Is my hard drive dead?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Matthew
  • Start date Start date
M

Matthew

My computer started acting "flaky" after I installed some questionable
software so I figured I had a virus and went to reinstall windows XP Pro
from scratch. Everything went fine with the re-format and initial install
but when it restarted I got a stop code 0x0000007B 0xF78D2524. So I tried to
just install again but when I wipe/create the partition windows says it can
not install ( I left the paper at home with the exact error message...
sorry) something about the device not having the correct boot volume??

Unfortunately I don't have a spare computer at the moment to put the drive
into to run any tests but it's an old drive so I'm thinking that it may just
be dead?

I didn't change anything in the BIOS before the reinstall, but I'll look
there for any funky settings when I get home... but other than that does
anyone have any ideas?
 
Matthew said:
My computer started acting "flaky" after I installed some questionable
software so I figured I had a virus and went to reinstall windows XP Pro
from scratch. Everything went fine with the re-format and initial install
but when it restarted I got a stop code 0x0000007B 0xF78D2524. So I tried
to just install again but when I wipe/create the partition windows says it
can not install ( I left the paper at home with the exact error message...
sorry) something about the device not having the correct boot volume??

Unfortunately I don't have a spare computer at the moment to put the drive
into to run any tests but it's an old drive so I'm thinking that it may
just be dead?

I didn't change anything in the BIOS before the reinstall, but I'll look
there for any funky settings when I get home... but other than that does
anyone have any ideas?
Click to expand...
All the major HD manufacturers have diagnostic tools that can be downloaded
at their homepages that can be placed on either bootable CDs or floppies. If
you can get to another system and download the tools that would tell you for
sure if the drive is bad.


ed
 
Matthew said:
My computer started acting "flaky" after I installed some questionable
software so I figured I had a virus and went to reinstall windows XP Pro
from scratch. Everything went fine with the re-format and initial install
but when it restarted I got a stop code 0x0000007B 0xF78D2524. So I tried
to just install again but when I wipe/create the partition windows says
it can not install ( I left the paper at home with the exact error
message... sorry) something about the device not having the correct boot
volume??

Unfortunately I don't have a spare computer at the moment to put the
drive into to run any tests but it's an old drive so I'm thinking that it
may just be dead?

I didn't change anything in the BIOS before the reinstall, but I'll look
there for any funky settings when I get home... but other than that does
anyone have any ideas?
Click to expand...

Might be a boot sector virus. Find a friend with an antivirus on bootable
CD.

New HDs are cheap, too...
 
Ed Medlin said:
All the major HD manufacturers have diagnostic tools that can be
downloaded at their homepages that can be placed on either bootable CDs or
floppies. If you can get to another system and download the tools that
would tell you for sure if the drive is bad.


ed
Click to expand...
thanks.. I didn't realize you could do that from a bootable CD!
 
JR Weiss said:
Might be a boot sector virus. Find a friend with an antivirus on bootable
CD.

New HDs are cheap, too...
Click to expand...
I just had a friend loan me one today... thanks
 
My computer started acting "flaky" after I installed some questionable
software so I figured I had a virus and went to reinstall windows XP Pro
from scratch. Everything went fine with the re-format and initial install
but when it restarted I got a stop code 0x0000007B 0xF78D2524. So I tried to
just install again but when I wipe/create the partition windows says it can
not install ( I left the paper at home with the exact error message...
sorry) something about the device not having the correct boot volume??
Click to expand...

This error message probably reports a CHKDSK error. Half the time
these are remediable by repartitioning and reformatting the HD. (Some
drives are irrecoverable and must be replaced.)
 
Don Phillipson said:
This error message probably reports a CHKDSK error. Half the time
these are remediable by repartitioning and reformatting the HD. (Some
drives are irrecoverable and must be replaced.)
Click to expand...
well that was part of my problem.. during the windows install it wouldn't
partition and format the drive.... well it deleted the partition and created
a new one but windows wouldn't start the install on the new partition.
 
well that was part of my problem.. during the windows install it wouldn't
partition and format the drive.... well it deleted the partition and created
a new one but windows wouldn't start the install on the new partition.
Click to expand...

This narratives leaves open the possibility that the user
repartitioned the drive but did not then format it before use.
 
 My computer started acting "flaky" after I installed some questionable
software so I figured I had a virus and went to reinstall windows XP Pro
from scratch. Everything went fine with the re-format and initial install
but when it restarted I got a stop code 0x0000007B 0xF78D2524. So I triedto
just install again but when I wipe/create the partition windows says it can
not install ( I left the paper at home with the exact error message...
sorry) something about the device not having the correct boot volume??

Unfortunately I don't have a spare computer at the moment to put the drive
into to run any tests but it's an old drive so I'm thinking that it may just
be dead?

I didn't change anything in the BIOS before the reinstall, but I'll look
there for any funky settings when I get home... but other than that does
anyone have any ideas?
Click to expand...

This is an excellence source of hard-drive diagnostic utilities -

http://hddguru.com/

Eric,
PC Buyer Beware!
http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/
 
Don Phillipson said:
This narratives leaves open the possibility that the user
repartitioned the drive but did not then format it before use.
Click to expand...
nope... I deleted the existing partition then re-partitioned it then let
windows format it then start the install process when I got the blue
screen... then I tried deleting the partition again to start over, but it
would never go beyond deleting the partition in the windows install process.

Of course I just downloaded and tried the WD diagnostic disk dos version and
it won't even detect the drive so at this point I am assuming it's a loss
and will just replace it.

Thanks for all the help!
 
Back
Top