Hard Drive Problems

[ap3489]

Ok so i turn on my PC it runs the standard system checks, reaches the boot stage then tells me to restart by pressing Ctrl, Alt, Del

 

Do this same thing happens....Then i change the BIOS boot sequence to start with my CD-ROM drive ad put in my XP disc. This the reaches boot and asks me to press any key to boot from disk. I do this then it says it's checking my systems hardware configuration and the screen goes blank and does nothing.

 

I then open the case and put in an old HDD with XP on instead of the problematic HDD and it boots. Therefore I presume my XP files on my HDD with the problem are corrupted however the only option apparently is to format the drive completely to reinstall XP therefore loosing all my files.

 

Is there anything I can do at home to get into the HDD with the problem to remove my personal files before reformatting and reinstalling XP?

 

Thanks in Advance

 

Adam

[Plastic Nev]

Hi Adam and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help.

By what you describe it sounds like the drive itself may have died rather than just the operating system on it.

To find out, can it be temporarily installed alongside the older but working drive as a secondary master, or primary slave? I am assuming the system is IDE here as you don't say.

 

If it can't be done that way because of shortage of room, it can be connected externally however, if you obtain an external caddy for it, or at least an adapter cable to connect it to a USB port.

 

If it will work at all, windows should recognise a mass storage device, if that is the case then you can recover your data, it should also show up in the BIOS once connected.

Is the system IDE or SATA? if IDE you will have to set the drive to slave first if doing it that way.

[ap3489]

I have a Caddy to connect as a USB device but when i try to "Explore" the Device it says that it must be formatted.

 

The HDD is PATA so IDE yes and when i connect the borken HDD to the system as the secondary HDD the thing wont move past the boot sequence. Is this becuase it needs to be set as a slave device? If so how do I do that?

 

Thanks

Adam

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Ok do you have a 3 way IDE cable?

 

If so set the working drive as Master on the far end of the cable.

 

Set the faulty drive as Slave via the jumpers, on the middle connector and make sure the cable is in IDE 0 on the board.

 

Boot up and if the drive shows in the bios let us know.

[ap3489]

Ok so i used the 3 way IDE cable and did what you said but the BIOS will only show the broken HDD even when i try to "detect" the other one. I can get the broken HDD as the Primary Master and Secondary Slave but nowhere else and the working HDD doesnt show on the BIOS unless the broken HDD is removed from the IDE cable.... really confused:confused:

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Have you made sure the connectors are totally inserted fully?

 

As the arrangement stands disconnect the molex from the slaved faulty drive and reboot.

 

Tell us what you see now as it should boot without issue.

[ap3489]

Exactly that the PC boots though XP no problem with the MOLEX removed from the faulty HDD...where do i go from here?

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Ok change the jumper on the working drive to CS (Cable Select) and re-attach the molex to the faulty drive, make sure the drive jumper/s are set to Slave.

 

Reboot and watch the POST screen to see if the Slave drive is listed.

 

If the screen goes by too fast then reboot and see if it's listed in the bios once more.

[ap3489]

Ok gooooood...

 

Changing the Faulty HDD to CS (Slave) has worked and the PC has booted

 

I open up my computer and the drive is listed so I assume that means it's working but again when i try to "explore" the drive it says that it needs formatting.....

 

This happens when i connect it to the Caddy too is there any way of accessing the drives contents without reformatting the HDD?

 

 

Thanks Very much

Adam

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Why did you change the faulty drive to CS?

I asked you to change the working drive to CS.

[ap3489]

oops will do

[ap3489]

Ok with the Working drive as CS the BIOS shows both of my HDD's are connected

 

I then tried to boot into XP passed the Boot sequence and then the black and white loading bar just before the windows loading bar appeared and then just AFTER the standard windows XP loading bar appeared the pc blue screened for around a second then restarted?!!?

[Plastic Nev]

Have you changed the duff drive jumpers to "slave"? They were on CS

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Ok did you set the faulty drive back to slave?

 

Do that and let me know then we'll try one final thing that should get this show on the road.

[ap3489]

OK so put the faulty drive to slave and the working drive to what....?

[Guest Wolfeymole]

CS of course, leave the working drive as it is.

 

If you carefully follow all instructions given we can sort this out ok.

[ap3489]

No change

 

Ok we're still at the stage where if the faulty drive is anything but the slave it wont pass the boot sequence and if it is the slave then the PC will boot but the faulty HDD wont be read and tries to format....

[Tootech]

Can you go back to how it was set up in post 9 - that worked and we can work on your other drive from there.

 

Can you also let us know what files you need from the faulty drive, and how important they are.

 

Go to My Computer, right click over the faulty drive icon and select Properties, then Tools, then Error Checking.

 

Click Check Now, tick both available boxes and click Start

 

Let it run through - it may take an hour or so and then see if you can read your drive.

[ap3489]

Ok i have that set up and tried the error checking and nothing happened the error checker just closed without scanning....?

[Tootech]

Considering that your computer boots and runs ok with your old hard drive, but not your current one and you cannot do a disk error check either, we think that your hard drive is probably faulty.

 

Options here are

 

1) Buy a new hard drive and reinstall Windows.

2) Continue to use your old drive.

 

You originally asked if your files would be retrievable. They are probably retrievable as the drive is identified in the BIOS, but its not really a job for the forum.

 

Your best bet would be to take your drive to a specialist for asessment.