Troubleshooting Disk Problems

An administrator should understand how to handle the errors that can plague a hard disk. Common problems are listed in Table below.

Error	Problem Process	Possible Repair
Non-System Disk or Disk Error	Basic Input Output System (BIOS) generates this error when the master boot record (MBR) or boot sector is damaged, or when a different device is configured as the boot device in the BIOS.	Check the BIOS and reconfigure, if necessary. Remove any nonsystem disks from the floppy or CD-ROM drives. Repair the boot volume with Windows 7 Startup Repair Tool. Reinstall Windows 7. Replace the hard disk.
There is not enough memory or disk space to complete the operation	Disk is full.	Free up space on the hard disk by deleting files, removing applications, or compressing files. Add another disk and extend the volume to span both disks.
Missing Operating System	No active partition is defined.	Check the BIOS settings and configure if they incorrectly identify the boot disk. Boot up with a floppy. Use Diskpart.exe to mark the boot volume as active. Use Windows 7 Startup Repair Tool. Reinstall Windows 7.
Invalid Media Type	Boot sector is damaged.	Repair the boot volume with Windows Startup Repair Tool. Reinstall Windows 7. Replace the hard disk.
Hard disk controller failure	BIOS's disk controller configuration is invalid, or the hard disk controller has failed.	Check the BIOS and reconfigure controller. Replace the hard disk controller.

The volume properties of a disk as displayed in the graphical display in the Disk Management snap-in provide you with a status display, which can help you in troubleshooting disk problems. The following volume statuses can appear:

Healthy: This status is normal and means that the volume is accessible and operating properly.
Active: This status is also normal. An active partition is a partition or volume on a hard disk that has been identified as the primary partition from which the operating system is booted.
Failed: This status means that the operating system could not start the volume normally. Failed usually means that the data is lost because the disk is damaged or the file system is corrupted. To repair a failed volume, physically inspect the computer to see whether the physical disk is operating. Ensure that the underlying disk(s) has an Online status in Disk Management.
Formatting: This status is temporary, appearing only while the volume is being formatted.
Unknown: This status means that you've installed a new disk and have not created a disk signature or that the boot sector for the volume is corrupt, possibly because of a virus. You can attempt to repair this error by initializing the underlying disk by right-clicking the disk and selecting Initialize from the shortcut menu.
Data Incomplete: This status appears when a disk has been moved into or out of a multidisk volume. Data is destroyed unless all the disks are moved and imported on the new computer.
Healthy (At Risk): This status indicates I/O errors have been detected on an underlying disk of the volume, but that data can still be accessed. The underlying disk probably shows a status of Online (Errors) and must be brought back online for the volume to be corrected.

When you see a status other than Healthy for your volumes, or other than Online for your disks, you can attempt to repair by selecting the Rescan Disks option from the Action menu in Disk Management.

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Troubleshooting Disk Problems

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