[akb]

I was experiencing problems with my computer, and now it's at the point where it will not even get past the windows loading screen at startup. The screen flashes blue for a moment (too quick for me to read any of the text on it) and then the computer reboots, repeating the cycle endlessly until I manually switch it off. At this point, I know the hard drive is beyond saving. I've already purchased a replacement, but in the meantime I would at least like to know some way to get my computer to boot normally so I can transfer some important files off the hard drive. Any suggestions?

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this may sound stupid, but have any magnets been sitting around ur PC, this has happened to me and that's wat caused it. Or your bios could be a little wacked, I'm not an extreme expert on BIOS flashing and [bleep] like that. SO id ask someone else also

[woohoofulness]

this may sound stupid, but have any magnets been sitting around ur PC, this has happened to me and that's wat caused it. Or your bios could be a little wacked, I'm not an extreme expert on BIOS flashing and [bleep] like that. SO id ask someone else also

[Tyger]

If you're having troubles with the hard drive don't stress it any more. Wait until you get the new one, install the operating system on it, and hook the old one up as slave to get any valuable files off it. Your HDD may be OK, you may actually have problems with malware or settings in BIOS, or you may have corrupted files in your OS. But when it's in a continual boot mode like that you can't really do much, unless you can go into Safe Mode or DOS and fix the problem, which isn't easy. If you don't have anything valuable it might just be easier to start over with it.

[nyspy]

Is the fan on the power supply turning on? That could be it too. Recycling like that could just be a trashed power supply.

[akb]

No, no magnets, no power supply issues. I don't believe there is a problem with my BIOS settings... I haven't altered them. It won't even let me boot into safe mode. I'm fairly certain the hard drive came with some bad sectors and its condition gradually deteriorated. I managed to remove nearly all of my important files, but I still would like to get my music library off of it. I'll try setting it up as a slave drive.

However,
1) The drive uses SATA. Is it at all possible to have to drives connected to a RAID array and keep them distinct? I've only ever heard of having them "merged", or whatever the term is.
2)I'll need to get a second SATA cable if I set up the drives together