What is Hard Disk Fail 80?

I have a friend who had a computer fixed by a locally owed computer fixin' store. She forgot about it and left it with him for about a year. Then when she went to pick it up, and plugged it in at home, all it would recognize on the hard drive were command.com and four other files which I cant remember. And it said hard drive error 80 in the boot up and wanted a boot disk. Anyway, he came out to her house the other day and messed with it and said her hard drive pads had stuck to the drive and wasn't allowing it to turn. Said it was called "fichission" (not sure of the spelling). He said that happens if you leave your computer unplugged for long periods of time (like the year she left it with him). Have you ever heard such a thing???????

Thanks for your input,

Jennifer

This question was answered on May 5, 2003. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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The system has potentially lost its CMOS settings This is a common problem that frequently occurs, especially with older computers.

The CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) maintains the date and time settings as well as information about how your hard disk is set up These settings are retained by a battery on the motherboard When the battery dies, the settings are lost and the hard disk will become unrecognizable.

Most systems will allow you to enter the CMOS setup at start up time with a key stroke or two, such as [Del], [Esc] or [Cntrl]-[Esc].

Once you enter the CMOS set up program, use the tab or arrow keys to jump to the appropriate field for drive settings and enter the correct settings for your drive.

It is a good idea to keep these settings on a note attached to your computer for future reference.

Most modern systems will let you "Auto" sense the drive This will usually be successful You should then reboot your PC

Back up your system and get a replacement battery from your dealer

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Posted by Student of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on May 5, 2003

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