A Lost Hard Drive?

[telsave]

Hi can anyone offer a solution to this conundrum please.

I have three HDD's on my computer the third E: drive being used solely for backups. This weekend I set Ghost away to make an image of my C: drive so I could do some housekeeping. I left it going overnight and next morning was greeted with an error from Ghost saying it could not complete image.

When I went into My Computer the E:drive was absent from the screen only C: & D: were there. In the system device manager however all drives were present and appeared to be working OK. No matter what I tried I could not access my E: drive.

Then my computer would fail to boot up, it would go through the CD drives to try to boot but get no further and there was nothing on the screen. However if I left the computer off for 5 mins it would boot up as if nothing had happened, if I left it less than 5 minutes it would get to the boot up screen which allows 'press [TAB] to show POST screen [DEL] to enter set up' and freeze. Also it does not respond to a warm boot up.

I have tried unistalling the E: drive from device manager and shutting down computer and booting up to no avail same missing E: drive. I have even disconneted the E:drive from its lead within the computer as well as unistalling through device manager. Re booting in windows then shutting down re-connecting the HDD lead and re-booting no show of E:drive on My Computer screen but again it appears in device manager.

I even went as far as putting my windows CD in the CD drive and installing a new system onto the E:drive which was recognized by Windows install programme. However as computer will not warm re-boot this took some time and when it finalised and I managed to reboot using the NEW Windows OS it asked for a password -as I have not registered a password I pressed to move on but it reported 'The System cannot log you on due to the following error: The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted' and that was the end of that.

Sorry this is so long chaps but you can see that I have tried a few things to get the damned thing working. I am not technical at all as far as hardware is concerned all I want to do is switch the b****y thing on and get on with my work.

So if anyone can offer any advice it would be so gratefully received.

regards

 

[telsave]

Further up date sorry about this it now on trying to boot up reports NTLDR missing press ctr+alt+del to reboot. AAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!

 

[logic_187]

have you used the repair utility for windows? You can use this from the windows install cd which will then take you to DOS screen to do some command execution........to me you may need to repair/recreate the boot record.

 

[davidh]

something has happened with the drive
try this go to control panel administrative tools
computer management
disk manager
this will show ur drives the drive with the problem
may need to be initalised i think righ click and inistalise

let me know if this sorts it

 

[telsave]

Hi M'8s thanks for this I have tried widows repair on the secondary installation but not on the primary are you saying that I should try the repair programme on the C: drive would this not re-write the registry thereby unistalling all of my programmes?

Since NTLDR missing has appeared of course I cnanot boot up the computer at all - what do you suggest throw it and me out of the window????lol

any other ideas how we can get it going, please note the we as I believe in shared responsibility.

 

[davidh]

u done this by tring to install on a diff hdd
try this it should sort it out

Windows XP users

1. Insert the Windows XP bootable CD into the computer.
2. When prompted to press any key to boot from the CD, press any key.
3. Once in the Windows XP setup menu press the "R" key to repair Windows.
4. Log into your Windows installation by pressing the "1" key and pressing enter.
5. You will then be prompted for your administrator password, enter that password.
6. Copy the below two files to the root directory of the primary hard disk. In the below example we are copying these files from the CD-ROM drive letter "E". This letter may be different on your computer.
   
   copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\
   copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\
7. Once both of these files have been successfully copied, remove the CD from the computer and reboot.

Misconfiguration with the boot.ini file

Edit the boot.ini on the root directory of the hard disk drive and verify that it is pointing to the correct location of your Windows Operating System and that the partitions are properly defined. Additional information about the boot.ini can be found on document CH000492.
​

 

[telsave]

Thanks David, but I have been busy since I contacted you. I disconnected the C; & D: drives completely, re-installed windows on the E: drive successfully and after shutting down re-connected first the old D: drive which was recognised then the old C: drive which was laso recognised. Now I have three drives back on my computer. However obviously their is a new registry file on the new windows OS which is the NEW C: drive, can I copy across the old registry file from my old C: drive so that the programmes I have installed will work on boot up ie; virus chsecker and fire wall or djould I just re-install all the programmes using the new set up (there are a few!!!)

regards

 

[telsave]

Query Because the computer only boots up spasmodically could that be a fault on the motherboard. As I say I am non technical to a fault but if it does not even start to boot up surely that is nothing to do with the hard drives or windows because it does not get that far, I don't know but is the boot record on the motherboard?

regards

 

[davidh]

Thanks David, but I have been busy since I contacted you. I disconnected the C; & D: drives completely, re-installed windows on the E: drive successfully and after shutting down re-connected first the old D: drive which was recognised then the old C: drive which was laso recognised. Now I have three drives back on my computer. However obviously their is a new registry file on the new windows OS which is the NEW C: drive, can I copy across the old registry file from my old C: drive so that the programmes I have installed will work on boot up ie; virus chsecker and fire wall or djould I just re-install all the programmes using the new set up (there are a few!!!)

regards

do a reinstall m8

 

[telsave]

Hi david Yeh I have re-installed and have now got to re-install all of my programmes of course, if only there was an easy way. I lost my backup and image of course with the demise of Ghost. Have you any ideas what may have happened to cause the computer to fail to boot up on an immiate re-boot or warm boot?

regards

 

[davidh]

Hi david Yeh I have re-installed and have now got to re-install all of my programmes of course, if only there was an easy way. I lost my backup and image of course with the demise of Ghost. Have you any ideas what may have happened to cause the computer to fail to boot up on an immiate re-boot or warm boot?

regards

yes m8 instead of repairin ur c drive u inisiated a new install on a different hdd
which in turn removed the NTLDR which is the boot sector on the c drive

 

[telsave]

Hi David thanks for your patience I think I have not explained to you well enough. When I boot up my computer from cold it loads the new OS immediatly, if I try to re-boot with a warm boot it does not start at all, if I leave it off for a couple of minutes it boots to first screen before accessing boot up programme ie: the CD drives light up and go out the screen has the Intro screen on but nothing else happens. So if I am loading a programme that demands a re-boot the computer will not automatcally go through the process it tries but I have to switch off for about 5 mins and then switch it back on. This was happening with it before I installed the new OS and appears to have happened when Ghost went walkabout and lost my drive.

I am now having to re-build the new system with all my programmes and it will take forever if I have to leave the computer idle for 5 mins or so everytime an installed programme requires a re-boot. This is what makes me think (& as I say I am not a techie) it has something to do with an error on the motherboard and the BIOS programme?

If you have time to reply it would be appreciated.

regards

 

[fes_786]

so if ur computer been on and u restart it wont boot??

but if say u left it over night and it would boot??
sounds like overheating somewere or possibly psu fault

 

[telsave]

Thanks to everyone who helped with this p[roblem, I have taken the cowards way a fresh install of OS and spending the day setting it up.

Oh the joys of computing

regards

 

[capcomind]

To me this sounds like a hardware problem. The fact it won't warm reset would indicate a problem. I have had this on 3 seperate occasions, unfortunately all with different causes.
The three causes I have encountered are:-
Faulty IDE controller - diagnosed / fixed with a pci card (About £10)
Faulty power supply - diagnosed fixed with a new / borrowed power supply (£10-20)
Faulty drive controller card - Fixed with a new HDD... from little to lots.
Sorry I can't be more specific.

If you remove the elusive e drive (the one that dissapears) will the pc warm reboot, if it will then the drive is probably the problem. Try this method whilst disconnecting / re connecting items until the pc will reboot properly.

Its a long process but it might save a lot of heartache, if your e-drive is faulty it would be a shame for you to re-install everything then it fail again.

 

[telsave]

I really appreciate the efforts made to help me solve this problem. In the end it took a great deal of technical ability to cure it (at least everything is working now) I re-installed windows so manyy times I had to call them to get activation code re-newed. I the end I took the BIOS jumper off left the machine put it back to its original place. While I was inside took the memory chips out (here is the techie bit so look away if you are not techie) I blew the dust away - put everything back - re-installed windows on the drive that had disappeared re-connected the two other drives which were recognised immediately and copied files from the old C: drive to the new and am now in the process of re-installing programmes.

But again I thank everyone for their help, in the end it would appear a good blow was what was needed.

regards to all

 

[Dutcho]

in the end it would appear a good blow was what was needed.

regards to all

PMSL, what more can you say. Pleased your sorted.