I think I broke my comp. again (won't boot up)

and, this time I didn't do anything to it. I was on it earlier this morning, and I left to go do some errands (left it on), and when I got back home, the screen wouldn't turn back on, so I rebooted it. When it started booting up, it said something like, Go Back detected some error and had to reboot to not mess up Disk #1. Well, I finally got it to get to the screen to revert back, but it didn't (got some other error). I made a MS-DOS starup disk (on my laptop), got it in the C drive, but when I do "dir", all get is


Volume in drive C is DRV2_VOL1
Volume Serial Number is
Directory of C:\

MUSIC <DIR> 02-28-04 11:38a
0 file(s) 0 bytes
1 dir(s) 7,254.06 MB free

My home computer is Windows ME with a 40 gbyte h/d, and an 80 gbyte secondary drive. I have not changed anything (hardware wise), or software wise in a few weeks, so I 'm not sure what's up?

 

can you hook your 40gb up to a friends computer as slave and see if the files are viewable? also, try doing a repair setup on it.

 

hmmm, I'll have to check into that later on (what is repair setup)? I have a newer computer, but it's XP. I don't know if that will matter (if it will recognize the other drive)? anyway, I can get to the the music folder ok (in dos mode), so I'm wondering if certain sectors are fried or what? I'm not totally sure that I'm dealing with a damaged h/d (maybe), or some virus(s)/spyware (which I doubt), or my crap just got corrupted? Anyway, I can get to my bios settings, but I can't get past my Adeptec Go Back, (which is right before me getting to safe mode), which I can't.

so, i'd appreciate any/all help!! - steve

 

Hi,

Your XP machine will recognize the drive if it is setup as a slave on a ide cable with another device. It sounds like the drive has or is going to fail so if you do get it to work on another machine I would retrieve any inportant data if you can just in case.

Rick

 

yeah as rick said, xp will recognise it if its set up as a slave on another drive, so retrieve everything you need then you might just have to reinstall

 

ok thx, i'll give it a try in a few. what I did notice is that the C drive that it is looking at is actually my D drive. i've actually got most of my C drive saved on my D drive from my last screw up (@ 1 month ago, or so), but that's a totally different story.. - steve

http://users3.ev1.net/~ahls/error1.jpg <-- original error message

http://users3.ev1.net/~ahls/error2.jpg <-- 2nd error message

 

oh, and if i try to go to the B drive (which i've never had), it's actually reading the floppy drive (which is my A drive). i'm fixing to yank my h/d and x-fer whatever I need. how do I reinstall the software from disks? is it straightforward? or can you point me in the right direction (threads on these boards)? - steve

 

well, I think it's fried!! I took it out and put it in my other computer (XP), and it wouldn't recognize it, so I swapped it with my 80 gbyte drive and it read that one ok. so, I tried it again, and it still didn't work (and yes, I had changed the jumper setting). well, now I put it back in the old case and left off my 2nd drive and it won't go past the DOS screen.

Reboot and Select proper Boot device
or Insert Boot Media in Selected Boot Device

and if I put in my boot up disk (for DOS mode), it won't read that drive anymore.

so now I'm thinking about buying another h/d?

 

if there's no data you need on it then try booting from the setup floppies available from the microsoft website, and then insert your xp cd - it can't hurt unless there's date you vitally need!

 

well, I'm up and running again. I went out and bought a h/d at Office Depot 60gbyte for $30.00 after rebates (@ $35.00 with taxes). I figure I only lost about 1 month worth of stuff/junk (and about 10+ gig, of what I have no idea), as I already had saved the bulk of my stuff on my 2nd drive. Now my computer looks bare (on the C drive). Also, I'm one that saves my downloaded/installed programs, so it's making it that much easier.

I think my next purchase will be Norton Ghost, so I don't have to deal with all of this again. I'll also try and mess with my drive and see if I can't access it one more time before I toss it. thx, for the suggestions anyways!! - steve

 

This may sound silly but put the HD in the freezer for about four hours......if it is a bearing issues this will let the disks spinf for a short period of time before you won't be able to use it. This is only for a last ditch attempt. This worked for a couple of bi=uddies of mine that had failed disks.

Also see this blog for other testimonials.


http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=33711

 

lol it sounded weird to me, i found out that my neighbour did that once and he got all his data back, sounds so weird putting it in the freezer!

 

Yeh that's what I said when one of my buddies did it a work...

We have gotten data off to bad laptops that way.

 

One more thing, run chkdsk on that drive, I just fixed a guys computer tonite that would post but windows would not load, ran it and everthing ok now.
Its located on a widows 98 start up disk or in repair consule on a windows xp disk. Worth a shot

 

You may have already tried this but,, try ALL types of jumper settings every combination there is as i have that prob with some of my HD's like one will only be recognised as slave regardless of jumper setting and when i put 2 in it must be set as master and the other one as well for it to be recognised as Slave.. good luck