[trunxzzz]

i just did the maxtor blast thing but i dont know how to tell whether my hd is still good or not. i was looking at the technical hard drive information but cant quite seem to make sense out of it. and there are options in this program for me to format the harddrive which i almost did =) how could i look to see if my files are ok? or is this program not designed for this purpose? my computer still have the same symptoms and i still dont know what to do.
in the maxtor program there are five options
1. view installation tutorial
2.setup your hard drive
3.maintenance options
4.utilities
5.hard disk information

Edited by trunxzzz, 08 February 2006 - 10:59 PM.

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To avoid disaster I strongly recommend that you backup your data before loosing it all by doing mistakes. Remove your HD and install it as a slave in your brother's computer. Go into My Computer and it will show up as a new local disk. Copy or burn your valuable data into a safe storage device such as your brother's HD or a CD rom.

After backing up the data you can safely perform numerous tests while your HD is on the other computer. Run chkdsk /r, antivirous, antispyware etc.

[The Skeptic]

To avoid disaster I strongly recommend that you backup your data before loosing it all by doing mistakes. Remove your HD and install it as a slave in your brother's computer. Go into My Computer and it will show up as a new local disk. Copy or burn your valuable data into a safe storage device such as your brother's HD or a CD rom.

After backing up the data you can safely perform numerous tests while your HD is on the other computer. Run chkdsk /r, antivirous, antispyware etc.

[trunxzzz]

OK I JUST CONNECTED MY HARDDRIVE TO MY BROTHER'S COMPUTER AND STARTED MAKING BACKUPS OF MY FILES. I GOT MY FILES BACK! =) BUT WHAT I WAS THINKING IS THAT IS THERE A WAY WHERE I CAN COPY THE FILE OR FILES THAT IS CORRUPT OR MISSING DIRECTLY FROM MY BROTHER'S COMPUTER TO MY HARDRIVE? WILL THAT WORK? OR IS IT NOT THAT SIMPLE?
STILL MAKING BACKUPS AS WE SPEAK.
150 GIGS OF BACKING UP IS WHAT I'M TRYING TO DO. TAKING QUITE SOME TIME.
BUT YEH, CAN I JUST COPY AND PASTE OVER THAT SPECIFIC FILE? OR DOES IT NOT WORK THAT WAY?

[The Skeptic]

Give it a try. Copy the file from your brother's computer, mark the exact location from which you copied it, find the same location in your HD and paste it over the corrupt file (or, alternatively, delete the corrupt file before pasting)

[trunxzzz]

crap. i tried but it keeps telling me that the file cannot be copied because it is in use. =( is there anyway to bypass this? or like doing it in dos or something? and by the way when i look for the exact file and exact location everything is the same except for the size of the file. and that there is one with the same name which is a text file and one which is a file file. what should i do?

[The Skeptic]

Yes, I should have thought about that. Could you get an xp disk, any disk, not necessarilly the one installed in your computer? If you can, copy the file from there and paste to your HD.

[trunxzzz]

would that work? by the way where is that file located in the cd anyways? i'm trying to look for it but cant

[The Skeptic]

If your HD works well on your brother's computer then the problem is probably not in it. Try to reinstall it in your computer but connect it to the second IDE connector on the motherboard. make sure that it is jumpered as Master or Cable Select and connected to the end of the flat cable. Do not connect other devices. make sure that all connections, including power, are well secured.

Regarding Maxtor diagnostic tools: I use Powermax 4.22 bootable. You can download it from Maxtor. It enables a number of test, uncluding a burning test, which are very easy to perform. At the end of the test you get a simple answer whether the device passed or failed[b] the test.

[trunxzzz]

the thing is this. i plugged in my hardrive into my brother's computer as i think a secondary hard drive. therefore windows is probably not starting from my harddrive. that is why i dont think your method will work. plus i dont really understand your method since i'm not much of a computer guy =) what do you think about that? like. . . . . since my brother's computer is booting up windows through his harddrive, my hardrive's windows program isnt in use that is why no problem occurs. if you still think putting my harddrive back into my comjputer as a secondary ide or whatever will work. do you mind giving me more specific details on whether how to do this? thanks

[gerryf]

yeaughh....I lost track of this thread.

Stop trying to copy a system file from your brother's pc, and stop looking for the file on a cd....it does not exist

SYSTEM is one fo the files Windows uses to create the registry at boot up.

It looks for it here:

WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM


You need a copy of YOUR SYSTEM file...no one else's will work, as it was created by windows during setup and subsequent changes to hardware

Since your drive is hooked up to your brothers PC as a slave, this can be fairly easy

First, check here:

C:\WINDOWS\repair

You should see SYSTEM there


If so, COPY the file from

C:\WINDOWS\repair
to
c:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

NOTE: I SAID COPY

Install hardrive back in your PC, reboot

Work?

[trunxzzz]

is the the C:\windows\repair from my brother's harddrive or my harddrive?

[gerryf]

your drive

so, I'm sorry...

D:\windows....

[trunxzzz]

YES!
well good news is that my computer is turning on and stuff. after i copied the file onto my harddrive and installed it back into my computer. it ran some checks and stuff in the windows starting screen. BUT . . . now my computer is acting up. all of my icons have no pictures to them like how they used to. they're all blank. and when i first turn on the computer it tells me that the ati control panel is shutting down because it does not locate my ati driver or that it is damaged or somehting like that. also i am not able to go online. when i try to reinstall my d-link wireless card thing it tells me that the operating system is denying my ability to do the setup. also whenever i open anything this windows installer window pops up and tells me it is preparing to install something and yet it just sits there not doing anything. my computer is also moving really slow. and when i open something like my computer it takes around 30 seconds to open when it used to open right after i click it. also when i go to the device manager to try to update the drivers and stuff it gives me errors on how it cant find a file =( sorry for all of this. but i greatly appreciate your help. you guys are the best . i'm not sure if your going to help me on these problems but if you do that'd be great ^___^ thanks again
good news is that the computer turned on and logged into windows

Edited by trunxzzz, 11 February 2006 - 03:18 PM.

[gerryf]

OK, that is not completely outrageous since that was an original install of the system file.

Hopefully, you made a copy as directed instead of moving SYSTEM file

Now, we are going to try and find a newer version of system

Put your drive back iun your bro's machine

Look in here:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\config

you should see SYSTEM with todays date and SYSTEM.BAK....what date is that?

What are the two sizes?

Also, look in
C:\System Volume Information

You will find multiple folders in here...all with long ugly names like

_restore{3E81599F-04A8-4E5B-BD9C-F7B60416F016}

Find one with a recent date, just prior to this mess. Report back

[trunxzzz]

um i looked in there. but i only found a system file that has today's date and size of2,560 KB. i see a system text document with today's date and size of 1 KB. I see a system.sav file that also has today's date and size of 400 KB. but no system.bak (i am looking in MY harddrive) but even if i look in my brother's computer he doesnt have the system.bak either. did i do something wrong? i made a copy of the old system file onto my brother's computer for backup so i still have the original system file that had the problems. i dont know if that will help or not. as for the system volume information folder. i cant find this folder even by using the search tool. =T