I'm having a hard drive problem (help would be great)

[DragonmasterDerk]

ok i have a Maxtor 40 gig 7200 rpm drive. I kept my computer on for 3 days straight which i usually do not do. When turning my PC on it will go to the first Windows XP loading screen.. (which is all black w/ a white loading bar.) it will get through that screen, but then it goes to the second load screen w/ the blue loading bar. It will freeze midway through loading... and i didn't install any new drivers lately. I can get my pc to safemode, but it takes forever to load.

 

[DragonmasterDerk]

does anyone know anything?... i've asked a bunch of my friends and none of them know crap

 

[minendo]

What other components do you have installed? Sounds like it could be a driver initialization error.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: minendo
What other components do you have installed? Sounds like it could be a driver initialization error.

yeah, or a NIC possibly.. but that doesn't take THAT long.

 

[MichaelD]

Remove everything but the video card and RAM and try it that way. See what happens.

 

[zephyrprime]

Boot into safemode.

First, use system restore to go back a few days. You may have to go back as much as a month because you may have had some sort of weird latent problem.

If that doesn't work, run a disk check and select "fix problems automatically" and "scan disk surface". This will require a reboot probably but that's no big deal.

 

[DragonmasterDerk]

Now there is a more crappy problem at hand... it won't even boot to safe mode. I've tried pulling out every other component and nothing happens. I've also dusted the whole inside of my pc (not that this would do anything)... and i tryed that also going to older drivers.... we'll i haven't exactly installed anything with in the last two months (driver wise.)... and when i tryed to boot up in the old drivers mode it also froze. Does anyone else have any info?


On another note I saw another Maxtor 80 gig w/ 8 meg buffer 7200 rpm.. on sale for only $109..... if i can't get any warranty support.. or if i can't get it fixed what do you recommend?

 

[zephyrprime]

Sounds like the drive is really dead. I can't make any informed specific recommedation but I refer you to www.storagereview.com. Check out their drive reliability database.

 

[BZ]

how are you sure its the hard drive? I've had similar things that turned out to be bad memory. if you have more than one stick, try taking them out one at a time

 

[AnMig]

why dont you try to boot of xp CD then choose the repair option. It should fix windows it if it was a driver issue.

This is one of those reasons I use ghost or drive image. I have system restore turned off in my computer.

1. check hard drive.There should be a drive fitness test that came with your maxtor, if not you should be able to download one off the internet and run it on a floppy (rember those).

2.check your temps at the bios and see if you are overheating or something

3.reseat your video card and ram. There is also a ram checker out there.

4. I would also check your power supply althought this is unlikely as this usually causes reboots.

5. finally the dreaded fresh install.

keeping your computer on for three days should not be problem. However did you have a power surge or lighting storm lately.

can you access your hard drive in dos (only if its FAT)

good luck

 

[DragonmasterDerk]

It well could be my ram.. although the harddrive light is not flickering.. it is just on. So i think it is the harddrive... yet i only have one stick of ram. It is...

256DDR PC2100 Crucial Registered