6.501 bytes

Service Hints & Tips

Document ID: PFAN-3VQLWX

TP 770ED - Scandisk failure with 8 GB hard drive

Applicable to: World-Wide

Symptom:
An error message can occur when running ScanDisk on drive D: in MS-DOS mode. This could be run manually with the command SCANDISK D: entered at the DOS command prompt, or you could be prompted to run Scandisk during system start-up if Windows was not properly shut down the last time the system was used.

This is the message that would appear:
"ScanDisk cannot read from the last cluster on drive D. This cluster is either damaged, or your system is not configured properly. Drive D may need to have Logical Block Addressing (LBA) enabled to work properly, or its disk partition may be incorrectly marked as a non-LBA partition. Data Loss can occur if your LBA setting or disk partition type for this drive is misconfigured.
Check your computer's BIOS setup utility, or contact your computer manufacturer, or have your computer checked by a qualified computer hardware technician.

If you are sure your drive is configured correctly, click Continue to have ScanDisk check drive D for errors."

If FDISK (Windows 95 version) is used to look at partition information, the following is found:

	On failing system	On good system
Partition C: 1	2045	2045
Partition 2	5759	5759

In "Display the Logical Drive Information"
D: 5766 FAT32 <----- on failing system
D: 5759 FAT32 <----- on good system

Configuration:
770ED with 8GB hard drive and preloaded Windows 95 operating system.

Solution:
The Extended partition that contains the logical D: drive must be deleted and then recreated using the FDISK (which is in Windows 95). This will not harm any data contained on the C: drive but you MUST save any data on the D: drive to another drive, diskettes, or other back up device, because all data on D: will be deleted by this process. The D: drive does not contain data when shipped from the factory.

Steps to fix this problem:

1. Boot your system to the Windows 95 desktop.
2. Open a DOS window by clicking on Start, Programs, MS-DOS prompt.
3. Run the FDISK utility by typing at the command prompt FDISK and pressing enter.
4. At prompt to enable large disk support, enter Y.
5. At FDISK OPTIONS screen, enter choice 3 to delete partition or Logical DOS drive. IMPORTANT: Make sure you have saved any data you may have placed on your D: drive before continuing.
6. At the Delete DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive menu enter choice 3 to delete the logical drive. When prompted for What drive do you want to delete? Enter D. Press enter at volume Label prompt, answer Y at Are You Sure? prompt.
7. Press escape twice to return to the FDISK Options screen, and select 3 to Delete partition or Logical DOS drive.
8. At the Delete DOS Partition menu select 2 to Delete the Extended DOS partition. Answer Y to prompt Do you wish to continue?
9. Press Esc to return to FDISK Options and choose 1 to Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive.
10. At the Create DOS Partition menu choose 2 to Create the extended DOS partition.
11. When prompted for the partition size, press enter to accept the default of 5759.
12. The message Extended DOS Partition should be displayed. Press Esc and when prompted press enter to accept the default logical drive size of 5759.
13. The Extended partition and logical drive is now restored. Press Esc to return to the FDISK Options screen, then Esc to exit FDISK.
14. Shut down and restart your system for the changes to take effect.
15. You will need to format drive D: before you can store data on it again. To do this open MY COMPUTER and right click on the D: Drive ICON and select format.

Additional information:
This situation has been corrected on systems built after June 1998.

	Search Keywords
	Hint Category	Hard Drives, Windows 95
	Date Created	23-06-98
	Last Updated	02-04-99
	Revision Date	31-03-2000
	Brand	IBM ThinkPad
	Product Family	ThinkPad 770E/ED
	Machine Type	9548, 9549
	Model	Various
	TypeModel
	Retain Tip (if applicable)
	Reverse Doclinks and Admin Purposes