My soul is in pain...here's what happened:

System had been running fine. Uptime: weeks. Last night OpenOffice.org 2.0 crashed on me something like 15 times. Abiword crashed once. KWord...well, it's KWord. After 4 hours I had six lines typed.

When I had time today, I shut everything down and rebooted. Bad idea. Linux usually fails to boot. Nothing loads properly, and if it does get me to a login prompt I'm unable to do anything once I log in. Literally nothing works. My directories basically fail to load during boot. Sometimes I get a kernel panic instead.

My Win2k on the same drive won't boot either.

The error I'm getting from Linux during boot is:

"ide: failed opcode was: unknown"
and
"end_request: I/O error"

Here is what I tried as suggested in other posts:
1) Shut down and unplug everything
2) General cleaning/dusting (using canned air)
3) Disconnect everything, check pins and connectors, reconnect paying close attention to orientation of connectors/ribbons/etc.
4) Unplug all cards (AGP, PCI), clean slots, plug back in.
5) Remove and replace all memory
6) Make sure all drives are connected to the power supply on different cables.

Same error on booting back up. I know my MBR is good, since the bootloader comes up perfectly for both Slackware and Windows. (I get past LILO and both OSs will start to boot before crying "uncle.") Is my HDD toast? Should I break down and buy a new Western Digital (have a Maxtor now...I've not been impressed)?

Oh, just one more thing...Partition Magic stops with this error: Partition Table Bad

I think my HDD is pooched.

Did you make any other system changes recently, or did the behavior go from "all systems normal" to "FUBAR"? Also, was the hard drive making any unusual noises lately (specifically clicking sounds)? How old is that drive?

Overall, I suspect that your suspicion that the hard drive has gone to its graveyard are probably correct (unfortunately). You might want to try booting up a Live CD, and then seeing whether you can manually mount and access any of your drives. Good luck with it.

PS: It's always a good idea to make regular backups......

Why is it that even though I tell everybody else to make backups, but I always forget to do that myself?

No, the system went from A-OK to FUBAR in the blink of an eye. I had installed a new CD-RW (Magnavox, maybe?) a few weeks ago, but nothing went wrong at that point. (New CD writers have been suggested as the culprit in other posts...it doesn't seem to hold in this case.) I know I've rebooted at least once since then.

The drive itself is not making any noises, but one of my fans has been *very* noisy for quite some time. I just did some checking and discovered it's the CPU fan...scary! Guess I'll be buying a new one tomorrow. The drive is between four and six years old...I don't remember if it was my original drive or if it was an upgrade.

A Knoppix LiveCD booted properly (and quickly) was able to view all of the partitions except the NTFS partition. Something's rotten in the state of Denmark...

Will I need a replacement drive? If so, what's the best brand? I'm certainly not going back to Maxtor. Seagate or WD?

Now that you say your powersupply was very noisy it's possible that it can't hold more the voltage your HDD need.
I would change the powersupply first and than the HDD.

If you need your data back try this:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=428962

Good Luck!!!

Two of the most common causes for overheating are dust buildup and/or blocked airflow (such as placing the PC so that an object is too close to an intake or outflow fan, thus interfering with circulation). Definitely take a can of compressed air and make sure the inside of the machine is clean. If your CPU fan has become noticeably noisy, that's a bit of a concern.

In any case, if the drive is 5 or 6 years old and the system went from running perfectly to completely messed up from one day to the next, then it's almost certain that it was a hard drive failure. I'd second your idea to replace it, and at least for me, I've had good success with Western Digital. (Obviously others will have other preferences)

In terms of recovery, if Knoppix was able to mount the affected partitions then you should be able to backup any critical data. Good luck with it

Here's the final outcome:

I tried formatting and repartitioning (after Knoppix helped me rescue the barest essentials...the rest were unaccessible). Even after partitioning with cfdisk, Slackware claimed there were no linux partitions on the drive. Time for a new drive.

I got a Seagate 160GB (after rebates at Circuit City: $40), and my computer now works. Oh, and after removing and inspecting the drive, I found out the manufacture date was 2004, so it wasn't as old as I thought. Same as many others on these forums, my experience seems to be that Maxtor drives die shortly after the 1-year warranty has expired. Two words: never again.

The CPU fan/heatsink assembly has been replaced as well, and everything is now quiet, cool, and operable. Well, Windows is up anyway...Slackware is my next project.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!

Matt

Excellent - congrats on getting your system back on track, and thanks for posting back with the update Matt