Problem with my hard drive

E

evanscnce

New Member
I have one 80 gig IDE HDD and one 250 gig SATA HDD.

My problem is, I had windows XP pro and all of my things on the 80 gig (because I just got the 250 recently) and I installed Diskeeper so I could do a good defragmentation. Well I restarted and it worked, kinda. I couldn't go into my computer. It kept saying something about bad chkdsk (?) SO I decided to reboot. Upon rebooting, Windows started to load, but then BLUE SCREEN and a reboot. This repeated on and on. So I installed XP Pro on my new SATA drive so I could try to fix the problem, or at least get all of my files off. Well when I went to load the new XP, it froze right after the windows loading screen. Then I unpluged the IDE drive and the new windows booted right up. So clearly the problem is the IDE Drive. I NEED the data thats on there though so I need a way to get it off. I tried plugging it in while windows was loaded, but it just freezes my computer. I don't know what to do. I am going to try an external enclosure tommorrow so it will be USB. Any ideas as to whats wrong/how ti fix it.

P.S.
Safemode doesn't work.

Thanks!
 
Before even installing Windows on the sata you could have easily used the "install to repair" method of correcting the problems with booting Windows on the 80gb as a last resort to using a restore point to undo the changes made by the bad install of Diskkeeper. Actually XP by itself defrags a drive much faster then the older versions of Windows. Diskkeeper simply gives you the option of setting up an automatic run on a schedule you create.

The firs thing there for getting the current Windows installation going on the 80gb ide drive is the use of the safe mode/command prompt only option seen in the F8 boot menu for Windows. Newer boards also have an F8 menu for choosing the drive to boot from that can popup just before the Windows menu. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304449
 
I already said Safemode doesn't work.. No matter how I do it, it freezes my computer. I even put the windows disk in and tried to repair it that way, but nothing.
 
This doesn't load Windows in safe mode. Instead you are brought to a command prompt where you manually type in the command seen here and simply press the enter afterwards
" %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe " without the quotes.

Your other and last option if this still fails to see results is to perform a repair install on Windows outlined in some details at http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
 
So you can't even get to the command prompt? I think you will probably be better off following the instructions seen in the article then. You iwll most likely have to reinstall video and sound drivers since is one common item. But the rest of the programs installed should be normal once you have Windows up and running again. Just remember to look for the option to repair the current installation once you press enter to start the install process. Otherwise that will delete the current in favor of a new install requiring that everything is put back on including your desktop themes and whatever. The idea is to repair not delete the current.
 
I tried to do the repair option on the Windows XP install disk. But when it loads on the bad HDD, it freezes... so yea...
 
Two things to ask here is 1) was the new 250gb sata drive plugged in at the time? And the second is 2) did you ever enable any antivirus protection in the system bios that protects the boot sector? A third question that could be added would be any clicking sounds heard from the drive itself. Touching the drive and it being too warm would suggest a failing drive there.
 
Yes, it was plugged in at the time. There is no antivirus in the bios. And I never heard clicking and never felt the drive. I will soon though.

Edit: No clicking, time will tell on the heat thing though.
 
With the sata drive plugged in even with the 80gb ide drive in mind you should try using the SATA/RAID driver disk option seen in the XP installer. With those loaded the installer will detect the unidentified device as a sata drive and then prompt you for instructions as to which drive you want XP to go on until choosing the repair option. When you went to install Windows on the 250gb did you change any settings in the boot order?

You may want to temporarily unplug the 250gb during the repair and let Windows install the drive later seen as a new device. That's when you have the sata driver disk onhand. XP was installed originally before the new drive went in. You want to see Windows running normally again if the 80gb is still good.
 
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