Did my hard drive die??

Post by **rousie13** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

I went to turn on my computer today and it starts up, but won't boot. It goes slow when detecting IDE drives, then it says disk boot failure.....insert system disk and press enter. I see the hard drive under the IDE drivers after it finishes the IDE detection. Is my hard drive dead or did windows get erased or wtf happened? It started acting up last night and now it just won't boot.

Post by **silkk** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

did you try reformatting?

check your bios, maybe it needs an update

Post by **Jesda** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

It could be as simple as a bad IDE cable. Try isolating it by unplugging every other IDE device from the controller. Also, try plugging in a different power socket or try plugging it into the secondary IDE channel if its currently on primary.

Or most likely, it could just be a dead hard drive.

Make sure you can boot to a Windows CD, then go to the recovery console and see if you can view the contents of the hard drive.

If your data is still there, try reinstalling Windows. Preferably, if you have a Win98 boot floppy laying around (http://www.allbootdisks.com) do an "FDISK /mbr" then reinstall 2k/XP.

-Jesda

Post by **rousie13** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

I have two hard drives so it's just XP and my actual programs on this one, which I can just reinstall, so I'm not too worried about losing data. I want to put XP on the hard drive thats in the computer now and get a bigger one for my entertainment purposes(music, movies, etc). I don't have and XP cd though, so this sucks. :mad

Post by **w1ngzer0** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

HD's that die like that suck. I like ones that clicky clack becuase then you know its dead for sure

Post by **rousie13** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

Which one of these would be better:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ol...oduct

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ol...oduct

http://www.circuitcity.com/det...3&m=0

Post by **rousie13** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

I found a burned XP cd and an XP book with a code in it, so maybe that will work. Anyway....I want to install XP on my second hard drive that has data that I don't want lost. How do I go about doing this and there is no OS on this hard drive right now. I don't think I have a bootup disk, but maybe I do somewhere.

Post by **Jesda** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

The CD is bootable.

And while WD is always a better value, either of the Seagates are the best choice, especially for performance.

-Jesda

Post by **w1ngzer0** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

rousie13 wrote:I found a burned XP cd and an XP book with a code in it, so maybe that will work. Anyway....I want to install XP on my second hard drive that has data that I don't want lost. How do I go about doing this and there is no OS on this hard drive right now. I don't think I have a bootup disk, but maybe I do somewhere.

remember that a certain cd key numbers will give you a registration key that won't let you update your windows and that would sucky.

Post by **rousie13** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

I put in the windows cd when I got that message and it's in windows setup right now.....lets see what happens.

Post by **w1ngzer0** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

Non serial HD's suck and they are sllllllllllloooowwwww. But if you were to get a IDE hd make sure it has nice MB buffer and nothing lower then a 7200 RPM drive.

Post by **rousie13** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

I deleted the old partion on that hard drive and am making a new one. I wonder if windows just got screwed up somehow??

Post by **rousie13** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

w1ngzer0 wrote:Non serial HD's suck and they are sllllllllllloooowwwww. But if you were to get a IDE hd make sure it has nice MB buffer and nothing lower then a 7200 RPM drive.

Explain for the not computer literate.

Post by **rousie13** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

w1ngzer0 wrote:remember that a certain cd key numbers will give you a registration key that won't let you update your windows and that would sucky.

I can get the Pro update from school, which should take care of the update problem....hopefully.

Post by **180crafter** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

Computer nerds... Stay on call, Im getting my new (1st) computer soon....

Post by **rousie13** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

Guys.....I'm confused now. I reinstalled windows and the computer booted up and worked. I went to restart it and it said the same thing it did before....wtf??? Does this mean somethings wrong with my hard drive or what?

*edit* I just tried it again and it worked this time.....I'm seriously confused. It won't detect my second hard drive....how do I get it to do that??

Post by **rousie13** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

So pissed off right now. I switched the power cables on my hard drives and it worked fine.....and I reformated my second hard drive, not my first one.....FUC*. So I lost all of my music, movies, music videos. OMG....I don't even know what to say.

Post by **GEO** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

check to see if you got q floppy disk int he floppy drive!

Post by **Jesda** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

Why did you format! No one told you to format anything! Dont do anything the tech doesnt tell you to do!

It was probably a damaged master boot record and nothing more, thus requiring a reinstall, not a reformat!

If this was Win98 all you'd have to do is run a "SYS A: C:" to transfer the main bootable system files from a Win98 boot disk back to the hard drive. Its not so easy with XP, thus requiring a reinstall, not a reformat!

Thats it. Youre on the tech support blacklist.

NO SOUP FOR YOU

-Jesda

Post by **w1ngzer0** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

rousie13 wrote:Guys.....I'm confused now. I reinstalled windows and the computer booted up and worked. I went to restart it and it said the same thing it did before....wtf??? Does this mean somethings wrong with my hard drive or what?

*edit* I just tried it again and it worked this time.....I'm seriously confused. It won't detect my second hard drive....how do I get it to do that??

I am confused ok lets start over. Do you have 2 HD's?

If you have 2 HD's did you remove the boot hd's partition or what?

though even though these questions will help others im going to be tired these past few days so i can't really tech support right now.

Post by **rousie13** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

Jesda wrote:Why did you format! No one told you to format anything! Dont do anything the tech doesnt tell you to do!

It was probably a damaged master boot record and nothing more, thus requiring a reinstall, not a reformat!

If this was Win98 all you'd have to do is run a "SYS A: C:" to transfer the main bootable system files from a Win98 boot disk back to the hard drive. Its not so easy with XP, thus requiring a reinstall, not a reformat!

Thats it. Youre on the tech support blacklist.

NO SOUP FOR YOU

-Jesda

haha

I wanted to clean the hard drive i boot off of, but ended up cleaning both of em. Oh well I guess. I lost all my pictures and music, but still have all of my school papers and that stuff, so it's all good. My computer now runs better.

Post by **IveBeenBad** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

Jesda wrote:Why did you format! No one told you to format anything! Dont do anything the tech doesnt tell you to do!

It was probably a damaged master boot record and nothing more, thus requiring a reinstall, not a reformat!

If this was Win98 all you'd have to do is run a "SYS A: C:" to transfer the main bootable system files from a Win98 boot disk back to the hard drive. Its not so easy with XP, thus requiring a reinstall, not a reformat!

Thats it. Youre on the tech support blacklist.

NO SOUP FOR YOU

-Jesda

if its a bad mbr, you can type fixmbr in xp recovery... ive donr it eleventy billion times

Post by **Jesda** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:24 am

w00t! Time-saving tip! Thanks dude

Did my hard drive die??

Did my hard drive die??

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