Thread: Drive gone AWOL

Originally Posted by Bushie

OK

I'm posting this from a Ubuntu CD as windows doesn't fire up.

When Ubuntu loads it reports the following message

ata3 SRST failed errno=-16

given that windows won't fire up there is obviously a failure somewhere, I can see my two data drives, but not the drive that windows sits on.

I haven't had a chance to swap drives around yet but, am I looking at a drive failure of something most sinister (controller failure??)

btw I dont recall seeing the third drive in the bios either.

Interestingly I was only considering the upgrade to Win7 over the weekend (maybe it's on strike )

Any pointers appreciated.


Martyn

Check all plugs & cables first to see whether you still have a problem.

After that, the only way you can check this is to swap the main drive with one of the others (you may have to reconfigure the jumpers on the drives if they are not "cable select").

Get into the BIOS and you should be able to see which of the drives are detected. If the drive you've been using as the bootable one is still not detected, then it is stuffed.


Cheers,

Lionel

Had the same problem with a Seagate hdd. There was an error in the firmware that locked down the drive after a set number of bootups. Turned out to be a common problem with that model.

They repaired free of charge, and in the meantime I bought a WD 1TB, as everyone said WD was the way to go...... Just got everything backed up, and that one died after about 2 weeks.... With all my backups.

[ame=http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php't=762870][ubuntu] Grub Error 16 - Ubuntu Forums[/ame]

Hope that helps.