Calling all experts on new computer systems!!

[Jimmyjammer]

Verifying DMI pool.


Does that scare you? If no then great, if yes then ah heck!
Why?

Cause this morning, after 2 weeks of perfect functioning my hand-built PC had this to say for itself:

"Insert system disk or CD"

I rebooted, it hung at a screen saying Verifying DMI pool until eventually asking for the system disk. I did a little research, the HDD seemed to be the issue most people agreed on. In fact during this DMI pool thing I could here a low noise, like a PC trying to access a floppy drive when there's no floppy in it, except this noise was quieter and not as fast, three slow whirrs.

I booted with a floppy, it said drive C: was either unformatted or had a virus or something. We have up-to-date anti virus which we run every evening so that's not likely to be the problem. I tried re-installing the OS and it just sits there, saying it's doing some basic system checks but all I can hear are those three almost-silent whirrs of the attempts to access the HDD.

Am I screwed? How can I be 100% sure it's the HDD so that I can justify calling the people who sold me it and getting very angry at them?

please help!

 

[Adul]

had this happen to me before. Simple fix if you are running windows 98,98se, win me.

Get a boot disk for the appropiate OS. Run an FDISK /mbr
and run a sys a: c: to retransfer the system files

that should solve your problem.

 

[Zukatah]

Your boot sector seems to be corrupted. What I suggest you to do is to do a format of the drive and then a clean install of Windows. This should solve the problem. I had a similar problem last year when one morning the computer decided that it couldn't boot and it was the only solution I've found for my problem.
For the cause of that problem, I really don't know... maybe too much pr0n 🙂 (joke)

 

[Jimmyjammer]

Originally posted by: Zukatah
Your boot sector seems to be corrupted. What I suggest you to do is to do a format of the drive and then a clean install of Windows. This should solve the problem. I had a similar problem last year when one morning the computer decided that it couldn't boot and it was the only solution I've found for my problem.
For the cause of that problem, I really don't know... maybe too much pr0n 🙂 (joke)

Thanks guys. Great to feel you're not alone in 'destroying' a PC. It's so hard to explain to people that I didn't destroy the PC, sometimes the components are duds. Obviously sometimes human error is the cause but I was 110% cautious about building this Pc so I doubt it was my fault.

Anyway, I'll try those hcange.s

 

[Jimmyjammer]

Oh no!

I tried the fdisk /mbr thing, that seemed to work ok. Then I tried the Sys A: C: it said too many parameters. So I tried Sys C: and it said something about there being no system info on drive C:

So I tried Format C:

And after pausing for about a minute, it said :

Invalid media or Track 0 bad - disk unusable

Which is something even I can understand! Is that it? Should I arrange a funeral?

 

[LordAccord]

since you are posting, appearantly you have another system to use, so have you downloaded and run the disk diagnostic util for your drive? usually you can make a boot disk with it on there. Then you can determine what the problem is. You will have to do it if you RMA the drive anyways, might as well get it out of the way and get some peace of mind.

LoRdAccord

 

[Zukatah]

IF you are running WinXP, you should try to boot with the installation CD. You can format and repartition your HDD with this. If your system was in NTFS, you cannot access it from DOS so that's probably the reason why you couldn't copy your files. So my guess would be to try with the WinXP installation CD if you are running it.

Hope it works !

Edited: forgot a word!