system crash and wont start up

My other computer crashed this morning (unexpectly restarted, no error mesage or anything) and when it's booting up, the bar on the winxp pro boting page just goes and goes, but wont get into windows.

I cant get into safe mode either

And when I use CD to boot and repair, the blue screen just stucks at:

"Examining 76317 MB disk 0 at id 0 on bus 0 on atapi... "

I tried to plug the HDD into my new computer. But after the bar finishes on the booting up page, my screen just turns into black

(should be in windows, because I tried 2 days ago to transfer files, with all settings unchanged)

does this mean my older HDD is physically damaged, how can I scan the old HDD? or reinstall a fresh copy of windows?

sorry to be a pain but I really need help, Lucky that im still on school break.

 

Moving this to the hardware section. Sounds to me like the drive is toast but I'm by no means any sort of hardware expert. Hardware duffer is more like it.

 

Hi q,

Run the harddrive manufacturers utilities on it. Sounds like Windows may be having trouble finding "where it is ".

If you have been swapping the drive around, have you been setting the jumper on the drive to master/slave according to it's position?

Your HDD may be OK, although it may have errors, but you may not be able to save your Windows (the MBR/file system may be scrambled). If the MBR is damaged you may have to do an fdisk /mbr or low-level/zero-fill format.

Can your new drive see the files on the old if it is set as second drive on your new system? Could be a way of retriving data in case you need to format.

Matt

 

Thanks Mat

But how do you run the utilities on it?

I'm actually wanting to format the windows partition but dont know how to do it.


NO I CANT GET INTO WINDOWS WITH OLD HDD PLUGED IN
MAYBE I NEED HELP SETTING THE JUMPERS RIGHT, WHAT SHOULD IT BE???

It worked on my new computer before as when I was transfering some movies and mp3s. But after the crash I cant get to windows in my new computer(if I plug in the old HD), it turns into a black screen instead of normal windows(after the loading page).
I didnt' change the jumper.

How should I set the jumper for both hard disks? right now my good HD is on "cable select" as it was before, the old HD is on "master or single" as before.

is there any other way to check for the physical damage? I could get a new one because im still under warranty. But If I do take it to the shop and its not faulty, they will charge me $40 just to prove its not fualty

 

Hi qzha017...

Just adding on to mattman's comments...

When running 2 hard drives on the same ribbon cable the usual jumper setting is "Master" for the primary HD and "Slave" for the secondary HD.

Jumper your "Good HD" to Master and jumper your "Old HD" to Slave. There is usually a diagram on the HD's themselves showing you the proper setting . You could also check the HD's web sites for the proper jumper settings for the Master/Slave combo.

- Western Digital - Jumper settings / Utilities
- Maxtor - Jumper settings - Select your HD model from dropdown...select "Technical Specifications" drop down...select jumper settings / Utilities
- Fujitsu - Jumper settings / Utilities

This site lists these and a few more HD Utilities

 

You will need to read about drive set up on the manufacturers website.

Using "cable select ", both drives on that cable need to be set to cable select. Using "master/slave ", one drive is set to master, the other drive on that cable is set to slave.

The utilities can be downloaded and create a boot floppy disk that you run on on the machine with the bad drive. You will need to make sure that the "boot sequence" in the BIOS setup is set to floppy drive 1st.

You may be able to remove and recreate all the partitions on that drive.

If you think you need to use fdisk /mbr read here:
fdisk /mbr

You should only use low-level/zero-fill format (in the manufacturers utilities) as a last resort, but it should get the drive back to "factory" condition. Read carefully before you use it...it will erase everything on the drive.

In general:
Windows does not like to be taken from one machine and started in another (unless the machine is identical). It has to change all the drivers, then when you put it back in the original machine drivers become mixed and Windows starts confusing the drivers. Windows should be set up to run on one machine only. The best way to share information between PC's is to use a LAN (you might find the motherboards have built in LAN cards or buy some...don't cost much). Share your information/data/internet that way.

Matt