If it is TOO slow it may be
looking for
something and not finding it, with or with-out an error. Lots of
non-fatal errors
are not reported. (You don't want to be scared to death -- do you???)
  I read in MS that once you see the "Safe to Shut Down" screen, IF you
have
HD activity it is due to multiple reset commands being issued to the
drive.
(The screen proves it is safe, the drive was reset at least once.)
Windows is always doing something, the light will come on at random.
It might even just be your swap file re-sizing...  If you want a real
insight to
behind the scenes activity, enable ALL your system event sounds (with
different
sounds).        (Warning: This might cause timing problems in some
programs.)
         Rick Glazier

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