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Hard drive will not respond

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by lewislewis, 2006/04/02.

  1. 2006/04/02
    lewislewis

    lewislewis Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Hi I have been given a hard drive that I think someone installed XP on. The drive locked up and was replaced.
    Is it possible to format the drive and install Win2000. I do not have the floppy. I do have a win98se floppy. Also what are the commands to format a hard drive.
    Thanks
    Lewis
     
    lewislewis,
    #1
  2. 2006/04/03
    mattman

    mattman Inactive Alumni

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    This would be a concern to me.

    It would be easiest to boot to the Win 2000 CD and set the drive up there.
    Set the drive as primary master.
    Go into the BIOS/CMOS settings and set the CD drive as second boot drive after the floppy drive. Put the Win 2000 disk in the drive and "Save and Exit" from the BIOS, it should run the Win 2000 setup (during startup it may say "Press any key to boot from CD "). Win 2k setup will scan the HDD and ask how you want to partition and format.

    You would need to pass through these steps to install Win 2K anyway. I don't think there would be any reason why Win 2K setup could not format the drive.

    If you find any problems with the HDD, check it with the HDD manufacturer's utilities (these will also be able to partition and format it).

    Matt
     
    mattman,
    #2


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  4. 2006/04/03
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

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    Since the drive "locked-up ", I'd start with checking it out before spending any more time with it.
     
    Arie,
    #3
  5. 2006/04/03
    rsinfo

    rsinfo SuperGeek Alumni

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    It was replaced, so I think there should not be any more problems.
     
    rsinfo,
    #4
  6. 2006/04/03
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    I think Lewis has the old drive which locked up, not the replacement :)
     
    PeteC,
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  7. 2006/04/03
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

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    That's how I read it...
     
    Arie,
    #6
  8. 2006/04/06
    lewislewis

    lewislewis Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    I'll try to make it clear.

    I have been given a drive that would not work. I think the reason is someone loaded XP from a disk that had already been registered. So I think that the XP has expired. I had hoped to format the hard drive and install win 2k or even 98.
    The hard drive is unresponsive.
    So what is the best approach.
    Thanks
    Lewis
     
    lewislewis,
    #7
  9. 2006/04/06
    TopFarmer

    TopFarmer Well-Known Member

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    Does the post screen show the hdd ? If your comp has no post screen , enter bios and look for hdd's, does it list the hdd ?

    How many hdd's and cd drives do you have in comp ? how are they connected (ie: Master/slave/cable select and on what IDE cable) and brand of all hdd's ?

    You may need to go to the hdd manufactures web site and download their test utility.

    from your first post [I do not have the floppy. I do have a win98se floppy.] ? explain. Mainly do you have a floppy drive but not a Win 2000 boot floppy ?
     
    TopFarmer,
    #8
  10. 2006/04/06
    mattman

    mattman Inactive Alumni

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    What happens when you run them? If you need help finding them, let us know what brand the drive is.

    Matt
     
    mattman,
    #9
  11. 2006/04/07
    rsinfo

    rsinfo SuperGeek Alumni

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    Windows XP activation (or non activation) does not makes a hard disk unresponsive. There has to be some hardware issue involved.
     
    rsinfo,
    #10
  12. 2006/04/07
    mattman

    mattman Inactive Alumni

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    Information can be saved to the boot sector.

    Matt
     
    mattman,
    #11
  13. 2006/04/07
    rsinfo

    rsinfo SuperGeek Alumni

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    :confused:
     
    rsinfo,
    #12
  14. 2006/04/08
    lewislewis

    lewislewis Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Here is an update.

    Hi,
    The HDD is Maxtor Diamond max plus9 60g ata/133, when this drive is installed as master the message is 'Primary drive fails'
    I tried fdisk and the message was 'no fixed disks present' And I tried it as a slave and the message was 'primary slave drive fails' then 'disk boot failure'
    I think the drive maybe porked.
    Thanks everyone for your input.
    Lewis
     
    lewislewis,
    #13
  15. 2006/04/08
    rsinfo

    rsinfo SuperGeek Alumni

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    Yes the drive is gone. If under warranty contact the company else get a new one.
     
    rsinfo,
    #14

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