BleepingComputer.com: secondary drive 0 not found

After successfully removing Win32/Mebroot Trojan with ComboFix I now have a "secondary drive 0 not found" message at boot up along with the accompanying strike the F1 key to continue prompt. System Info: Dell Dimension 3000 desktop, WinXP Pro, BIOS Plus Ver. 1.10.A01.
Symptoms: After Depressing F1 Key Normal System behavior Follows. Discs will not AutoRun. CD-RW Drive (D:) Shows up on My Computer Sys Folder. Device Mngr. Shows HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8483B is Present and that device is working properly. Cable Connector Checked for continuity and passed. Performed Dell Diagnostics Express test through Utility Partition on disc Drive and Passed. Tried Microsoft AutoFix. to repair autorun problem with no success. Only thing I haven't tried yet is to Repair OS (I suspect corrupted files following a ComboFix treatment) but, since the disc drive is not recognized I can't get sys to Boot from it to run the Reinstallation CD. I've tried reinstalling and updating CD-RW Drivers but sys still shows secondary drive 0 not found upon boot up.

This post has been edited by loushop: 02 April 2010 - 04:12 PM

Drive 0...should be the first hard drive connected, the one with Windows on it...under normal circumstances.

That may not apply to systems from OEMs (HP, etc.) who have created recovery/restore/etc. partitions on the drives they place in their systems.

This is further skewered by the fact that SATA drives come ahead of IDE drives, no matter if an IDE drive is the boot drive , such as I have on this system.

So...I would interpret that message to mean...Secondary channel, drive at end of cable...not found. The secondary channel...that's your 2d IDE connector.

That's all based on my experiences, which are not all-encompassing.

So, the question is...how many drives do you have installed...and how are they connected to the system?

Easiest way to find out...take a look inside the system.

If there is a drive of any sort on the end of the second cable...I interpret that message as indicating that such drive has a problem.

You can double-check this by checking Event Viewer for any mention of errors that cite "hard disk" or "Atapi" or "disk0" or the like.

If such drive exists...first always check the connections to and from.

You mention 1 optical drive and 1 hard drive. If each of those is on a separate cable...I'd have to say that your optical drive may be in trouble.

Louis

Hello Loushop and welcome to the forum!

If you are getting the F1 prompt on startup it means that the system is not recognizing the device on the hardware level.
I would unplug it & open the case. Reseat both the data cable and power connector.
Reseat the data cable both on the device and motherboard ends.

Thanks Louie
Sys has IDE HDD and One Optical Drive and FD thats all
Cable connected from Sys end to Mobo and other Zero end to Optical drive ( only one device on this cable)
checked event viewer through My Computer Manage option on menu and saw error with Service control manager Event 7016 if that means something?
Please advice on other methods of checking if Opt drive is failed or not.

This post has been edited by loushop: 02 April 2010 - 04:41 PM

My guess is that the optical drive is going, if not gone.

What I usually do is substitute a different drive (I have several) to test the damaged/dead premise.

You say that the drive has provided no sign of life to Windows...the system is sending out an SOS...I would try switching cables between the hard drive and the optical drive...just to make sure it's not the cable (some do go bad or become damaged).

You could also even switch the motherboard slots each is tied to.

That 7026 error...looks like another nail in the coffin. Take a look at http://www.eventid.net/display.asp?eventid...ger&phase=1.

Louis

To hamluis and Eyesee.
Thank you very much for the help from both of you.
As was suggested a possible bad Opt drive was indeed the case after swapping drives with a known good one and sys recognized device and seems to be working fine now and thus a happy ending.
I really thought that it was a good device but sometimes a little help is all it takes from some good people to see through ones errors and false conclusions.

Thanks again
loushop out

Glad you resolved it...happy computing .

Louis