[Ghoti]

About three weeks ago, I noticed that my computer was freezing up a little more often than usual, or that it would shut down and try to reboot. In either case it would get hung up on the "PCI Device Listing..."screen. At the bottom of the page:
"Verifying DMI Pool Data..."
"Boot from CD:"
"Boot from CD:"
"Boot from CD:"
"DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER"
I proceeded to do as I was told, and placed my Windows XP Professional disk in one of three of my disk drives (I have tried all of them at one time or another).
After having my "hardware configuration inspected", I arrived at the "Windows Setup" screen, and then off to the "Welcome to Setup" screen; where I was presented to three helpful choices. I could press Enter to "Setup Windows, Now"; I could press "r" and "repair a Windows XP Installation using Recovery Console"; or the ever-popular "quit without installing Windows XP - F3 choice. By pressing either of the first two choices, I was informed that "Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer." How could that be? My computer is only a year old, and where could they have gone? That left me with only one choice -"F3"! - which started the process all over again.
There was nothing I could do - no safe mode, no system restore, no BIOS drive sequencing - nothing. Well, almost nothing. Actually, I discovered that if I didn't turn on the computer for two or three days, sometimes..., it would boot up all the way to my desk top, whether I had my Windows disk in or not, or whether I unplugged and replugged my computer.
The last time I got it to go, I was in the process of re-installing Windows, and even loaded a few drivers, without difficulty; that is, until I tried to load SP2.
Well need I say more, computer froze up, and those familiar words, " DISK BOOF FAILURE" - Back to square one!!!
If there is a sympathetic heart who would take pity on this lost soul, and ease my suffering, I would be most appreciative.

Edited by Ghoti, 02 August 2005 - 02:14 AM.

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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it sounds a lot like your Hard Disk is failing/has failed.

I would strongly recomend that if you get back into Windows again, then make a copy of anything you regard as important, photo's, documents, etc to CD or floppy or anything that is not physically part of your PC.

Soon your hard disk will die completely and you wont be able to retreive anything off it without paying for specialist companies or software to retrieve the data.

The only other possibility is that yuou have a loose IDE or power cable going into your Hard disk, you can checkthis by taking the side off your machine and then just checking all cables are firmly seated.

You can get a new Hard Disk from any PC supplies retailer, if you still have your windows disk then it wont be a problem to re-install windows on it.

[The_KiD]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it sounds a lot like your Hard Disk is failing/has failed.

I would strongly recomend that if you get back into Windows again, then make a copy of anything you regard as important, photo's, documents, etc to CD or floppy or anything that is not physically part of your PC.

Soon your hard disk will die completely and you wont be able to retreive anything off it without paying for specialist companies or software to retrieve the data.

The only other possibility is that yuou have a loose IDE or power cable going into your Hard disk, you can checkthis by taking the side off your machine and then just checking all cables are firmly seated.

You can get a new Hard Disk from any PC supplies retailer, if you still have your windows disk then it wont be a problem to re-install windows on it.

[garyo1954]

Yes, it certainly appears your boot drive (C:\ drive) is in need of replacement.

I agree with the Kid.

G

[matt_fleming]

Just curious... does it make a clicking sound?

-Matt

[garyo1954]

Good thought matt!

G

[dsenette]

if you can get into windows again try this - start, run, cmd. then type in chkdsk c: /r

[Ghoti]

I do not hear any clicking coming from the computer. Does a hard drive always "click" before it fails? - Afterall, she's still a baby (6-04)

Edited by Ghoti, 02 August 2005 - 05:18 PM.

[dsenette]

not always.....but if it sounds like metal on metal it's on it's way out