Tips about Bad Network Adapters and Hard Drives

[Lenp]

Bad on-board network Adapter
I recently had a Dell with a damaged internal Network Adapter (NIC). Apparently it was damaged by a lightning strike since the cable modem was also damaged.
A BIOS error"Error initializing PCI Express NIC bridge. NIC Failure" at startup indicated the Network Adaper had failed. The system ran normally when Windows started but the network card was absent. Google turned up numerous hits to disable the NIC in BIOS and to install a new slot based (PCI) Network card, but little else. Even with the NIC disabled in BIOS the error persisted and the new card was not found by Windows. I used a USB/Ethernet adapter and it saved the day. The error still persists in BIOS, and if it is ignored, Windows starts, finds the adapter, and network connectivity is restored. There may be other hidden damage but at this point the system seems stable. System saved!

Corrupted system files
A system has crashed with what appears to be bad system files. Windows can't (won't) fix it. You go green thinking about your lost data. Before you do anything drastic and cause the data to be lost forever, remove the drive and put it in an external USB drive enclosure. They make them for all drive types. Check it on another system to see if your data files are intact. If so install a new hard drive in the damaged system, set it up with the operating system and software then transfer the data from the old drive to the new drive. I keep a selection of enclosures on hand just in case, and they have saved the day! Maybe reformat the old drive and use it for storage if it has no problems. Wow! It really was time to do a clean install after all wasn't it!

I hope this helps somebody!

Len

[ltx71cm]

Corrupted system files
A system has crashed with what appears to be bad system files. Windows can't (won't) fix it. You go green thinking about your lost data. Before you do anything drastic and cause the data to be lost forever, remove the drive and put it in an external USB drive enclosure. They make them for all drive types. Check it on another system to see if your data files are intact. If so install a new hard drive in the damaged system, set it up with the operating system and software then transfer the data from the old drive to the new drive. I keep a selection of enclosures on hand just in case, and they have saved the day! Maybe reformat the old drive and use it for storage if it has no problems. Wow! It really was time to do a clean install after all wasn't it!

I hope this helps somebody!

Len

Yes!!! I can't tell you how many times I've seen people just give up or try installing Windows hoping to refresh the files. Writing to the disk is not the way to go. In all but the most severe drive failures 90-100% of the files can be recovered using various methods. It's been my experience that the system files are damaged in a failure and not personal data. DO NOT GIVE UP and do not try something you think will work, find someone who knows what will work.

Additionally, backup, backup, backup. For the files you just don't want to lose practice the 3,2,1 method. Three copies of every file you want to save, on two different media types (Hard disk and DVD-r for example) and finally put one copy in a physically different location. You need one copy off site in case of fire, tornado, earthquake or other disaster. Also keep in mind that backing up a file to an external disk doesn't mean you can delete the original file. The other copy is just a backup!