Oh God please help!

[Spartan73]

Im sat here in disbelief as i write this.... and I'm praying that someone can help me, cos I have a really horrible feeling I have big problems.

 

The fan on my Graphic card was making its itermittent noises, ( think its on its way out ), while i was on the phone, and was really bugging me, so I gave the PC a little tap. well quite a big tap.

 

PC Froze for ages so I restarted it. On restarting, My HDD is making horrendous noises trying to boot up , and then sort of dies out. Vista doesnt boot.

 

I opened the PC and the HDD is plugged in OK the SATA cable is in OK, and I have no idea what to do now.

 

Its 750GB seagate, about 6 months old, with little usage, but lots of important data for my work on there.... I am distraught right now, and I'm hoping someone can help.

 

Please please please...... can someone help me!

 

Not so smart, Spart! :(

[Seth]

Are you positive it's the hard drive?

[Spartan73]

Are you positive it's the hard drive?

 

Im almost certain, as when it tried booting the first time, it said Primary Hdd error, and when I went into the Bios? setup, it wasnt even there / recognised.

 

:confused:

[Seth]

Unfortunately, those aren't encouraging errors.

 

Stop using the computer. Do you know how to take the drive out and slave it on another computer in an attempt to access the files?

[Spartan73]

Unfortunately, those aren't encouraging errors.

 

Stop using the computer. Do you know how to take the drive out and slave it on another computer in an attempt to access the files?

 

 

Yes its out. The only thing is - its the first and only Sata Pc/ device I have. So untill I buy another one, Reinstall Vista on it, I wont know if it'll wk.

 

:confused::confused::confused:

[Seth]

Either that or perhaps a friend has a sata board computer that you could slave it to? Or a friend who who has a pata board, but you would have to get a sata to pata adapter

[Spartan73]

I didnt think it would be possible as the HDD wasnt even being recognised before.

 

In the boot sequence Message, it said there was an error, however it recognised the HDDt, as it is doing in the Bios Setup Now - Im hoping i can get one last boot up from it now!

 

How do i get it intro safemode in Vista??

 

please.

Edited June 12, 2008 by Goku

[Spartan73]

OK - when booting it recognises the Sata Hd

 

but then says Primary Hard disk Error -

Press F1 to Continue...

[Goku]

I didnt think it would be possible as the HDD wasnt even being recognised before.

 

In the boot sequence Message, it said there was an error, however it recognised the HDDt, as it is doing in the Bios Setup Now - Im hoping i can get one last boot up from it now!

 

How do i get it intro safemode in Vista??

 

please.

Here is an article that describes on how to boot into Safe Mode in Windows Vista.

 

Start your computer in safe mode

 

Try and see if booting it in safe mode helps or not. Good Luck. :)

 

-- Goku

[Spartan73]

Either that or perhaps a friend has a sata board computer that you could slave it to? Or a friend who who has a pata board, but you would have to get a sata to pata adapter

 

I think the MB has an IDE slot - I may have a used IDE HDD which I will try and format, install Vista onto, and the slave the SATA drive to that. Temporarily of course.

 

Im hoping that now the HDD is being recognised, I may be able to perform some sort of scan/fix as suggested???

 

Please let me know guys...

should I press F1 to resume, and then????

 

:confused:

[Spartan73]

Nope - Wont get me into safe mode - when it prompts me for boot device, the HDD isnt there, although in the Bios Setup its recognising the serial number of it.....

[Seth]

Slave it any way you can, but there is a good chance that it won't be recognized even as a slave.

[Spartan73]

Slave it any way you can, but there is a good chance that it won't be recognized even as a slave.

 

I'm thinking the same - #

 

oh dear oh dear!

 

How can a HDD just die like that?

 

Never seen anything like it.....

 

:confused:

[Tony D]

If you tap a hard drive while it's spinning, and Spartan73 said "... I gave the PC a little tap. well quite a big tap", and Windows freezes, it's my guess that there is physical damage on the drive surface.

[Goku]

I'm thinking the same - #

 

oh dear oh dear!

 

How can a HDD just die like that?

 

Never seen anything like it.....

 

:confused:

How can you say that the hard drive died just like that? You admitted that you had tapped the CPU case when you heard the noise. This probably means that you disturbed the already loose drive head from its original place. This is why the hard drive "died" in the first place.

 

However, I think that the experts here like Seth, Kelly and Dalo should reasonably sort you out as they have rarely failed us before. Just follow their instructions properly and you shall be all right. Good Luck. :)

 

-- Goku

[Seth]

If you tap a hard drive while it's spinning, and Spartan73 said "... I gave the PC a little tap. well quite a big tap", and Windows freezes, it's my guess that there is physical damage on the drive surface.

 

Given the current information, either Spartan loosened up a cable by that swift kick to the nuts, or he damaged the firmware on the hard drive.

[Spartan73]

Hmmm yeah well - i didnt exactly hit it with a sledge hammer, but i gave the ATX case a tap. Oh well...

 

Ive since taken the drive out - and have put in an IDE drive ( quickly formatted on another PC )

 

However, Im trying to install Vista on that Drive now, and cant seem to get the install going....

 

it recognises the drive, Ive set the boot sequence to Cdrom etc, and when I restart, nothing.....

 

Im really drained and tired, been on this all day.....:o:o:o:o, what am i doing wrong now?

 

Thanks.

[Tony D]

If the BIOS see the drive, the Vista install disk should take it from there. You could have a problem with either the DVD drive or the disk itself. Can you try the disk on another computer to see if it will boot on another machine?

[Spartan73]

If the BIOS see the drive, the Vista install disk should take it from there. You could have a problem with either the DVD drive or the disk itself. Can you try the disk on another computer to see if it will boot on another machine?

 

Ok - just tried restarting my laptop with the Vista DVD in it, and it promted me to boot from cd etc... so it is working fine.

 

In the broken PC, the DVD drive was set to SATA 2 so i changed it to the SATA 1 port hoping it would make a difference, but nothing. My screen just goes out of range as there is no signal.....

 

Is it worth trying a different drive? I have a newer HDD, 500gb - wondering if there is compatibility probs with older HDD?

 

 

:confused:

[Seth]

No compatibility problem.

 

The "firmware" (circuit board) on the hard drive is damaged...and maybe more.

 

If slaving it doesn't help, I'll give you other options.

[Spartan73]

No compatibility problem.

 

The "firmware" (circuit board) on the hard drive is damaged...and maybe more.

 

If slaving it doesn't help, I'll give you other options.

 

Seth Buddy - I meant - I wanted to put an IDE drive in ( temporarily ) and install Vista to that, so that I can try and slave the original SATA drive in the same system, as I have no other SAtA PC here.

 

I was using an old 120Gb IDE drive, and it wasnt booting from DVD /installing onto it, although it was recognising the drive in the Bios setup. I stuck in a 500Gb Drive just now ( IDE again ) which i was going to use for another machine, and Vista is installing YEEHAA! - so must've been a compatibilty prob with the older HDD.

 

Once installed, I am then going to attach the SATA drive ( broken one ) into the only available SATA port remaining, and try to SLAVE IT!

 

I do hope this makes sense,

 

anyway i will be back as soon as Vista has installed, and Ive tried slaving the Sata drive.....

 

thanks for all your help bud, don't know what Id do whithout ya!

 

:rolleyes:

Edited June 12, 2008 by Spartan73

[Spartan73]

How can you say that the hard drive died just like that? You admitted that you had tapped the CPU case when you heard the noise. This probably means that you disturbed the already loose drive head from its original place. This is why the hard drive "died" in the first place.

 

 

-- Goku

 

 

 

" the noise " was coming from a grahics card fan ( which i was intending on replacing anyway ) - so not so obviously "already loose" .... Agreed - tapping wasn't the smartest move, but Many thanks for taking the time to humiliate me and make me feel even more stupid than i already do! :p

Edited June 13, 2008 by Spartan73

[Spartan73]

Seth Hi again

 

I got Vista Installed on the the IDE HDD - which is the Primary Master -

The SATA HDD is the secondary master - not sure if this is correct.

 

On booting up, it sees the Secondary Master slave - but gives the same error message as before. and The drive is NOT visible in Windows ( my computer ) either.

 

Have i got the friggin thing slaved or what? lol

......I think i'm going craaazy!

 

:o

[Dalo Harkin]

when you start Vista it doesnt automatically recognise the drive - go into the control panel and then admin tools then computer management under storage there is a disk management - is it showing 2 drives in there?

[Spartan73]

Hi

 

Ok in Computer MAnagement

 

In the top part of the screen its only showing the working drive and the DVD drive.

 

In the bottom half it has

Disk 0 - and its info ONLINE

 

Disk 1 - Unknown Unreadable

 

CD Rom ......ONLINE

 

:mad: