Topic: AAARGH hard drive woes

[daveeb]

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.  :'(

[Sandra]

They do get quite warm to the touch Dave, hot even  
Does ME see the XP drive when you boot in ME ?
If you suspect a drive problem its usually better to get the diagnostic prog from that drives manufacturers site and run those from a floppy  

[daveeb]

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

[Sandra]

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  

[daveeb]

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.  

[daveeb]

Oh dear its happened again twice tonight. A clunk from the hard drive, freeze then about 30 seconds later the pc reboots. this time unlike last week the drive(s) didnt seem to be struggling to power up again but the crash came again after a few minutes.

I then tried to boot into my master drive (ME) and it wouldnt boot at all.
I've changed the ide cable as it looked a bit bent (always has been) and the system has powered up.  i ran scandisk on the drives last time and all was ok, also the s.m.a.r.t status is reported as ok on boot up.

could these symptoms be caused by a loose power cable and if so can i just swap them with some spare ones in the case, some have double the amount of red/black yellow leads to others  

Also i dont know which drive is doing the clunk, neither of them seem to be faulty according to the maxtor utility so i'm confused.  i feel like i've had a thick pill at the moment. What would you do  

master =  ME
slave  =  XP

Ta  

[Simon]

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

[Sandra]

Dave does it only crash while your using XP or does it do it with ME too  

[daveeb]

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

[Sandra]

I think that because you dual booted Dave that the MBR of the original ME drive had the information that allowed the XP os on the slave drive to boot.
Not sure how you could get over that one at the moment Dave, if I can find anything out in the next couple of hours I will post it for you for when you get up but I think that you may have to do a repair on your xp drive while set as a single master that way you wont lose any progs you have installed or data but you will have to activate it again and get the updates for it  

[daveeb]

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

[Sandra]

Do the following Dave, it worked ok for me when I had XP installed on a drive that I wanted in a different PC and it wouldnt boot up  

If you cannot boot to the Desktop or you have an OEM version of XP then the following should be used to complete a Repair Install.

Boot with the Windows XP CD and at the Setup Screen press the Enter Key

You will be taken to the Windows XP Licensing Agreement. After reading the agreement press F8 to proceed.

The next screen gives you the option to do a fresh (clean) install or to "Repair the selected Windows XP installation." Press "R"

Windows XP will copy the necessary files to your Hard Drive to begin the installation  and will then reboot. You will see the message that informs you to "Press any key to boot the CD". Do not press any keys this time just wait a few seconds and the Windows Startup Screen will be displayed. Following this you will be greeted by the Windows XP Setup Screens.

When Setup has completed you should find all of your previously installed apps and settings are intact.

[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  

[daveeb]

your an angel Sandra, i'll try it this evening and let you know  

[daveeb]

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