Hi, Ravnox. > I have this really weird problem. The brief version is that copying > files from Linux to a Windows drive is "corrupting" the drive and I > can't even see the BIOS screen on startup, it just hangs there. I need > to connect the drive through a USB enclosure and wipe out the partition > to be able to boot again. > ... [snip]...
Regarding the hardware, I suggest checking the health of the hard disk using the smartctl utility under Linux (assuming spinning platters, not SSD). e.g.: # smartctl -a /dev/sda ... with an eye open for logged SMART messages or parameters that look off, such as: Reallocated_Sector_Ct (ideally 0), Seek_Error_Rate (ideally 0), and similarly for Offline_Uncorrectable and UDMA_CRC_Error_Count. This will at least serve to show that the HDD on-board monitoring has nothing special to say, independently of the motherboard BIOS or HDD enclosure. If the HDD looks healthy, I would want to rule out a faulty partition table: are writes being sent to the correct sectors? (2048 vs 512 byte sectors, GUID Partition Table vs x86 boot sector partition table, etc.) BTW, check your power connections and use a fresh cable (SATA or IDE, etc). If it worked reasonably well in an enclosure (with its own power supply) but not on your PC's power supply, perhaps the hard disk is more of a power hog than expected. Believe it or not, this happened to me twice: the first was a weak power supply, the second was the hard disk starting to fail and drawing more power. If your BIOS can't get started, either there is an electrical fault or there is something amiss with the boot sector on the main HDD. Can your motherboard give you a POST code (e.g. beeps) to indicate how far along the boot went? Good luck, let us know how it works out. Best regards, Stephen Benoit [email protected] _______________________________________________ mlug mailing list [email protected] https://bureau.koumbit.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mlug-listserv.mlug.ca
