I was recently using Ubuntu live cd on my pc. But I have used it for a long time. After a few days, my pc did not boot. When I tried to boot to another os, it did not boot either. When I enter the bios settings, I noticed that my hard disk is not seen. On the other hand there some noises coming from the hard disk, very disturbing noises. What may be the problem? The hard disk is Western Digital WD800 by the way. Any helps will welcome.

> What might the problem be?

hard disk kaputt!!

boot up with the live cd, check if you can recognize the hdd using fdisk, cfdisk, sfdisk, hdparm, etc...

There are a few things that could be wrong with it. When you boot your computer, does it beep? If so, tell me what it sounds like (1 short beep, pause, 3 long beeps...)

If that isn't the case, check to make sure that the cable, running from your motherboard to your hard drive, is secure; feel with your fingers, it may look fine to your eyes but always be sure by testing with your fingers.

If that isn't the case, try switching the cable altogether. It could be that the cable is damaged and needs to be replaced.

One last thing, check to make sure that there is nothing hindering the fans inside you computer. Make sure that all cables are clear of the CPU fan and that there are no wires sticking inside the PSU fans.

I have done all the necessary checks on the cables and etc., but there seems to be no problem with them. I listened to the noise coming from the hdd. It is a creaking sound coming from the hdd. 1 sec stops and 1 sec sizzles. When I boot, pc stops at the mainboards splash screen for a while and the black screen appears. When I go into the bios there seems to be no harddisk on bios. I am suspicious of hard disk firmware overwrite or crash. May it be the case? I think it is totally a hdd failure, but I don't have any idea how to recover my data :-(

turn off the splash screen in the bios, so you can see what it is doing

also, like i said earlier on, try using hdparm from a live cd, this utility is able to detect disks even if the bios does not!

unless you were playing around with dd or fdisk i doubt it was the live-system causing the issue.

@taylorchase:
there is no standard beeping codes for mother boards!
one board may beep 3 times and that indicates normal another may only beep once!
if fans were not working correctly it is more likely that the cpu would fail and not the hdd, as the air temp would not increase as fast as mb and cpu temp.

Nathanael thank you for your answers. I wanted to write the messages that I get when I boot with the live cd.

hda: dma_intr: status=0x51{DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest Error}
hda: read_int: status=0x59{DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest Error}
hda: read_intr: error=0x01{AddrMarkNotFound},LBAsect=2, sector=2

These are the messages that I get. I think they are better at explaining the problem. Do you have any idea?

make a backup of all important data (if possible) and then buy a new hdd.
if your hdd is less than 2 years old you should still have a warranty on it.
some brands also will do data-revocery in the time of warranty

EDIT:
though you could be able to save the disk you have right now with a low-level format, this will then mark the duff sectors on the disk as unusable, depending on how many you have it might be worth it

Thank you for the offer, but I don't know how can I backup data. Even I can't reach the hard disk. If you give some pointers on how to do, I will be glad to hear them. Thanks in advance.

what kind of live cd are you booting from?

and what distro is installed?

Currently I have Gentoo and Ubuntu Live CDs and the installed one is Suse. But at last try I couldn't boot from Ubuntu Live CD so I am in Gentoo live cd now..

gentoo is good.

sfdisk -l will let you know if the disk is 'attached'
hdparm lets you do other things, one of them is 'attaching' a device and rereading the partition table
if you manage to mount it (with or without errors) you should be able to copy data to another disk or usb storage, or scp data to another computer on the network.

that is the best hint i can give you. sometimes a bad sector does not appear bad and that is the moment you need to catch... rereading the part table of attached disks, perhaps turning off dma and switching to PIO mode will help, this can be done with hdparm or in the bios.

Thank you for the pointers, I'll give a try!

Hi,

I recommend to *stop* playing around with the disk. It is almost certainly broken and every minute you have it running it is possibly getting worse, meaning you are losing more data.
Remove the disk, buy a new one and install your OS. Only then reattach the old disk (via USB enclosure, if you don't have any ide/sata connectors left) and try to copy as much data as you can back from it.
Hard disks are way too cheap nowadays to justify taking any chances.

Rupert

I know but he can tell me what BIOS he has and I can take it from t here.

1) Replace the Hard Drive A.S.A.P. 2) Place the troublesome Hard Drive in the Freezer. Setup the replacement Hard Drive with the chosen Distro, and setup YOUR BIOS and OS for YOUR Data Transfer. Take the cold Hard Drive and connect it with a/an IDE or SATA/PATA Cable to the Motherboard. YOU may need to run this Data Transfer with the Linux Box open. One or both panels temporarily removed. Connect, reboot and transfer. After successfully transferring the Data from cold Hard Drive to the replacement Hard Drive, set the cables to the positions for YOUR new Hard Drive system. Suggestion,...before assembling the Hard Drives and Cabling, give YOUR system some cool down time. Hook up the cold Hard Drive last so YOU can run the Data Transfer from a cold start. Cold here is key in data recovery. It may be necessary to repeat these instructions; depending on the size of YOUR files, and the Hard Drive constitution as a percentage of data retained. Choices; A) Data recovery, B) Recycle the Hard Drive for parts, C) Recycle the Hard Drive for environmental issues.