Problems with HD and XP

[visionthing]

Looking for some help with these. I have 2 machines that I'll call A & B. Here's the probs.

A- This machine will lose it's HD. Since it's a DELL, I have booted to the BIOS, turned on the Scroll Lock, Caps & # Lock, Pressed ALt-E, Alt-F, saved/exited and the BIOS found the HD and all was well for about 1 month. Now, same problem. Any ideas?

B- This XP machine will BOOT fine, but when I try to open anything, the hourglass will appear for a few seconds, then disappear and the item will not open and I'll get DrWatson errors. This happens under any profile that I start up with. The only time that an item will open is if I boot to SAFE MODE. I've tried the SFC /scannow, to fix anything missing, but it didn't help. Any thoughts?

 

[prezd]

A solution: Bios update.

B solution: XP installation CD, boot it and go to system repair-automatic system repair. Might as well be some virus problems, or missing system files. Try CTR-alt-del to see if it pops up the Task manager and try to run tasks from there

 

[wolluf]

A - have you checked the physical connection of drive inside the case? Run drive manufacturer's diagnostic on the drive (might be failing)?

B - Other than prezd's suggestions, might be a bad hardware or driver problem.

 

[visionthing]

Thanks for the replies

On Machine A, I have already updated the BIOS to the latest firmware. I have also taken the HD out and put it in a "known good" machine and it was recognized fine. I also took a "known good" HD and put it in Machine A and it wouldn't recognize the HD. I'm thinking that somethings flakey with the controller. What do you think?

Machine B- I don't have the "system repair-automatic repair" option. When I boot the CD and do the licensing agreement and get to a screen that asks to "Install Windows" or "Reinstall". I guess I'll have to reinstall, because it's not booting at all now.

Thanks to both of you.

 

[wolluf]

A - you might be right - have you tried swapping controllers (ie, connecting hard drive to secondary). It might be other hardware too.

B - When you boot from XP install CD you get option to install new or repair. That's standard. if you select repair, it will look for an installation, and if it finds one or more, ask you to select one. You're then prompted for Administrator password (there can be some issues at this point - but it should at least try) - and you get a command prompt like interface that is the recovery console. If you select new, it should also look for an installation, and if it finds one, offer to repair it for you (this is a repair reinstall which leaves data, apps & settings (largely) untouched, but loses windows updates). If it doesn't find existing, you get the choose where to install new screen.
If you reinstall and problem persists, it does suggest bad hardware.