[Kat23]

Hi I’m hoping someone can offer some assistance, I’ve read through numerous other posts but nothing is quite the same, apologies if this scenario has already been answered in the past (I’m new to using these forums).

Computer was working fine one day and then next day I went to turn on and received the following message “Disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter” – I’m running Windows XP on this PC. I’ve since tried to reboot in safe mode (F8 and then the F6 option too), but no luck neither will go to the next screen. Then tried, to reboot with the Windows XP disc (the original one not a copy) and attempted the steps for repairing (first option “To set up WINDOWS XP now, press enter”) however I didn’t even get to the next step as the computer could not find the hard drive. So I F3’d to exit. I’ve since, tried putting the hard drive into another computer but it didn’t even recognize that it existed (but not entirely sure I did this right – you just plug in the same way?), and also tried rebooting the PC without the hard drive and still received the same black screen and message.

This area of computers is not ‘my thing’ so I'm concerned I may have missed something or not checked something correctly. I would really love to retrieve the data files on the hard drive if it's possible. I’m hoping someone can give me advice on the following:
1. Do you think my hard drive is totally dead and I should send it to computer heaven? How can I check to be sure?
2. If there is hope it’s ok, what’s the easiest way to copy the data from the hard drive using another computer?

One other thing I just of thought of which may or may not be relevant, the hard drive was replaced about 12 months ago by someone else when the computer displayed the blue screen and would not boot up etc..

Thanks for your time.
Kat

[Advertisements]

First check if your BIOS is detecting your hard drive.

If it detects it then you will need to run a HD diasgnostic test for your Hard Drive model. Go to this website to find the appropriate HD diagnostic tool.
http://www.carrona.org/hddiag.html

If your HD is a SATA drive then just connecting it to another computer would make it work, if it is an IDE Hard Drive then you have to make sure the jumpers are set to slave drive if the other computer already as a master hd or set it as as cable select if the other hd is set to cable select (take note that the master slave in cable select is always connected to the end of the IDE ribbon and the slave to the middle connector).

[Alzeimer]

First check if your BIOS is detecting your hard drive.

If it detects it then you will need to run a HD diasgnostic test for your Hard Drive model. Go to this website to find the appropriate HD diagnostic tool.
http://www.carrona.org/hddiag.html

If your HD is a SATA drive then just connecting it to another computer would make it work, if it is an IDE Hard Drive then you have to make sure the jumpers are set to slave drive if the other computer already as a master hd or set it as as cable select if the other hd is set to cable select (take note that the master slave in cable select is always connected to the end of the IDE ribbon and the slave to the middle connector).

[Kat23]

Thanks so much for your reply - I'm no expert so it may take me awhile to complete - I'll let you know how it goes.

Again, thanks for the time to reply very much appreciated.

cheers
Kat

[happyrock]

Hi Kat23 ... ..
if the bios does not "see" the hard drive...
unplug from the wall anytime your going to open the case...
replace the data cable and unplug and replug the power cable...
plug in again and see if the bios "sees" the drive
no...
unplug and remove the drive and slave it to a working computer using the slave or cable select option if its a IDE drive... it has to be the middle connector unless its on a second channel by itself...
power up that computer...does windows see the drive...if so copy any data you can't live without to the other drive or burn it to cd/dvd's...then run chkdsk /r on that drive while you have it connected to the working system...
if the working computer does not see the drive its dead and will have to be replaced...
hopefully you have your data backed up somewhere

[Devillers]

Hello Kat,

I think the problem is that your hard disk drive is not getting detected in the BIOS menu. So I suggest you to unplug your hard disk and plug it again and check whether it is getting detected. Then you can re install your Windows XP OS. But however the data from the hard disk will be lost after OS installation. The only way to recover the data back is by using a good data recovery software. Yodot Hard Drive recovery is a software which I use to recover my data back after any disk boot failure problem. It is a perfect tool to perform recovery after disk boot failure .

[Rasool]

Hi,Everybody , Iam probably the newest!member at this very moment ,and a friend of mine has exactly the same problem ,and to help him I have brought his computre home,but my Pc is a Lap Top ,so can I do these things using a Lap Top ? I guess not ! So,How can I help him .He dose not need to restore his data , All he wants is to get it back to work, with w.xp ,W.7 ,W.8 or any other OS.
What I have read so far ,have been very intresting ,but have not tried any yet ,waiting to see if a Lap Top can do the job .I Thank you All,for the help you give to all.