[Droog13]

So I gave the primary drive do my father's tech specialist who ran some tests and said it definatley was a corrupt boot. My question now is, is this at all fixable?

I expect I will be buying a new primary HDD. But if there is a way to save the current one I will. I dont want to use my slave drive as my boot drive.

Also, once I buy a new Hard drive, how do I go about installing windows on it? I have the system recovery disks that came with the computer from the manufacturer. But I dont have an installation cd. Is there some way I can get windows XP onto my machine without buying a new copy?

Also, my friend has a installation cd for windows xp professional. I do not want to steal his copy, but it is possible to install pro, run the system recovery disks and them return back to home or something?

Thanks,
Droog

Edit: Just wanted to post the HDD's I was looking at incase someone had any objections/reccomendations.

Was thinking about this one:
http://www.newegg.co...22144160#sctNav

Though Ill probavly end up with something like this:
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822135106
or this
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822135106

Edited by Droog13, 28 September 2005 - 04:39 PM.

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You'd better check but normally the system recovery CD will have the windows installation built into it, so you won't require an actual XP CD. Just load the recovery disk & that should be it (but as I said, check first just in case)

As for the hard drive, you should be able to recover it so you can use it again, but this will probably involve wiping it completely so you will lose any data on the drive.

Do you have access to a win9x machine? If so, create a bootable floppy disk using the command prompt i.e. FORMAT A:/S
Download MBRTool from here :
http://www.download....page&tag=button

Extract the file to the bootable floppy disk. Boot the laptop from the floppy with just the 80GB drive attached (make sure the bios detects it).

When the floppy has booted to the A:> prompt, type MBRTOOL <enter>.
Select option 4 (work with MBR) from menu, then option 5 (dump to text file). This will create a text file on the floppy disk called mbrtool.dmp.
Quit mbrtool, remove floppy & shutdown laptop.
Rename the dmp file mbrtool.txt & attach it to your next post

[Samm]

You'd better check but normally the system recovery CD will have the windows installation built into it, so you won't require an actual XP CD. Just load the recovery disk & that should be it (but as I said, check first just in case)

As for the hard drive, you should be able to recover it so you can use it again, but this will probably involve wiping it completely so you will lose any data on the drive.

Do you have access to a win9x machine? If so, create a bootable floppy disk using the command prompt i.e. FORMAT A:/S
Download MBRTool from here :
http://www.download....page&tag=button

Extract the file to the bootable floppy disk. Boot the laptop from the floppy with just the 80GB drive attached (make sure the bios detects it).

When the floppy has booted to the A:> prompt, type MBRTOOL <enter>.
Select option 4 (work with MBR) from menu, then option 5 (dump to text file). This will create a text file on the floppy disk called mbrtool.dmp.
Quit mbrtool, remove floppy & shutdown laptop.
Rename the dmp file mbrtool.txt & attach it to your next post

[Samm]

BTW, none of those links to newegg work!

[Droog13]

I am basically thinking about getting this as a replacement HDD, I forgot to copy the whole URL in the last ones. Is maxtor a good brand?

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822144360

When I insert the system recovery cds and boot, it just says no os found. So I would guess that I cant install with those.

How would I go about recovering the HDD and wipping it clean? I might be able to transfer a few important things before I do this so that might be the best option.

I dont think I have access to a windows 98 machine (I have one, but I dont know if its functional atm.) Though you lost me with the whole laptop thing. Also do I leave the 80gb in my computer or stick it in the 98 machine?

Thanks

[Samm]

Sorry, ignore the laptop references, i was getting the threads mixed up. Everything I said is still valid, just insert the word 'PC' whenever you see the word 'laptop'!

[Samm]

If you don't have access to win98 system, then download a win98 bootdisk from here :
http://freepctech.co.../files010.shtml

when you double click on the downloaded file, it will create the boot disk for you automatically. Once its done this, delete all the files on the floppy disk except for :
command.com
msdos.sys
io.sys
drvspace.bin

Don't worry if you can't see all of those files on the floppy, they will be there but some of them are hidden. Just make sure you don't delete them!
Next download mbrtool & extract the mbrtool.exe file to the floppy & follow the instructions I gave before (ignoring laptop references obviously!)

[Droog13]

It will be another 30-45mins before I can check the 80gb HD /w the disk.

Is it possible to use microsoft xp boot disks to get my computer to boot up?

[Droog13]

I tried it and it didnt work. First off I dont see any option '4' to work with the tool. Also on boot the hard drive isnt recognized, only in bios can it be found.

It then said it was missing some files, extract.exe, command.con, and readme.txt I never deleted the command.com file, but out of the 4 you told me to keep only drvspace.bin was visible.

Also what is stopping me from booting with a windows xp boot disk? Or will that be for reinstalling windows ie wipping the HDD clean?

[Droog13]

I dled this
http://bootmaster.fi...iz/bm_plus.html
and ran it. However it couldnt find the hard drive at all. I think the other mbr tool will do the same thing.

I did notice 1 thing though. If I boot, go into bios, immediatley exit without saving and then it will boot up again it will detect the hard drive. Usually when it 'detects ide's' it comes up with "none" for primary master/slave. However it showed the 80gb hard drive this time. However after booting up there is just a single flashing icon (like in dos) and it just sits there.

[Samm]

OK, the reason I asked you to use a 98 boot disk, is because XP normally comes on several boot disks, not one. If you have a single XP boot disk however, you should be able to use this but you will need to strip out most of the files on it for 2 reasons :

1. mbrtool works best in a 'pure dos' environment (i.e without lots of other stuff being loaded up by the boot disk)

2. You need to free up enough space to be able to copy the mbrtool.exe file to the floppy & for mbrtool to save the dmp file to.

I think I know what the problem was though :
If you open the floppy disk in My Computer, then go to Tools menu->folder options then click on the view tab, you should see a couple of settings that make hidden & system files visible. Also, protected operating system files visible. Alter these settings so that you can see hidden/system/protected files.

Now look at the floppy disk & delete any files that have now appeared apart from the 4 I listed before & mbrtool itself obviously.

This time when you go to boot from the floppy, first go into the bios & make sure that the boot order is set to boot from floppy FIRST, before the hard drive.
Also do whatever you find works to make sure that the bios detects the hard drive.

If the system sucessfully boots from the floppy, type mbrtool at the A:> prompt & press enter. The menu that should appear looks like this :


Select option 4, then option 5
When asked for the drive number, enter 0 (zero)
When asked for source, enter O (letter O)
Then quit mbrtool

[Droog13]

Unfortunatley It didnt work. I did everything but it gave me an error "Could not read/write disk" and then something like (RC=1). I tried a few different ways (I never changed the jumpers but CS has given me the best results so far and so I left them there). But still no dice.

[Samm]

OK, thats not a good sign as you've probably guessed.
I suggest you check the cable connections & preferably change the IDE cable & use a different power connector (if you haven't done so already).

If none of this helps, then you could try going to WD's website & downloading DataLife Guard & see if that helps but it sounds like the drive has had it (unless its the cabling of course).
If you can, connect the drive to another PC as a slave (or as a master on the secondary IDE controller). This will help determine whether its the drive or something else thats the problem.

[Droog13]

Ive already had someone who has a external hard drive thing (not exactly sure what its called but an empty case that hard drives are put into and connected to the computer via usb) test it out and he has no response either. Ive faced the fact that the hard drive is toast, im just hoping that my slave drive, mobo, and other hardware hasnt bitten the dust either.

Ill post an update if anything changes.

Again thanks for all the help Samm, I would have been lost with out you

[Samm]

You're very welcome for the assistance. I agree with you that if the drive has been tested in this way & still wasn't accessible, then its almost certainly toast.
This doesn't mean that any other hardware should be affected though but keep me updated just in case!

[rlgdguy]

How about this issue? I had no issues in the past and suddenly this just started happening today. When my pc boots up, it stops, says "Primary hard drive not recognized" and asks to hit F1 to continue trying or F2 to go to setup. F1 does nothing on its own, but if I have my XP install disk in the cd-rom drive, the pc boots up AFTER hitting the F1 only. When I hit F2 and go to the setup screen, my hard drive is not in the bootup sequence at all (setting for hard drive is AUTO). I changed the cable and still nothing (remember, it will boot from the install disk ONLY after it pauses and asks to hit F1 and not on its own). I hope I explained my issue well enough, but you guys and gals will let me know if I have not. Any suggestions? Thanks ahead of time!

Edited by rlgdguy, 20 January 2010 - 10:45 PM.