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HDD problem. Need some answers.

I

ingeborgdot

Golden Member
My friends computer just went. Nothing on the screen, won't boot etc. I have checked memory, vid card, etc. I know it must be the hdd because I put one of my hdd in and it started to boot. Different drivers so some things would not work but that showed the vid card worked along with everything else except the hdd. My problem is the hdd works when I attach it to my computer. I can see all the folders etc. I tried to clone and see if that would work but when I put it into their computer it would not boot. When I did a clone one screen came up and said it could not read some sector. What can I do now that the old hdd is cloned? I did keep all info on the old hdd also. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Perhaps the boot sector or boot information (active, bootable flags) are just messed up on your friend's drive. If it's Vista/7 you can boot off the OS CD (or make one within Vista/7) and repair it. I forgot if XP also had a GUI for this, it does have command line (bootfix something).

What I'd do is connect your friend's HD back into your computer, run chkdsk /f on it to be sure the file system is ok, then check in Disk Manager too see if it's active, bootable, and then fix it either though an OS CD. Best of luck.
 
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When you say chkdsk /f, why the letter f. Is that for the drive so if it is a different drive change it or is it f? Just making sure.
What if it is not bootable? When you say fix it what steps do I need to take? I thank you so much for the help.
 
chkdsk /f. The '/f' tells it to fix, otherwise it'll just examine. The full command should be chkdsk D: /f. where D is the drive letter.

Bootable, the computer will try to start an OS from the drive. If you need step by step instructions, I think using the Vista/7 OS CD might be best since I can't remember the entire process. But look for something like 'repair computer', then 'fix startup problems.' Vista/7 will take care of the rest for you. If you don't have the CD, try making one using the built in backup program.
 
Yeah, I got it. I was just stupid for a second. I don't know what I was thinking. Anyway I have checked it and I did a chkdsk. It found a bad sector and did some things but did not help the boot. I have since done seagate tools and none of the tests pass.
 
Since it failed the Seagate Tools tests I would copy the information off the hard drive immediately. Then go out and get a new hard drive and reinstall the OS on it.
 
Ok, now another problem. Since the MBR is bad how can I get their key? She lost the install disk and papers that she needed.
 
There are programs out there that can recover a CD Key from a running Windows install but I'm not familiar with any that can do it from a hard drive connected to another computer.
 
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