hard drive write error

aloishis89 · 01-16-2008, 04:25 PM

I have an old laptop and a really old 4gb hard drive for it. when i boot, it makes a lovely clicking noise, which then subsides. i tried fdisk, but it said it couldn't write to it. i dont need to recover any data at all, i just need to get a partition on it so i can install linux (right now im on a live cd). i think it is still viable because fdisk can read the cylinders and the size. is there any way i can write to the disk? thanks.

falcon56215 · 01-16-2008, 04:46 PM

Why don't you let your live cd distro do the partitioning? Somewhere in most setups you are prompted to partition your drive.

jailbait · 01-16-2008, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aloishis89

I have an old laptop and a really old 4gb hard drive for it. when i boot, it makes a lovely clicking noise, which then subsides. i tried fdisk, but it said it couldn't write to it. i dont need to recover any data at all, i just need to get a partition on it so i can install linux (right now im on a live cd). i think it is still viable because fdisk can read the cylinders and the size. is there any way i can write to the disk? thanks.

fdisk reads the cylinders and the size from the hard drive eprom. eproms are far, far more durable than the hard drive data surface. If fdisk cannot write to the data surface of the hard drive then the fact that the eprom is still working is irrelevant.

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Steve Stites

aloishis89 · 01-16-2008, 05:12 PM

ok, looks like i need to just buy a new drive

3daurora · 01-16-2008, 08:26 PM

That would probably be the case.
Besides, 4 GB's is even small for a Linux Box. My guess is that you would use XUbuntu or something similar?