Poorly PC

[D-Rider]

My main home PC seems terminally ill.
One of the kids phoned me at work to say it won't boot.
Tries to load windoze and then resets to the "which mode do you want to boot into" routine. Whichever you select, it does the same.
Been into the BIOS, changed it to boot from CD, stuck in my Norton Ghost CD - it starts to load and then hangs.

Found an old HDD with an old copy of XP on it - it will boot from that (and Ghost will load up while that HDD is there on its own).
Connect the "problem HDD" as a slave to the "old HDD that works on its own" and it hangs while booting.

OK obviously I have an HDD failure .... and I'm resigned to having to rebuild my PC (again) ..... but as it stands I'll loose the overwhelming majority of my data, email (and that of the rest of the family) etc etc.

Given that I can't get the PC to boot while that all-important drive is connected, I can't even look at it to see whether there is any recoverable data.
I'm now thinking that it may be worth investing in one of those USB HDD enclosures, boot the machine and then try connecting that drive as a USB device.
Anyone got any other bright ideas?

BTW although my Ghost backup data is intact on another HDD, it's not so useful .... some time ago it filled up its partition. I've been meaning to sort it out for ages but not got round to it - so it won't be that useful to me.

Need to fix this quick before the Mrs murders me 'cos she can't get her email and other bits and pieces.

[Aladinsaneuk]

that would be the way to go mate

if your data is corrupted, drop me a PM as I have a nice little recovery partition tool that i have used with success in the past - the software I have supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS, NTFS4 and NTFS5

email would have to be able to receive about a 6mb zip file.....

[D-Rider]

Thanks Pete ...PM sent.

[Aladinsaneuk]

sorted mate

you will still get killed by your wife but, that is normal... I find it easier to give them a simple reason for the bollocking, then they do not look for ages and make your life miserable while they are trying to find something to nag about....

[Gio]

that would be the way to go mate

if your data is corrupted, drop me a PM as I have a nice little recovery partition tool that i have used with success in the past - the software I have supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS, NTFS4 and NTFS5

email would have to be able to receive about a 6mb zip file.....

Can I ask for a copy please ?

[Aladinsaneuk]

pm me your email addy mate and sure

make sure your inbox can take a 5mb file btw :)

[Gio]

Pm sent, ta

[Aladinsaneuk]

sent and np

[BFG]

Connect the "problem HDD" as a slave to the "old HDD that works on its own" and it hangs while booting.

Are you double-certain it's set as slave? Not CS? With most IDE cables, the order of selection for CS is the last device on the ribbon cable is the first to boot. If you use master slave, nothing on the ribbon should be set to CS.

Another thing to try is to set the faulty drive to read only using a jumper. Sometimes forces the issue and result in a boot.

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious. Presuming IDE, that behaviour would suggest a hardware failure of the order that is disrupting the IDE chain, as windows won't try and use the second drive until beyond the boot stage.

As the PC is behaving the same with a bootable drive (unusual), it suggests that with two drives connected it's picking up the faulty one first.

[D-Rider]

Connect the "problem HDD" as a slave to the "old HDD that works on its own" and it hangs while booting.

Are you double-certain it's set as slave? Not CS? With most IDE cables, the order of selection for CS is the last device on the ribbon cable is the first to boot. If you use master slave, nothing on the ribbon should be set to CS.

Another thing to try is to set the faulty drive to read only using a jumper. Sometimes forces the issue and result in a boot.

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious. Presuming IDE, that behaviour would suggest a hardware failure of the order that is disrupting the IDE chain, as windows won't try and use the second drive until beyond the boot stage.

As the PC is behaving the same with a bootable drive (unusual), it suggests that with two drives connected it's picking up the faulty one first.

Thanks BFG - but I am certain it was trying to boot from the 'non-faulty' drive. That drive has 2 Windows installations and I got the correct screen to select between them. I think I remember it didn't hang 'till after it started to boot and I can tell the difference as the faulty one has the blue loading bar (post service pack 2) whereas the one that works shows the green loading bars (XP Home - pre SP2).

Using an IDE/USP adapter I got the thing in a state where I could investigate. Of the 3 partitions, 2 could be read the other was identified as corrupt (using some recovery software Aladinsane sent me). Anyway, the recovery software recovered the files, I've reformatted the corrupt partition (as no file format was recognised) and have just completed copying the recovered files back to the partition where they started.

Tonight I'll connect it and see whether it boots. Even if it doesn't, it's not the end of the world. I can rebuild the PC (which I may do anyway) but I've recovered all (or most?) of my data.

Phew !


Thanks everyone for their help .... particularly those utilities ....