Oh sh*t, what's gone wrong?

Mr Benevolent

First time post in Computers, but I've been building computers for years. Hope someone can help.

I was removing a virus from a friend's PC (it was completely riddled and he'd compressed the drive). Pulled out the HD, stuck it into my computer, backed up his data, repartitioned and reformatted his HD and reinstalled Windows (XP Pro). Worked fine on my PC. Didn't install any drivers while it was on my PC.

So, I stuck it back into my friend's PC. Gets to the XP logo screen (with the blue thingie running across the bottom) and restarts. Just turns straight off and back on again. I put my own HD in, same thing. Check BIOS, nothing unusual. Cleared NVRAM, now boots for about 3 seconds more and restarts. No strange BIOS beeps, boot order is fine. Restarts at exactly same time every boot.

Not heat related as I can leave it on the Windows Advanced Options (you know, the black screen where 'last known good' and 'safe mode' options lurk).

Next I reseat everything, and I mean everything. No change. Pull out components one by one and try booting, no change. Swap all the components from my own PC, no change. I stick in the Windows CD and try to boot off it. When it asks me whether I want to repair or install I select 'install' and it tells me it can't find the HD. F*ck. Try it with my own HD. Same thing.

I have no idea what to do next. I have a horrible suspicion the motherboard is knackered, but I'm careful about ESD and don't throw components around!

Ishindar

i suggest trying the HDD again in your own PC as the HDD may have developed a problem. it may be worth reformatting the HDD and then try installing XP with HDD in the original PC with minimum components connected. consider trying other SATA cables and other SATA port on the mobo.

Mr Benevolent

I suggest trying the HDD again in your own PC as the HDD may have developed a problem. it may be worth reformatting the HDD and then try installing XP with HDD in the original PC with minimum components connected. consider trying other SATA cables and other SATA port on the mobo.

Swapped the SATA cables and tried all 4 SATA ports with no change. Windows Setup won't recognise the HD - claims there are no HDs installed on the PC, but will recognise the HD in BIOS. HD works perfectly on my PC.

I've trawled the web on this problem and everything points to RAM failure, but I've put in RAM from my PC AND tried the other PC's RAM on my computer (both work fine). Could be the RAM slots themselves.

L31mr0d

Confab wrote: »

...reinstalled Windows (XP Pro). Worked fine on my PC. Didn't install any drivers while it was on my PC.

you can't do this. You have to reinstall XP while the drive is in his PC. Regardless of drivers, a hardware abstraction layer is installed by XP during install, so unless your friend has the exact same motherboard as you, you will more than likely have to reinstall XP with the drive in his PC. Or you could run an XP repair, but its messy.

Just reinstall XP, its the safest bet.

Yarnhall

Could just be bad disk. I got a machine to install to an old HDD once but it wouldn't boot off it. Another PC wouldn't even recognise the drive. Binned it an used another one.

youcancallmeal

L31mr0d wrote: »

you can't do this. You have to reinstall XP while the drive is in his PC. Regardless of drivers, a hardware abstraction layer is installed by XP during install, so unless your friend has the exact same motherboard as you, you will more than likely have to reinstall XP with the drive in his PC. Or you could run an XP repair, but its messy.

Just reinstall XP, its the safest bet.

Exactly what I was thinking. Windows keeps a record of what hardware it was installed on. Used to happen to me a lot when I was upgrading PC's I would sometimes have to reactivate my license. Its part of the piracy protection system.

BadCharlie

Better off installing windows on his harddrive while in his computer. Bet that will do the trick.

Only time Windows worked when on same harddrive but i changed it to another computers, was when it was the same brand of motherboard but differint modle. Still ended up reinstalling windows as i got the Blue screen from time to time.

astrofool

Running a repair install will also enable HAL redetection, and there's a boot up switch to do it too if I remember correctly.

However, in this instance, reinstall on his hardware is by far the least painful option.

Mr Benevolent

I agree I probably cocked it up by installing Windows on his HD on my PC, but when I try to boot from the Windows CD on his PC it isn't finding the HD.

I'll toddle over to Maxtor's site, download the SATA drivers and dump them onto a floppy - might work.


UPDATE: XP Setup doesn't like the SATA drivers and throws up errors. I'm going to format an IDE HD (bypassing the SATA driver issues), stick it into the other PC and boot from the Windows CD. Once XP is installed I'll start another XP install through Windows on the SATA HD.

Thanks for the help guys.

astrofool

Go to the motherboard makers site, Maxtor do not make sata driver, it's a motherboard chip that controls the sata connections.

DamoKen

you should find the correct sata drivers on his motherboard cd, failing that as astrofool said they'll be on the motherboard site. Check his motherboard manual as well, should give details of what controllers are on it.

Mr Benevolent

All sorted now, thanks guys.