Major Problems.

[Wref]

Had xp with sp2 running , all working fine , then during a lighting storm I had a powercut , when my home power was restored , tried turning computer back on , kept on half booting up , then blue screen of death would appear and then computer would restart , after 30 attempts I thouhgt I would try to reinstall fresh os from disc , now , when I try to reinstall I get the same error - " an unexpected error (1024) occurred at line 5152 in d:\xpsp1\base\boot\setup\setup.c. " , Ive also tried deleting hard drive at boot with killdisk and webroot system eraser , but both are getting the error " error 4 can't read sector 0 " , Im that close to throwing this computer at the wall , please help ?

[InTheWayBoy]

With that last error it sounds like your HD got screwed...I've seen messages like that before, and sometimes the drive would still work, but in most cases that's not recommended.

You could try finding the manufacturer of the HD and download their diagnostic tools...run that and see what it says. It could still be other things, but with the info supplied I would think it's the HD.

[ringfinger]

I agree... sounds like a sector of the disk may have gotten corrupted when the power was cut. Check for diag utilities on the manufacturer's site.. also see if you can get into DOS and run scandisk /checkonly first to check and see if it finds errors. If so, then run again with scanndisk /autofix. If you're not familiar with scandisk already, check here for all the switches. Hope this helps, good luck.

[ixion]

try a low level format which will mark the bad sectors as bad and when you try install it wont use those sectors

be warned however because bad sectors spread, if the above fixes your problem or anything else you do leads you to beleive that the HDD has bad sectors get rid of the disk and dont risk future data loss

[Zxian]

I agree with everything that's been said before... no need to repeat.

And.... I'll add as a future note of caution - get a good quality (i.e. no dollar store) surge protector or, even better, a UPS. The UPS will allow your computer to run for long enough to save any open files you have and properly shut down.

[Wref]

Thanks for replies and suggestions guys , was worth a try , anyways , turn's out my hard drive is the problem , so , new hard drive it is ,

And.. I'll add as a future note of caution , get a good quality (i.e. no dollar store) surge protector or, even better, a UPS. The UPS will allow your computer to run for long enough to save any open files you have and properly shut down.

Yeh zxian , if only I had the sense to buy one before the incident , oh well , we live and learn , after all , prevention is better than cure , and much cheaper too.

[Wicket20519]

When buying a surge protector, make sure it supports the largest amount of joules and has the lowest nano second count.

Does that make sense?

I've got an el cheapo surge protector - but all that plugs into that are my phone charger and an extra monitor. The PC and REAL monitor plug into a REAL surge protector.

However, my Dad uses an el cheapo protector for the family computer...They will regret it.

[Wref]

Does that make sense ?

Yep , all understood , make sure it has high power rating , low nano's and isn't a cheapo , thanks ,

[Andromeda43]

It's so hard to make recommendations when you don't give us any information about your HD, your OS or anything else.

If you're still using a FAT-32 file structure, as in Windows 98, then the solution could be as simple as booting up with a Boot Floppy and running "fdisk /mbr".

Or, you can also run Scanreg /restore from that boot floppy.

Also, that HD can be slaved off of another computer so you can read and copy your data files. Just because it won't boot, doesn't mean it's completely dead.

I save HD's like yours all the time. NO BIG DEAL!

Cheers,

Andromeda43

[InTheWayBoy]

It's so hard to make recommendations when you don't give us any information about your HD, your OS or anything else.

If you're still using a FAT-32 file structure, as in Windows 98, then the solution could be as simple as booting up with a Boot Floppy and running "fdisk /mbr".

Or, you can also run Scanreg /restore from that boot floppy.

Also, that HD can be slaved off of another computer so you can read and copy your data files.  Just because it won't boot, doesn't mean it's completely dead.

I save HD's like yours all the time. NO BIG DEAL!

Cheers,

Andromeda43

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What are you talking about...he gives very good info in the first post. After a power outage he's got blue screens...tried doing a fresh install and got a pretty common error when copying files..and the error can't read sector message is pretty common on drives that have been physically damaged. While your suggest of "fdisk /mbr" is valid in some cases, it's useless as he states that he's running XP SP2. A HD make/model would be nice, but given the info it's hardly necessary, as these are problems that aren't manfacturer specific.

[Wref]

Well I think the hard drive is physically damaged beyond repair , I tried slaving it on my second machine with no joy , I would like to thank you guys for all your input.

Edited September 29, 2005 by Wref

[Wref]

Fitted new hard drive , is now running all sweet , all thanks to you guys for giving me correct diagnosis ,

Btw , spoke to guy at pc world , he said mother board was fried , shows what he knew , lol ,

Edited October 14, 2005 by Wref