[FrankFit]

Hi in need of some help, Over the last few days my PC rebooted itself 3 or 4 times after initial switch on then seemed to settle & work ok for the rest of the day. The other day I switched it on & it just seems to be stuck in a loop of rebooting itself after the XP loading screen, It does the same thing if you try to boot in safe mode or use last known good settings. Ive not installed anything new recently.
Heres what I have tried:-
Disconnecting all USB devices.
Resetting the CMOS.
Disconnecting the RAM one at a time.
Re seated all motherboard & drive connections.
Replaced the power supply with a new one.
It has a 500GB seagate SATA HDD, i have run the seagate HDD test utility booting from the CD, it came back with one error which it also repaired & it didn't appear when i ran the test again.
I have booted off the XP CD to try running the repair function. I then get a screen saying setup did not find any HDD's installed, make sure they are powered on & properly connected.
I also have a 2nd SATA HDD installed in the PC which is only used for storage which the setup doesent see either. Both drives however appear on the 'Boot from' menu when i press F11 at start up.
Any ideas on where to go next with this ?? Help me please.

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Hi FrankFit and
Try disconnecting the second HDD completely and swapping the SATA cables and Ports on the MB.
Have you changed the boot sequence in the BIOS to 1: CD/DVD drive and 2: The HDD.

EDIT: If you have data on the HDD that you wish to try and secure and also to see if the HDD can be read try Puppy Linux http://www.geekstogo...over-your-data/ also check http://www.hiren.inf...bios-boot-cdrom for setting the boot sequence for your appropriate BIOS.

Edited by phillpower2, 01 November 2011 - 03:52 PM.

[phillpower2]

Hi FrankFit and
Try disconnecting the second HDD completely and swapping the SATA cables and Ports on the MB.
Have you changed the boot sequence in the BIOS to 1: CD/DVD drive and 2: The HDD.

EDIT: If you have data on the HDD that you wish to try and secure and also to see if the HDD can be read try Puppy Linux http://www.geekstogo...over-your-data/ also check http://www.hiren.inf...bios-boot-cdrom for setting the boot sequence for your appropriate BIOS.

Edited by phillpower2, 01 November 2011 - 03:52 PM.

[FrankFit]

Hi & thanks for replying. I should have said that i had already tried disconnecting the 2nd HDD (and the CD & floppy drives), I've also tried swapping cables & using different ports on the MB.
Just made that bootable puppy lunix thing & it boots no problem, i can access my main HDD & both partitions on my 2nd HDD no problem. I have a DVD backup of most of my important stuff but would ideally like to save my current install if possible.
I cant even see how to do a fresh install of windows if the setup doesent see any of my HDD's ??
If i try the recovery console or automated recovery it asks me to insert a floppy disk that i dont have (ive never used the recovery console).
Any more advice would be welcome.

[FrankFit]

Just to add to this I have now bought a SATA to USB dock to plug the HDD into my laptop & i can navigate through that fine & all my data is still there. Is there anything i can do now i have this dock & can access the drive apart from trying to format the hard drive ?

[phillpower2]

Is there anything i can do now i have this dock & can access the drive apart from trying to format the hard drive ?

Try running the Seagate diagnostic tool "how to" below;

Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option), and make the CD bootable.

NOTE. If your hard drive is made by Toshiba, unfortunately, you're out of luck, because Toshiba doesn't provide any diagnostic tool.

Thanks to Broni for the instructions

NB: How did you clear the BIOS, try swapping the battery.

[The Skeptic]

This could happen because the power switch itself is marginally faulty and remains stuck after you press it. this can lead to a loop of start and forced shutting.

Check if this is the case. Remove the front panel, expose the front end of the switch and spray it with WD40 or put a drop of light oil like the one used for sewing machines. make sure that the switch button freely goes in and is pushed back by the internal spring. Reinstall and hope for the best.

[FrankFit]

Is there anything i can do now i have this dock & can access the drive apart from trying to format the hard drive ?

Try running the Seagate diagnostic tool "how to" below;

Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option), and make the CD bootable.

I already ran the Seagate diagnostic utility of a bootable CD while the HDD was in my PC, this was in my first post, it cam back with one error which it repaired & when scanning it a second tim the error was gone.
It was the CMOS I reset not the BIOS, I did this by removing the battery, the user manual tha came with the MB said this is one way to do it.

This could happen because the power switch itself is marginally faulty and remains stuck after you press it. this can lead to a loop of start and forced shutting.

Thanks but the fact that it can run the manufacturer hard drive diagnostic utility off the bootable CD & i can run the puppy lunix thing mentioned by philpower2 no problem would rule out a power switch problem ??

Anyway bit of an update/result, I plugged the hard drive into my old laptop via the SATA - USB dock to check i could still navgate through all my data which i could, when i restarted the laptop with the HDD still connected it done the thing where it says one of your discs needs to be checked for consistency, it aparantly repaired some errors, when i plugged it back into my PC it booted up no problem first time & has been working fine ever since.
I think is time for an upgrade to windows 7 ?

[phillpower2]

Hi FrankFit, thank you for the update and my apologies for overlooking that you had already done the Seagate HDD test.
The OS may not be the issue here it could be the HDD itself being temperamental, is the HDD SMART enabled for advanced warning of potential HDD failure http://www.smarthdd.com/en/