Hard drive crash

Hello,
I have a Dell Dimension 2350 running Windows XP Home edition. I got the blue screen of death while trying t
o boot. I tried instructions to reinstall the operating system with my XP CD, but cannot get it to work. I do not get to a screen where I can access the recovery console. I tried rebooting using the CD, and get the following error: A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. The problem seems to be caused by the following file: partmgr.sys. PAGE_FAULT_IN_NOPAGED_AREA.
Technical information: STOP: 0x00000050 (0xF94EB4AB, 0x00000000, oxf94eb4ab, 0x00000000)
Can anyone help?

Thank you!

 

Perhaps one of the following links will be helpful since they seem to point to a similar problem as yours:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329293

http://forum.worldstart.com/archive/index.php/t-44763.html

Your hard drive could have gone south or perhaps your video adapter has become corrupt. It's hard to pinpoint without hands-on so if you're truly a beginner you may have to get it bench serviced by a pro. Look at those links and if you have any questions, post back with any details that you can supply and perhaps you can be helped or at least know what you're likely facing.

 

Is The HD making any funny noises ? If so it might be shot. From my experiances it seems you HD is done, if i was you i would buy a new hd.

 

I read through both links. I cannot go into SAFE mode. If I press ANY key (except F2)during start up, it goes to a black blank page with a blinking cursor. I am not able to type at the cursor.
I read about changing the BIOS, but not sure what to do there. I can get to it by pressing F2 during start up.

 

It does ALOT of clicking when I turn it on. Doesn't sound like a good sign. What would cause the HD to go?

 

Hello Swim,

If you can get into the BIOS, you'll see boot devices. Is the CD ROM the primary boot device? If not, make it so, and then try booting with the XP disc.

Otherwise, can you take the suspect HD and hook it into another system as a slave?

That way you can check the drive by running chkdsk:

From the Start menu > run and type cmd and ok.

In the command box at the prompt: type ckdsk /r

Chkdsk doc from MS, the various commands and what they do: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/chkdsk.mspx?mfr=true

If you are able to boot with the XP cd, try running chkdsk on your system.

You can also go to the drive's maker and download their disk diagnostic program and run that.

Regards - Charles

 

I did change the the CD ROM drive to the primary boot device, and windows does start to load. It won't load all the way, and I get the error message as stated in my original post.
I am willing to hook the HD into another system as a slave...IF you can tell me how. It's a little advanced for my beginner knowledge, but I'm always up for learning something new!
I am not able to check chkdsk on my corrupt system since I cannot load windows, and I'm not able to type DOS commands either!
If you can walk me through the steps of hooking my HD into another system as a slave, I would be very grateful!! I think at this point it is my only option.

Thanks so much for your time!

 

Hi Swim,

Uplug the computer

Ground the computer by pressing the on button for 20 seconds

Open the case and disconnect the drive from its mount and from the cable.

Unplug the recieving computer and ground before openning the case.

Depending on whether this computer has room for a 2nd drive, see if there is a free cable to hook the drive into.

On the back of the drive, you'll see jumper settings, you'll have to set the jumper to the slave position unless your computer is Cable Select, then leave or put in the CS position.

This supposes that both computers have the same cableing - ATA, has a flat ribbon, or SATA, has a round cable.

Can't tell you much beyond that, I'd have to be there.


An easier alternative would be to use an external drive enclosure:

http://www.surpluscomputers.net/store/main.aspx?p=ItemDetail&item=ACC10810

This hooks into the system via USB, but costs some money - the one I referenced is less than $20.00 US and time for delivery.

This is a good idea for anyone beyond this problem, this is an inexpensive way to backup - ATA hard drives cost less than a $1.00 a gigabyte nowadays.

Regards - Charles