Hard Drive Problem

[DLzone]

Today as I was downloading some music and messing around on the internet, my computer randomly shut off. When I turned it back on it said that there was a hard drive failure. But it still recognises it in the startup screen, but as soon as I go into the bios it isn't there. I took the computer apart and checked all the connections, everything seems to be fine. Is my hard drive done for? If so it's not that big of a deal, everything of importance was on my second hard drive. But I'm left without an OS. So my second question is if the first hard drive is truly done for, can I install windows on my other hard drive without if effecting or erasing any of the information that's currently on it?, (It's a 60gb with about 5 gigs free.) Thanks for any help, and comments.

If there is no way I can install it on the other hd one this might be just the excuse I need to finally jump on the 120 gig wd hot deal.

 

[ai42]

Perhaps your drive is dead. The BIOS does not automatically detect drives always usually if you goto the drive properties (of the channel and primary/slave of it whatever it is) you can get it to detect it. It could just be a file system failure too. I would try to format and reinstall windows onto your primary drive. If it is truely dead it won't work out and even at that it isn't a big deal as you should have a warranty (through the manufacuter if you have a pre-built machine) or through the drive manufactuer if you built it or had it built at a shop.

You can install an OS onto your secondary drive, but you cannot format the drive and depending on how the partitions or file system are setup it may be a bit of an issue.

 

[DLzone]

Ok, the situation just got weirder. I put in the windows 2000 cd and it recognises the hard drive. So I reformatted it and put in a clean copy of windows. But when I start the computer I still get the same error (that there is a hard drive failure). So I have to press f1 to continue. Then it will bring me to the boot screen and I have to select windows 2000. So I guess it isn't a problem with the hard drive, this is pretty confusing. I guess it's not that big of a deal, because everything is at least working now but I'd hate to have to go through all this crap every time I start my computer.

 

[hagbard]

Perhaps a corrupt CMOS. Maybe you should try clearing it. And do the usual, check cables, jumper settings on the drive, that the drive is set to "auto" in the bios, etc.

 

[DLzone]

Thanks for the post, I already tried checking the cables. No difference, I was thinking about the cmos last night as well. I'll try that in a bit and see how it goes. If that doesn't work could flashing the bios be of any help?

 

[DLzone]

Ok, I tried clearing the cmos. Didn't help. I flashed my bios. Didn't help. I'm just about out of ideas. Does anyone have any idea what is going on please help me.

 

[Sukhoi]

It could still be a hard drive problem. Run some diagnostic software from your drive manufacturer.

 

[crazychicken]

If it is asking you to select "win2k" then that is within the NTLDR program. Check your c:\boot.ini and see what it says, should look something like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

in my case (above) it is XP, but it should be the same for you, disk0, partition1, so just make sure whatever is in the line after [operating systems] matches the "default" line and you should be all set.

lmk if this helps

david