XP and Hard Drive Problems

[ronny]

OK, so here's the story: After having copied a large amount of data to my C: drive from another drive, which I was planning to format, I restarted the computer as Diskeeper had been telling me it couldn't run until Windows had performed Chkdsk on C: drive.

As a side note, Windows does like to Chkdsk the C: drive maybe every month? And when it does, it usually fixes an error or two; this only started happening in the past few months and with my new drive (C: drive) which is a Western Digital Caviar SE SATA 120GB.

OK, so I reset and then upon trying to load from C:, it came up with an error message regarding a folder or file was not present but I can't remember what it was. It wouldn't proceed to load and asked me to try and repair it from the Windows XP CD. Upon restarting again, this time it came up with something about not being able to load from the drive at all. Not good. Now it has got to the point where after the recovery console option, after POST, there is just a blank screen when I select the option to load XP as normal. No error message or anything.

This same thing then happened to my other drive, which was now empty as I had been planning to format it after I had got everything off it. It came up with NTLDR missing at one point and so I re-installed XP on it as it was empty anyway. This then allowed me to check all my important stuff was still on C: drive. And it was, I could still access the C: drive on this particular XP installation. I've tried running chkdsk on C:, I have copied over NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM to it, I have used FIXBOOT from the recovery console and I have used a WD diagnostic tool to check the drive, which turned out to be fine. All of this to no avail. Do you suggest I use the FIXMBR option in recovery console (it says I have an in-valid or something or other boot record and if i go ahead with it I could find all of my partion inaccessible ). Or do I have to go ahead and re-format and do a fresh install of XP?

Is it co-incidence XP likes to chkdsk C:, and only C:, not too often but more often that it ever used to be since I got my Western Digital? Have I got a faulty drive possibly or could it be my SATA drivers? I am using Si3112r but can't remember what version, as I'm on a different PC and wpuld need to go on the one that doesnt work. I am using an NF7-S. The other HDs are a Maxtor SATA 120GB and a 60GB Maxtor IDE.

Please help, I don't particularly want to have to do a fresh install as I did one not too long ago

One thing this has taught me: ALWAYS have recent back-ups of your data.

Cheers

[ronny]

Can no-one help? Urgent help needed

[Astalavista]

I am sorry to hear your plight, especially since you seem to hv alot of data. Have you tried to run a full antivirus scan of your drives? It is a possibility that you have to consider.

pls also provide more info. like Version of WindowsXP, Your computer specs and all the programs you have installed.

[ronny]

I am sorry to hear your plight, especially since you seem to hv alot of data. Have you tried to run a full antivirus scan of your drives? It is a possibility that you have to consider.

pls also provide more info. like Version of WindowsXP, Your computer specs and all the programs you have installed.

On the C: drive I was running XP Pro SP2, Norton Antivirus, Zone Alarm, etc. I am on an Abit NF7-S, XP 2500+, 1GB PC4000 Ballistix, 120GB WD , 120GB Maxtor both SATA, and one IDE Maxtor 60GB. Will run a virus check now.

[ravashaak]

You should also download the disk diagnostic utilities from the website of your hdd manufacturer. Run the non-destructive diagnostic tests and see if your drive is having problems.

If this issue replicates across multiple drives, then it could even be a problem with your SATA controller or SATA cable. Additionally, do your disks get enough airflow? High temps can contribute to premature disk failure.

Just a few possibilities...

- Ravashaak

[ronny]

You should also download the disk diagnostic utilities from the website of your hdd manufacturer.  Run the non-destructive diagnostic tests and see if your drive is having problems.

If this issue replicates across multiple drives, then it could even be a problem with your SATA controller or SATA cable.  Additionally, do your disks get enough airflow?  High temps can contribute to premature disk failure.

Just a few possibilities...

  - Ravashaak

Already said in the first post I had run the Western Digital diagnostic check. Said the drive was fine

[TravelerX]

I believe this is a different problem than I had, but the hardware in question is somewhat similar.

I had recently trouble with an NF7-S board and a new SATA hard disk from Samsung. The system became unbootable from the main disk, a Seagate SATA hard disk after I hooked the Samsung into the system.

The trouble was mainly with corruption, i believe. I learnt that it would mean trouble when the disk names would come up in the sata section of boot up with a misplaced/corrupted character in the disk name. I tried everything to solve the problem including formatting and using the newest drivers. The system would still lockup and after that it would not boot with the funny character problem as an early warning...

As a last resort I flashed the bios. This solved all my troubles. I have had no trouble after the flash. Thinking back I was foolish in how I did the flash. I knew I had corruption problem but anyway I did the flashing with the Abit FlashMenu utility from the problem hard drive.

corruption + flashing = not a very clever idea...

I guess I got lucky.

Best of luck.

[ronny]

Well it turns out I sort of managed to fix the problem using a Microsoft Knowledge Base article. In the end though I am going to do a clean install with a slipstreamed SP2 custom install.

[Astalavista]

do you mind telling us what was the problem and how you fixed it?