its not friday the 13th is it.  i was transfering files to my  xp hard drive when it made a couple of clunks then powered down. the system restarted but wouldnt boot, the drive was trying to power up but couldnt. i booted from my ME startup disc (ME = main drive) but couldnt remember how to do a diagnostic on the offending disc. i turned off and pushed the power cable and ide connector ribbon in just incase they were loose.  rebooted and it worked !! the drive felt quite warm but i don't know how hot it gets normally. seems to be ok at the moment but i fear the worst.  could it be over heating, or the fact that i was in the case yesterday installing my dvd rewriter, maybe the cables got dislodged although they seemed ok.  :'(

when the problem first occured i couldnt boot into either drive, the only option i had was ME startup disk. after i'd fiddled with the xp drive cables it booted up again into xp ok.

i suspect the problem is either

overheating as i was copying 4gb of files from the dvd rewriter which seems quite warm (the two are in close proximity in the case)

a loose cable caused by my excursion into the case to fit the dvd writer yesterday

or er...something else

Sounds like a loose cable then Dave, I have had pcs refuse to boot if the jumpers have been set for a master with a slave on the boot drive and the slave has been disconnected  

Hope you're right Sandra, although the cables seemed ok when i tried them. Funny how it happened in the middle of a file transfer.  

Has this only started happening since installing the DVD Writer?  Have you got enough power for everything, Dave?  Just a thought.  

Hi Sandra, just had a bit of a nightmare 4 or so hours.  it was the ME (master) drive at fault, i did another maxtor diagnostic and it died as i was doing it.

i had another ME drive i was using in a usb caddy so i naively thought that if i put the spare in as master all would be well.  trouble is i've lost my dual boot option so cant get into XP which is on my slave drive.

i tried giving ide1 seniority over ide0 in the bios settings (bios features setup) but it still boots into ME (which i now hate). i've only just got online again now.  Any ideas how i can get xp back.  i tried switching the drives i.e. making the xp drive master by swapping the ide cables around and moving the master jumper over but the system wouldnt boot at all.

i'm out of ideas...thank god for pcpals i know you'll sort me out  .  i'm off to bed now but i'll look in earlyish tomorrow.

thanks  :'(  

ps btw the power supply is 300w simon, is that quite low.  i did install a dvd writer but at the expense of a dvd rom, i assume they have similar power needs so it shouldnt be a problem.  system SEEMS stable now, i'm just locked out of XP grrrr

I really am going now.    what do you mean by "do a repair on the xp drive" sandra.  

Sorry Dave, everything I have seen so far seems to follow my theory that the MBR is now missing from your system as it would have been stored on the failed ME drive  
So the method above should do it but would take a similar time to the original installation and would require reactivation and I think the windows updates again.
This second option may work and should be quicker  

How to access the Recovery Console:

The Recovery Console can be run from a Command Prompt by going to Start->Run and enter "CMD" to open a command window. Type HELP for a list of functions.

To run the Recovery Console  from CD boot with the Windows XP CD (or with the optional 6 floppy disk set) and select "R" at the Welcome Screen.


The screen will switch to black and you will be asked which installation to log on to. If you only have one installation you will press "1". Remember that numlock is off at this time.



Next you'll be prompted to enter your Admin password. By default it is created blank so just press Enter.



At the C:\Windows command prompt type "Help" for a list of commands you can use.

How to Repair the Boot Sector:
If XP won't start it may be due to a damaged boot sector or a missing or corrupt ntldr  or ntdetect.com files.

To replace damaged ntldr and ntdetect.com you can copy fresh files from the XP CD using  the COPY command. Boot with the XP CD and enter the Recovery Console (as above). At the Command Prompt type the following (where "X" is your CD-Rom drive letter) allowing the files  to overwrite the old  files
        COPY X:\i386\NTLDR C:
        COPY X:\i386\NTDETECT.COM C:

To repair a damaged Boot Sector at the command prompt type FIXBOOT and press Enter. Then answer "Y"


I would suggest trying the FIXBOOT option first Dave, that may be all it needs.
Hopefully someone else will confirm this or not before you get chance to try it  

Sorry Sandra i don't understand the Recovery Console instructions at all. i cant boot from the XP cd as ME just boots up, do i need to change the boot sequence in the bios.

What would happen if i installed XP on the Master (ME) drive as well.  would it be as simple as running the xp cd from the C:\ drive and can you have the same copy on two drives.  if it installed ok i could gradually revert back to using the slave drive for data only