After Trying to Run Disk Defrag, Slave HD Not Found

I was running disk defrag on my secondary drive when it started throwing errors at me saying it couldn't save all the data for various things, including C\%MFT (note that C is my secondary, non-windows drive). Not knowing what mft was, I tried to Google it but my computer wouldn't load any of the pages I tried to go to. I tried to stop disk defrag and after it threw more of the same errors in my face I finally got it to close but it kept I kept getting the error messages. I ended up rebooting my computer because I was having trouble getting anything to open or do anything. That's when the dreaded happened and my drive is no longer showing up. It's not under My Computer, it's not under Disk Management, it's not listed in BIOS. On the bright side (I guess) after the reboot I was able to find out what mft was. Does this mean my hard drive is dead and everything I had on it is gone?

 

My problem multiplied. I changed which plug was plugged into that hard drive and rebooted; the hard drive came back. I reinstalled a cd burner and dvd-rom I have previously been using and now my computer is stuck auto rebooting. Only a few times it stays on long enough for me to burn some backup discs or post here. I don't know if it's the hard drive or power supply or something else. My diskette drive also got destroyed when it decided to try to catch fire when I reconnected it after installing the roms. So I'm at a complete loss because all hardware was functioning properly before the fiasco with running defrag.

 

Assuming it is Windows XP (Vista might be different), try booting to the Windows CD, on the first screen choose to go to the Recovery Console, then run CHKDSK /r

 

In some of the diagnostics programs (utilities), you can save the current MBR (Master Boot Records), then run "update the MBR ". You can also run FIXMBR from the Recovery Console by booting to the Windows CD.

If the drive has "disappeared ", I expect there is a problem in the MBR.

Look into getting a Boot Disk, I like the Ultimate Boot Disk for Windows. It has burning software so you can back up your data.

Matt

 

I have a lifeguard diskette that came with my hard drive, but I can't use it because my diskette drive tried to catch fire so it's toast.

I will try booting from the windows cd and see what happens. Oh, yes, it is XP Professional I am running and sometimes when it reboots itself it runs chckdsk on it's own, but as soon as I get to my desktop I start getting error windows (not always but many times now). It talks about doing some sort of Windows recoery test, but most times I can't get the computer to stay on long enough to burn it a cd.

Also, I've booted up with having the secondary drive disconnected. I've booted up with a different main drive (my old, smaller one) and combinations of slave and master and it still is rebooting.

 

"Lifeguard ", a Western Digital I take it. Get the Lifeguard For DOS (CD) to make a bootable CD.
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?level1=6&lang=en

Have you tried booting into Safe Mode to try and get your data backed up? I can point you to the Ultimate Boot Disk for Windows, if you need me to, but you will find it with a quick web-search (also search for PE Builder).

Matt

 

I never was able to run a test to check my RAM, but I think that may be the root of my problems. I ultimately removed two memory sticks and the computer has been on all nite with no reboots/BSOD (Finally figured out how to get those to show) and no errors popping up. I'm going to test later today by putting in different memory sticks to see if it really is one of my sticks, the slot, or something else altogether.

Thanks for sticking with me and throwing out things to try, it's been a big help.

 

Thanks, Pete. That was something I was wondering about.

Do you think this means anything? One of the sticks I took out, I noticed discoloration on some of the keys (or whatever they're called).

I'm also trying to figure out if my motherboard will allow me to use PC3200 DDR400 sticks. I have an Epox 8K9A that says to use PC2700. The only sticks I have access to for replacing mine without having to buy are these 3200s. I know the 3200s would run at 2700, but I'm not sure if they can even be used with the motherboard since the 3200s 400 instead of 333. I read something about checking BIOS to see, so I'm about to reboot and do that. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated, as always.

Quick update. I checked my BIOS settings and my mother board will support the use of DDR400 sticks. I assume it's not a good idea to mix DDR333 with DDR400?

 

I have determined that the memory stick with the discoloration is definitely bad. So now I wonder if everything was caused by the memory stick failure?