Need help please.

pissed

Hi, my computer died yesterday. I had the same problem about a week ago but it came back itself. The problem is it boots and I get the windows xp screen and then I hear one beep and it reboots again.
I tried booting into safe mode but it does the exact same again. I am trying as I type to reinstall windows but it formats the disk, copies the files and it is now stuck on "installing devices 34 mins remaining@ for the past 20 mins or so.
My suspicions are a failed hard drive, but is there anyway I can narrow it down to be sure. If the motherboard or the cpu were at fault would I have made it as far as "installing devices" ? I have 3gb of ram installed and removed two but still the same problem. The drive is a WD800AAJS. Its a SATA drive. Anyway of testing this with tools outside of windows as such?

System specs are ASUS P5B PLUS motherboard, core 2 duo e6600, windows xp prof and 3 gb ram.


Any pointers welcome.

Sherifu

pissed wrote: »

My suspicions are a failed hard drive, but is there anyway I can narrow it down to be sure.

Good diagnosis i'd say.

Do you happen to have a live cd of any linux flavour handy?

gamer

CAN you go to a friends pc,go here http://www.ntfs.com/ download active bootdisk demo.Install activebootdemo on your friends pc,burn it to a cdr.PUT cdr in your pc,boot from cd drive .WINDOWS livecd boots up ,use it 2 copy files/mp3,data from the hardrive to a usb hd/pendrive.
THEN format the hardrive and try installing windows,i had similar problem.AT that point it turned out 1 memory simm was faulty.But it sounds like your hd is faulty.
when installing winxp format the hardrive.This may fix it.
OR you could use a win98se boot 3.5inch disk to check the drive ,see www.bootdisk.com You may have data on the hd ,copy it to usb hd or drive d hd be4 you format the drive.IN my experience hds fail after 4 years use.THERES testing tools on the makers website 4 free download eg seagate.com westerndigital.com that will check/test the hardives condition.Use IMGburn prog to burn the cd iso.

Alanstrainor

i had a similar problem recently, pc would get to the windows screen and blue screen, also couldn't reinstall xp as it claimed it couldn't format the disk. I was certain it was the hard drive at fault but it turned out to be corrupt RAM. It was very odd indeed. It might be worth while checking.

pissed

OK I still have net access here on my laptop so I can download that and burn to disk. Will give it a go and see what happens. Thanks

pissed

Alanstrainor wrote: »

i had a similar problem recently, pc would get to the windows screen and blue screen, also couldn't reinstall xp as it claimed it couldn't format the disk. I was certain it was the hard drive at fault but it turned out to be corrupt RAM. It was very odd indeed. It might be worth while checking.

Yeah I removed the ram and tried it with one stick but still the same, will have a go and see if I can get any of my data off the disk and go down that road for the moment.

ScumLord

I would assume that if the hard drive was the source it just wouldn't work at all. Faulty ram can cause all kinds of problems and you should defenitly try replacing the stick you have in there now.

gamer

ITS just a livecd windows os ,so its easy to use ,just drag and drop folders,files to copy em to a usb drive be4 you format the hardrive.DRIVE COULD be worn out or too many bad sectors,or just need a full formatting.HDS have x amount of hours before they simply wear out.you can run diagnostic tests on it if you are curious,using hd testing programs.
Active boot disk demo should be in the useful software sticky thread as its the only windows livecd program avaidable,or at least the easiest one to use and download.

CrinkElite

the effects of a faulty HDD can be erratic and can materialise slowly, In my experience it will not fail imediatly but give trouble for a while before going kaput. the symptoms i'm familiar with include

explorer taking a long time to display the contents of a folder.

excessive clicking or drive activity noise

bluescreens and restarts.

Due to the fault tollerence mechanisms in the drive (S.M.A.R.T.) it can take a long time for the drive to realise that it's dead.

I have found that sometimes you can install windows on a dying drive if you use the quick format option. <-(pointless info)

there is software available that will try to recover your drive by attempting to move the data to healthier sectors on the same drive but in my experience this is only a temp solution

In my experience faulty memory will generally materialise in the form of bluescreens and restarts only.

pissed

OK I have tried different variations with the ram. Each stick on its own with no joy. Trying to install windows again as I type. On one occasion I got a message saying windows could not format the drive as it was damaged or some other fault which I cant remember. I am not too pushed on recovering data from it as I have all my files backed up to external drives. So it was just the odd email or so that was lost. I think its unlikely that all 3 sticks of ram went faulty at the same time but who knows. I will see how I get on with this latest attempt to install windows. The drive was purchased from techstuff Ireland about 8 months ago. It was sold as refurbished, so maybe thats where the problem is. I can hear it spinning up and no noises coming from it.
I downloaded the active bootdisk demo but havnt had time to burn it to disk. Just another observation but the copying of the files in windows seems to be taking its time too.

petes

Is there a hard disk diagnostic in the bios?

Sherifu

Test out the ram if you want to be sure;

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Chkdsk for the hard drive from a recovery console if you have a windows cd.

pissed

Not too sure on the diagnostic in the bios. I will have a look after this ram test. I downloaded that from memtest. Its working away at the moment. I also burned the active boot disk so hopefully will be able to run a disk check on that one too. Thanks for all the help so far.

pissed

OK I ran the test on the ram and it came back clear. Just finished running the WD diagnostics test on the drive and its faulty. Mystery solved. Thanks to all for the guides. Now to find a new drive

Sherifu

I love it when a plan comes together

gamer

Once a hd starts to grind or click ,its nearly dead.ITS gods way of saying ,backup up important data NOW death is inevitable ,no drive is immortal.
IF certain sectors on the hd are bad windows wont install but you could prbly format it use it as slave drive d for data.BUT it could fail at any time eg you could rip cds to it and hold onto the cds in case it fails,ie use it as a music player/storage device.

pissed

Nah its hardly worth it as its only an 80GB. Just ordered a 500GB on EBuyer. Worked out handy for me as I had to place an order for a friend so just threw my new drive in and free shipping . Luckily I had all my data backed up to external drives. I learned the hard way before.

Overheal

could this be a heating issue?

I know my PC did a lot of this when I was young and dumb. I tracked it down with my BIOS temp sensor, eventually. The CPU would reach its treshold before I was able to complete a boot. The inch thick layer of dust - that was the problem :pac: