WinXP Pro suddenly won't boot, NTLDR problems, hard drive spins up/down

[dahoff]

Hi, this problem just occurred several hours ago. Luckily I did a fresh install of WinXP Pro exactly one month ago so I won't lose too much stuff if worse comes to worse. Also, luckily I burnt a Knoppix LiveCD (complete Linux n00b here) a couple weeks ago...that's what I'm on now.

Info you might need
2 physical hard drives, both NTFS:
HD1: C: and D: partitions (this is the problem drive, but mainly the C: partition)
HD2: E: (not giving me problems)

Description of Problem
I wasn't doing anything unusual. Just web surfing when suddenly Windows froze (mouse still worked), the hard drive LED went on, and the hard drive made spin up and spin down noises. Then Windows unfroze, but a few seconds later the same stuff happened, so I had to hit the reset button on the case.

After rebooting, I got an error, something like: "NTLDR missing..." (Note: I never got this error again.)

I tried booting into Safe Mode, Normal Mode, and Last Known Good Configuration. None of them worked. Either the system hangs or it keeps resetting.

I then tried the Knoppix LiveCD. The D: partition reads smoothly. The C: partition reads SLOWLY if at all.

Maybe a boot sector problem on C:? So then I stuck in the WinXP CD and went to the recovery console. It wouldn't let me list the contents of C: at all (Note: "dir D:" worked though). It would pause for 10 seconds but then give me an error. I tried "fixboot" and "fixmbr" and both commands went through, but it didn't seem to fix my problem at all. I also tried "copy E:\i386\ntldr C:\" and "copy E:\i386\ntdetect.com C:\" but both failed because I can't read or write to C:

So I'm back in Knoppix. D: reads flawlessly (my MP3s and videos play), but C: is sluggish as heck. Is my hard drive about to die (the spin ups/spin downs are one symptom), but then again D: is fine, so maybe the drive is healthy but the master boot record is screwy.

Another bad thing is I have a ton of EFS encrypted files on D: and haven't backed up the private key yet. I haven't reformatted, so my first goal is just getting Windows to start.

What's going on? Thanks everyone in advance.

Other Relevant Info
WinXP Pro SP2 with all updates
No viruses, adware, spyware (weekly full scans)
Tons of fans, very well cooled

P4 Northwood @ 2 GHz
1 GB RAM
2 x 120 GB Western Digital hard drives

 

[dahoff]

I just ran a Quick Test and Extended Test using Western Digital's Lifeguard Diagnostics. Both tests reported zero errors.
The C:\ drive seems more responsive (no delay) when viewing contents in Konqueror. The tests said they didn't change anything.

Let me try booting Windows now.

 

[dahoff]

Started booting Windows, then the boot menu came up. I took a risk and went with "Normal Mode." WinXP CheckDisk came up and recovered a whole ton of files. Something like "Recovering orphaned file <C:\Documents & Settings\...> in file 9413"
Basically everything in My Documents for my main account (they were missing before, but now they're back).
* Windows loaded, so I was like: "OK, Now I can switch back to my Promise Ultra ATA 133 card instead of hooking the hard drive directly to the motherboard." Wrong.

Right after POST, I got a "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER" message. Weird... So I put the HD back on the motherboard in IDE1 and here I am, in Windows, like nothing happened.

I've pretty much limited my problem down to:
1) The Promise IDE controller card is bad (although IDE2 works perfectly since drive E: works).
2) The IDE cable for my hard drive is bad.
3) The boot sector is messed up for C:\ (my original guess)

I'm backing up important files, decrypting *everything*, and running a full virusscan (Symantec), Spybot, and Ad-Aware, and I'll post again.

Edit: No viruses or malware.

This is driving me nuts. Must be the IDE connector on the Promise card, even though the other connector works.