how to revive my drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter timOleary
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timOleary

Windows XP pro WD SATA hdd

One day when I attempted to start my PC, it shut itself off.
Retried to start in safe mode and screen went black and scrolled
several lines, then stopped.

Took the drive out and put it in a docking station on another PC..
The drive was recognized and and I am able to see contents.

ran Chkdsk /F and there were problems but chkdsk says they're fixed.

But when I put the drive back in the PC still can't boot off the
drive.
Being able to open the drive and copy all the stuff off it is pretty
good, but to be able to repair the issue would be best.

Any tips as to how to isolate problems and exorcise them?
thanks
 
If it can't boot off the drive but you can read the drive in another pc
indicates that likely the startup files required by the OS (presumably
Windows but any OS) have been damaged, "Chkdsk/f" while using a second pc
wouldn't care about the files and would simply correct anything it
interpreted as an error, e.g. it may have truncated a file basically erasing
part of it, file or part thereof may have already been suspect before
Chkdsk, etc. etc. No way of really knowing now.

First order of business is to take it back to friends and get off the drive
anything and everything of a personal nature you might care to keep. That
includes, photos, emails, docs, login settings for your internet connection,
a host of others I won't elaborate on here.

The big issue is are you prepared to start over clean or would you rather
save what's already installed and keep using a hard disk that may be failing
(depends on circumstance of what happened to it prior to trouble
personally). A clean install means repartitioning and reformatting the hard
disk, starting over, reinstall every app, update etc. etc. The second way is
try to repair what's more or less there now, presumably intact.

To that end, do a google search on using the Recovery Console when booting
to an XP cd (or presumably Vista, Win 7 also) and I'd also be doing a search
on "FixMbr" in google (a command when using Recovery Console) which I
suspect might get system to boot again.
 
If it can't boot off the drive but you can read the drive in another pc
indicates that likely the startup files required by the OS (presumably
Windows but any OS) have been damaged, "Chkdsk/f" while using a second pc
wouldn't care about the files and would simply correct anything it
interpreted as an error, e.g. it may have truncated a file basically erasing
part of it, file or part thereof may have already been suspect before
Chkdsk, etc. etc. No way of really knowing now.

First order of business is to take it back to friends and get off the drive
anything and everything of a personal nature you might care to keep. That
includes, photos, emails, docs, login settings for your internet connection,
a host of others I won't elaborate on here.

The big issue is are you prepared to start over clean or would you rather
save what's already installed and keep using a hard disk that may be failing
(depends on circumstance of what happened to it prior to trouble
personally). A clean install means repartitioning and reformatting the hard
disk, starting over, reinstall every app, update etc. etc. The second wayis
try to repair what's more or less there now, presumably intact.

To that end, do a google search on using the Recovery Console when booting
to an XP cd (or presumably Vista, Win 7 also) and I'd also be doing a search
on "FixMbr" in google (a command when using Recovery Console) which I
suspect might get system to boot again.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your comments and suggestions. You re-affirmed some things
and gave me fresh ideas.
BTW: All my PCs are XP pro and I got the OS CD

I hope it is possible to repair the MBR on a drive that is not running
the system. It would seem it would be easier since these diagnostics
all want you to exit Windows to use them.
Before the system finally quit, I had been trying to repair the MBR
because I was getting an error message during boot that related to a
Acronis install/uninstall.
I was also getting a message about the system not being able to load
Hive files.

I never did a fresh install but maybe the time has finally come to
learn.
v/r
timO'
<>
 
If it can't boot off the drive but you can read the drive in another pc
indicates that likely the startup files required by the OS (presumably
Windows but any OS) have been damaged, "Chkdsk/f" while using a second pc
wouldn't care about the files and would simply correct anything it
interpreted as an error, e.g. it may have truncated a file basically
erasing
part of it, file or part thereof may have already been suspect before
Chkdsk, etc. etc. No way of really knowing now.

First order of business is to take it back to friends and get off the
drive
anything and everything of a personal nature you might care to keep. That
includes, photos, emails, docs, login settings for your internet
connection,
a host of others I won't elaborate on here.

The big issue is are you prepared to start over clean or would you rather
save what's already installed and keep using a hard disk that may be
failing
(depends on circumstance of what happened to it prior to trouble
personally). A clean install means repartitioning and reformatting the
hard
disk, starting over, reinstall every app, update etc. etc. The second way
is
try to repair what's more or less there now, presumably intact.

To that end, do a google search on using the Recovery Console when booting
to an XP cd (or presumably Vista, Win 7 also) and I'd also be doing a
search
on "FixMbr" in google (a command when using Recovery Console) which I
suspect might get system to boot again.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your comments and suggestions. You re-affirmed some things
and gave me fresh ideas.
BTW: All my PCs are XP pro and I got the OS CD

I hope it is possible to repair the MBR on a drive that is not running
the system. It would seem it would be easier since these diagnostics
all want you to exit Windows to use them.
Before the system finally quit, I had been trying to repair the MBR
because I was getting an error message during boot that related to a
Acronis install/uninstall.
I was also getting a message about the system not being able to load
Hive files.

I never did a fresh install but maybe the time has finally come to
learn.
v/r
timO'
<>

If you boot with the XP cd there's a Recovery Console option. That provides
an old style "command prompt", e.g. 'C:\' followed by a blinking cursor.
Believe FixMBR is a command can then be run, try "FIXMBR /?" first to see
if/what it says. Google, read, learn and hopefully it ends well.

If nothing's on it you care about clean install can't hurt. Might as well
insure go whole hog then and erase and repartition the hard disk in the
process just to start from scratch there also. The big "if" is 'Is the hard
disk starting to fail?', try to run whatever manufacturer of hard disks
diagnostic program they provide, e.g. WD is Data LifeGuard (me thinks:).

Although I've had good luck using Acronis numerous times, I do remember it
mucking things up once when it rebooted system to finish install but
particulars are forgotten.
 
Thanks for your comments and suggestions. You re-affirmed some things
and gave me fresh ideas.
BTW: All my PCs are XP pro and I got the OS CD

I hope it is possible to repair the MBR on a drive that is not running
the system. It would seem it would be easier since these diagnostics
all want you to exit Windows to use them.
Before the system finally quit, I had been trying to repair the MBR
because I was getting an error message during boot that related to a
Acronis install/uninstall.
I was also getting a message about the system not being able to load
Hive files.

I never did a fresh install but maybe the time has finally come to
learn.
v/r
timO'
<>

If you boot with the XP cd there's a Recovery Console option. That provides
an old style "command prompt", e.g. 'C:\' followed by a blinking cursor.
Believe FixMBR is a command can then be run, try "FIXMBR /?" first to see
if/what it says. Google, read, learn and hopefully it ends well.

If nothing's on it you care about clean install can't hurt. Might as well
insure go whole hog then and erase and repartition the hard disk in the
process just to start from scratch there also. The big "if" is 'Is the hard
disk starting to fail?', try to run whatever manufacturer of hard disks
diagnostic program they provide, e.g. WD is Data LifeGuard (me thinks:).

Although I've had good luck using Acronis numerous times, I do remember it
mucking things up once when it rebooted system to finish install but
particulars are forgotten.
Click to expand...

I used xxclone to make an iso image of the problem drive onto another
drive I have available. reinstalled the problem drive in the original
PC and ran fixmbr and chkdsk /F
on the problem drive.

Still no go when i boot it reaches a certain point (The Windows splash
screen) and goes black and reboots.

I guess the only thing left is clean install. I wonder what data off
the iso image I can move back over. maybe there are other routines
within recovery console i could try.

Its a WD 250 Gb, and i got two at the same time when I assembled the
PC. I'm think the problem hdd is flakey. I got the WD diagnostic
utility and will run it and check warranty status
Maybe I should test the problem drive using the WD diagnostics before
reloading windows.
They're cheap compared to the time I lost when the thing crashed, and
the time I am spending troubleshooting, but it is an investment, and
time well spent.

when io created the iso image, xxclone had an option to make the drive
bootable, but had a bunch of options to select or not, and i was
clueless as to what they did, so I didn't make it bootable. I am not
planning to use the backup for booting anyway. i figure what ever is
wrong just got copied over to the backup drive anyway.
Chkdsk reports the drive is 'OK' after I run the chkdsk

thanks for the followup
 
Thanks for your comments and suggestions. You re-affirmed some things
and gave me fresh ideas.
BTW: All my PCs are XP pro and I got the OS CD

I hope it is possible to repair the MBR on a drive that is not running
the system. It would seem it would be easier since these diagnostics
all want you to exit Windows to use them.
Before the system finally quit, I had been trying to repair the MBR
because I was getting an error message during boot that related to a
Acronis install/uninstall.
I was also getting a message about the system not being able to load
Hive files.

I never did a fresh install but maybe the time has finally come to
learn.
v/r
timO'
<>

If you boot with the XP cd there's a Recovery Console option. That
provides
an old style "command prompt", e.g. 'C:\' followed by a blinking cursor.
Believe FixMBR is a command can then be run, try "FIXMBR /?" first to see
if/what it says. Google, read, learn and hopefully it ends well.

If nothing's on it you care about clean install can't hurt. Might as well
insure go whole hog then and erase and repartition the hard disk in the
process just to start from scratch there also. The big "if" is 'Is the
hard
disk starting to fail?', try to run whatever manufacturer of hard disks
diagnostic program they provide, e.g. WD is Data LifeGuard (me thinks:).

Although I've had good luck using Acronis numerous times, I do remember it
mucking things up once when it rebooted system to finish install but
particulars are forgotten.
Click to expand...

I used xxclone to make an iso image of the problem drive onto another
drive I have available. reinstalled the problem drive in the original
PC and ran fixmbr and chkdsk /F
on the problem drive.

Still no go when i boot it reaches a certain point (The Windows splash
screen) and goes black and reboots.

I guess the only thing left is clean install. I wonder what data off
the iso image I can move back over. maybe there are other routines
within recovery console i could try.





<snip>


You could try a repair install first
 
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