[Gllug] Hard disk fail

[Mark Preston]

Hi  all,
My dual boot desktop machine is failing to boot and gives the following error 
messages:-
"Primary IDE channel no 80 conductor cable installed"
"Primary master hard disk fail"
This computer has been running Windows 98 and Mandrake 9.0 (previously 7.2) 
without any problems for quite a while. It recently emitted a "failed
to write to the hard disk error" but seemed to be working O.K. previous to the 
above boot problem. 
Any advice on how to go about rectifying these problems, and avoiding future 
recurrences would be very welcome. Any explanation of possible reasons why 
these messages have suddenly appeared would also be gratefully received.
FWIW it is an Intel Pentium III 1.0 GHz with a Maxtor ATHENA WAH21PBZ 20 GB 
hard drive. Is a trip to my local PC repair shop my next move? Ideally I 
would like to avoid having to reinstall everything on this PC if at all 
possible.
TIA
-- 
Regards,
Mark Preston


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