I don't know if the vibration is severe enough to cause this problem.  It
sounds much more likely that you are just plain unlucky.  However, your
statement about the cyberdrive CD is interesting.  I think this is the
second message that has something about the Cyberdrive vibration, and I know
that 3 months ago, I upgraded a system with a Cyberdrive 24x that vibrated
like crazy with some CDs.  It has worried me since that I would be getting
that machine back for rebuild, but it seems to read alright, and has not
experienced a failure other than noise and vibration.  However, based upon
other messages like this, I don't think I will use the Cyberdrive again.

Back to your problem.  Is the CD connected to the same data cable as the
HDD?  I don't know if this is possible, but perhaps there is a conflict
somehow with the controller.  You might try connecting the CD-Rom to the
secondary controller and see if that corrects the problem.  I cannot see how
the other items you mentioned could cause this problem (but all things are
possible in the computer world).

In addition, more detail on the error message you receive at boot up might
be helpful.  Is there an error message number?  At what point does the error
occur?  Does it occur if you boot from a floppy disk?  What if you bypass
your autoexec and config files at bootup, does it still occur.  Use the step
through method of bootup and determine which line of the autoexec or config
file is being executed at the time of the error, that might help to locate
the problem.

Mike Buraczewski
[log in to unmask]

-----Original Message-----
From: Jez Nattrass <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Friday, April 17, 1998 2:43 PM
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] hard drive failure


| replaced my 4xCD with a 24xCyberdrive CD and all seemed well, two weeks
|later I upgraded  my K5 fo an IBM686MX P200. Shortly after, the system kept
|crashing and  scandisk  started to pick up bad clusters. My supplier
|changed the hard drive(seagate  UDMA) for a Quantum Fireball, but soon
|afterwards the same thing started again. He then changed the processor(To a
|K6200) and as there was
|no improvment he changed the ram(32sdram) but things are getting  worse.
| I have an error message on bootup which ends "status capable and BAD
| backup and replace.  Press f1 to continue"  from there it continues to
|boot
| as normal. The cyberdrive vibrates on some disks and I am unable to use
|them,
|as the system hangs when I try, occasionaly I get blue screen error
|messages "Unable to write to drive C" Could the vibration from the CD be
|causing physical damage to the hard  drive?, could I be unlucky enough to
|get two bad hard drives?,any ideas----
| Please?
|        All of the above has taken place over a two month period the last
thing
|I've done is to send the cyberdrive for replacment (a different supplier)
|and I've yet to recieve it.
|         ( TX Pro m/b, S3 vid card, azdec s/c)
|                         Thanks
|                                 Jez Nattrass
|                                 Wet windy and cold in the British Lake
|District.
|