I have an XP box that uses a WD 250gig SATA drive. OS wont boot in regular or safe mode, it displays XP splash screen and then reboots. It cannot complete chkdsk or bootcfg /rebuild. At the very least I would like to extract the files from the hard drive. I ordered 2 identical drives WD2500JD and I am waiting on an extra SATA cable so I can load XP on one of the new drives and use software on the busted slave drive to see if I can get any information that way. My question is: Is this the way I should be going about this? Any other suggestions? Thanks to all!
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problem with sata drive
- Thread starter cfdoogan
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Yes, the now problimatic drive had a working copy of XP Pro for a long time, then just "stopped working" after a restart as reported by the user. I have already used this box and a new hard drive to load a fresh install of XP. One thing strange happened. During the install MS reported that the C:/program files/ folder could not be made. I ignored the error and when the system came up it was there.
Go into your BIOS. Probably under the Advasnce settings, you should/may find a setting that says something like Reboot on all errors. You need to change this to Stop on all errors. Doing this should give you a BSOD and error messages about what is going on. Could be as simple as a missing or corrupted file you can copy back to where ever it needs to go.
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PRPhx, I wasn't able to find that setting and I looked through them all. I did find a setting that allows the BIOS to run a short diagnostic on hard drives and alert if there is a problem. Sure enough, restart and theres a problem. I also prepared a screenshot from the MS repair util. (fixmbr and chkdsk Thanks for all the help it is very much appriciated.
drive sounds like drive might be dying (if chkdsk can't continue) - drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility (data lifeguard i think) should tell you.
prphx has got slightly muddled - the feature he's referring to is on XP's safe mode menu (press F8 when XP starts loading), IF you have SP2 installed.
but data recovery sounds order of the day - and best way is to do something like you are (ie, have the drive connected to another installation of XP), and hope you can still retrieve files you need.
prphx has got slightly muddled - the feature he's referring to is on XP's safe mode menu (press F8 when XP starts loading), IF you have SP2 installed.
but data recovery sounds order of the day - and best way is to do something like you are (ie, have the drive connected to another installation of XP), and hope you can still retrieve files you need.
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wolluf, I ran the diagnostic and here is a screenshot ( I also ran GetDataBack a data recovery boot disk which identified 14k files but would not allow me to select any of them to be copied. From the diagnostic can anyone identify the leading problem with the drive. Thanks
Wolluf:
Not mulled in the least and NO I was NOT talking about XP's safe mode. I'm talking about a BIOS srtting my mb has. It allows for either 1) rebooting on all errors or 2) stopping on all errors (except for the keyboard.) This will result in a BSOD with a result code and the last program, etc. loaded.
Windows XP safe mode is just that. A mode in which no drivers get loaded. If there is still some type of problem, the pc may still reboot continuously.
Not mulled in the least and NO I was NOT talking about XP's safe mode. I'm talking about a BIOS srtting my mb has. It allows for either 1) rebooting on all errors or 2) stopping on all errors (except for the keyboard.) This will result in a BSOD with a result code and the last program, etc. loaded.
Windows XP safe mode is just that. A mode in which no drivers get loaded. If there is still some type of problem, the pc may still reboot continuously.
cfdoogan - have you had a chance to access the drive from another windows installation yet - I've no idea what those diagnostics mean, but would think you'd have a better chance of reading the drive from XP (and getdataback windows version perhaps?)
PRPhx - sorry, what's the mobo? I've never heard of bios features which can interrogate problems with the operating system - so would be interested. The safe mode MENU (not safe mode itself) has option to prevent XP rebooting in case of problem, so you get BSOD instead (which sounded like what you were describing) - but only since SP2.
PRPhx - sorry, what's the mobo? I've never heard of bios features which can interrogate problems with the operating system - so would be interested. The safe mode MENU (not safe mode itself) has option to prevent XP rebooting in case of problem, so you get BSOD instead (which sounded like what you were describing) - but only since SP2.
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cfdoogan,
GetDataBack is a good data recovery program to use.I purchased the NTFS/Fat32 bundle several years ago and have had endless success with it.
wolluf,
I think PRPhx is refering to the basic "HALT On Errors" from with in the bios during POST.
GetDataBack is a good data recovery program to use.I purchased the NTFS/Fat32 bundle several years ago and have had endless success with it.
wolluf,
I think PRPhx is refering to the basic "HALT On Errors" from with in the bios during POST.
aingeek:
That's the one I was thinking of. Just couldn't remember the excat wording. And I don't often go into the BIOS (as my pc is working very good at this point).
I had a problem with the pc starting windows and then rebooting after the logo screen. Got to be very annoying. Ened up that the heat sink had poped off the cpu (I guess I didn't have it as firmly in place as I thought I did).
That's the one I was thinking of. Just couldn't remember the excat wording. And I don't often go into the BIOS (as my pc is working very good at this point).
I had a problem with the pc starting windows and then rebooting after the logo screen. Got to be very annoying. Ened up that the heat sink had poped off the cpu (I guess I didn't have it as firmly in place as I thought I did).
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