Some HW help needed...

[espn]

Tried to boot up my PC earlier, but it went into windoze but the monitor just had no display and my LCD's powersupply light just went on blinking. I tried to access my folders from my MAC and had no problems.

Can go into BIOS and had no problems using it with no blackout. The moment it goes into windoze (after the progress bar) it blacks out.

I tried reseating the video card, but now it won't even go into windoze. Tried unplugging all the devices leaving only the RAM and video, and it will still boot and say no bootable media found.

I wanted to try reinstalling XP, but then it cannot detect my 200GB without SP1, I cannot format and is not willing to lose all my data inside, any suggestions or idea what has happened?

Now my HDD light is on continously.

 

[zcf]

Sorry, not very sure what problem, but is it possible to borrow another harddisk to copy all the data over, then reformat the harddisk?

 

[espn]

Sorry, not very sure what problem, but is it possible to borrow another harddisk to copy all the data over, then reformat the harddisk?

Problem is I can't boot up even into windoze to do the copying, I have another 40GB sitting inside the casing if I can boot up, it shouldn't be a problem to format the HDD. I can go into the bios.

Now it won't even boot into windoze anymore.

 

[yanyewkay]

HDD light is on continously?

sounds like IDE cable not seated properly or reversed.. either that or the HD's time is up liao.

 

[zcf]

But I thought you mentioned you can use MAC to access the folder, but it can't copy data over to MAC side first? (Sorry, not very familiar with Apple)
Or try to install window in the 40Gb harddisk, then try to sort out or copy the data first, then reformat and re-install on the 200Gb one?

 

[Verywierd]

Problem is I can't boot up even into windoze to do the copying, I have another 40GB sitting inside the casing if I can boot up, it shouldn't be a problem to format the HDD. I can go into the bios.

Now it won't even boot into windoze anymore.

Your primary HD may have died. There is a version of Linux that can be run from a CD. That would get you into your system and you might find out if the HD is dead or just messed up.

 

[Firefox]

Tried to boot up my PC earlier, but it went into windoze but the monitor just had no display and my LCD's powersupply light just went on blinking. I tried to access my folders from my MAC and had no problems.

Can go into BIOS and had no problems using it with no blackout. The moment it goes into windoze (after the progress bar) it blacks out.

I tried reseating the video card, but now it won't even go into windoze. Tried unplugging all the devices leaving only the RAM and video, and it will still boot and say no bootable media found.

I wanted to try reinstalling XP, but then it cannot detect my 200GB without SP1, I cannot format and is not willing to lose all my data inside, any suggestions or idea what has happened?

Now my HDD light is on continously.

Right after the BIOS boot screen and just before the Windows bootup screen appears (the one with the blue scrolling bar), press F8.
Select Boot up in Safe Mode. Uninstalling your graphics card drivers.
If it's a driver issue, you'll be able to enter Windows in normal mode after that and re-install your drivers.

If you have 2 displays plugged in, unplug the secondary display. It can cause problems with the first boot-up after installing/ updating drivers (especially with ATI Radeon cards, from my experience).

 

[espn]

HDD light is on continously?

sounds like IDE cable not seated properly or reversed.. either that or the HD's time is up liao.

Tried booting into the master HDD alone, the BIOS says no media detected.

The HDD is less than a year old. Cables are definitely seated in the right direction. This is my current PC set up, not a new one

 

[espn]

But I thought you mentioned you can use MAC to access the folder, but it can't copy data over to MAC side first? (Sorry, not very familiar with Apple)
Or try to install window in the 40Gb harddisk, then try to sort out or copy the data first, then reformat and re-install on the 200Gb one?

Alas, I didn't share out all my folders on my windoze and I cannot log in to windows to enable default share, and somemore now it won't even boot up.

And worse, my mac only has 20GB left, my portable HDD still has 40GB and my office still have a personal 20GB.

 

[espn]

Your primary HD may have died. There is a version of Linux that can be run from a CD. That would get you into your system and you might find out if the HD is dead or just messed up.

Seems so, when I plug in my 2ndary HDD, the system boots fine up to the point where it complains it has a disk read error. Whatever that means.

When I plug in my 200GB WD, it straight away refuses to act properly. Argh... my HDD is only 10mths old.

 

[espn]

Right after the BIOS boot screen and just before the Windows bootup screen appears (the one with the blue scrolling bar), press F8.
Select Boot up in Safe Mode. Uninstalling your graphics card drivers.
If it's a driver issue, you'll be able to enter Windows in normal mode after that and re-install your drivers.

If you have 2 displays plugged in, unplug the secondary display. It can cause problems with the first boot-up after installing/ updating drivers (especially with ATI Radeon cards, from my experience).

Thanks, I can't even get into safe mode now. That's the whole problem. Everything was working fine till today.

 

[espn]

Now all I see is a blinking cursor.

 

[espn]

Tried to reinstall XP, but it recognises my 200GB as 120GB as one big unknown partition. Think my 200GB HDD is dead/gone/sayonara?

My 40GB HDD all partitions still detected correctly.

 

[zcf]

But does that mean your harddisk still can be run on another computer or not :dunno: ?

If still can, think it's time to buy another harddisk and see can savage any data from (the may be spoilt?) one.

 

[dreamerz]

urs is sata hdd is it? if thats so some mobo may need u to install the sata driver at the start of winxp installation...

 

[espn]

But does that mean your harddisk still can be run on another computer or not :dunno: ?

If still can, think it's time to buy another harddisk and see can savage any data from (the may be spoilt?) one.

I sold my spare PC long ago, no more PC to try unless I bring to office. Managed to get it up and running now, formatting it and reinstalling XP on the 200GB HDD, after installing SP1 and recovering the remaining 80GB I will use my s/w to recover the files from my HDD and see what can be salvaged

 

[espn]

urs is sata hdd is it? if thats so some mobo may need u to install the sata driver at the start of winxp installation...

Nope, me still on PATA.

 

[erizai]

R u using a dual display? Mobo + card?

 

[Firefox]

I sold my spare PC long ago, no more PC to try unless I bring to office. Managed to get it up and running now, formatting it and reinstalling XP on the 200GB HDD, after installing SP1 and recovering the remaining 80GB I will use my s/w to recover the files from my HDD and see what can be salvaged

Once you start re-writing over the disk, I doubt you can retrieve the files anymore. Seems like you got a corrupted MFT or MBR. Windows won't load the ntfs.sys file if it detects a corrupted MFT. Hence, being stuck just before the log-on screen.
The only way is to take the drive and use an ATA to USB adaptor.
Then boot-up another computer running Windows 2K or Windows XP and let it finish loading windows before plugging the drive in.

 

[rickbath]

try booting to safe mode