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Serious Computer Problems - Help!

  • 02-10-2006 9:47am
    #1
    Slaanesh
    Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 1,863 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    Right, where do I start?

    About a month ago I turned on my computer, it got into Windows but then just froze. I then reset the computer and it wouldn't even POST. all components were initialised (HD's CD-ROM, Fans etc ....) but nothing came up on the screen. After re-seating of all components/removal of non-essentials. The computer manages to POST but wouldn't boot. It then went back to nothing happening and the 'FF' code showing on the diagnostic LED on the motherboard. According to the manual this meant 'main board dead' or 'problem with add-in card'.

    I decided the problem was the main board and went and ordered a new mainboard with new DDR-II RAM. I decided I'd get a mainboard that supported my P4-3Ghz and the new Core 2 Duo (future proofing). I put it all together but I got the exact same problem, all components spinning up but nothing happening. My brother is building a new computer and had just got a new 500w PSU. I try this in the system, voila, she POSTED.

    Now, I knew that windows wouldn't work because of the new motherboard but I decided to try boot anyway, I selected Windows XP Prof from the bootlist and sure enough she bluescreened and reset. My hard drive is 250GB and I knew it had a 10GB partition so I decided I would format that and install XP. I boot from the CD-rom and when it gets to the bit where you format a partition it was all of a sudden telling me that, C: was 128GB with 100 odd gig free. I thought to myself, this ain't right. So I left it alone and rebooted the computer. This time it did not give me the bootlist, it just freezes before it gets that far, right after POSTing.

    I had another 300 gig SATA that I thought had crashed a while back. I put that in and it's recognised. I knew there was no OS on it but I turned on the computer, it showed me a selection of DUD OS's in the bootlist but that was fine. I boot again from the XP CD and it tells me that the 300 GB disk I put in has a C: partition of 128GB and free space of 150 odd GB. I'm thinking to myself WTF? Reset again and it freezes again just after POST.

    I brought both drives into work here and hooked them up to the machine, sure enough, both drives have an unkown parition of 128GB. I know there is info on these drives and I don't want to format because I have alot of stuff that I wanna get back.

    Anybody have any idea what the hell is going on? One is a Maxtor 300GB SATA, the other is a 250GB Western Digital SATA. I downloaded a few diagnostic utilities but they tell me both hard drives fail the SMART test. It's also reporting both drives with capacities greater that 700GB. I'm at my wits end on this one.

    Any advice/info much appreciated. Are there any good HD diag utils out there?


Comments

  • #2
    bubonicus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 715 ✭✭✭bubonicus


    Window xp pro SP1 will only see 128mb of disk space on any drive with more than that. Until you install SP2. then you can get the "rest" of your drive back.

    signed,
    Lothar Bubonicus, Chaos lord of Nurgle....I hated Slaanesh!!!!:p


  • #3
    Slaanesh
    Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 1,863 Mod ✭✭✭✭Slaanesh


    bubonicus wrote:
    Window xp pro SP1 will only see 128mb of disk space on any drive with more than that. Until you install SP2. then you can get the "rest" of your drive back.

    signed,
    Lothar Bubonicus, Chaos lord of Nurgle....I hated Slaanesh!!!!:p

    :)

    Unfortunately I have both drives in an XP SP2 machine now and have the same problem. I had the same drive in it last week and I could see all the data, now I am having this problem.


  • #4
    Slaanesh
    Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 1,863 Mod ✭✭✭✭Slaanesh


    I don't think I will be able to run a DFT utility because they don't work on embedded RAID sata controllers, even though the Hard drives aren't in an array.


  • #5
    Slaanesh
    Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 1,863 Mod ✭✭✭✭Slaanesh


    Not much feedback on this one.

    Here is what the 2 disks show up as in control panel.


  • #6
    TempestSabre
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,142 ✭✭✭TempestSabre


    were both drives were set up and formatted on different RAID controller chipset than is on the new board?


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  • #7
    quaidox
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 400 ✭✭quaidox


    this happened to us on a pc in work, where only 128GB was recognised on a 150GB drive. we updated the chipset drivers, and the full drive was then recognised.


  • #8
    Slaanesh
    Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 1,863 Mod ✭✭✭✭Slaanesh


    I figured it out guys, something magically ****ed up the partition tables on each hard drive. I got some partition recovery software and that picked up both the NTFS partitions and restored the boot table. I then had to delete the DUD 128gig FAT/16 partitions and voila, working drives :)

    Just because a hard drive looks messed up, never give up hope!


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