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Fried Hard Drives??

D

drivingmonkey

n00b
Joined
Feb 26, 2005
Messages
17
I recently installed a new mobo/cpu/gpu and my computer gave me a BSOD. After scratching my head for about a day or two, i decided that it seemed like it was the hard drive that wasn't working. sure enough, it didn't work when i tried the hd out in another computer. This is the second hard drive that I have had trouble with this since i've been using this power supply. Has anyone heard of this happening before, and is there anything i can do to get my data back?
 
PSU problems are often suggested as a prime subject for HDD problems.
If you can access the HDD (BIOS sees it) you may be able to work with 'cheap' data recovery software. If the BIOS doesn't see it anymore you have two non-exclusive options: try replacing the PCB and using a data recovery company.
 
You do have to reinstall Windows when you change that much hardware. You would also have had to reinstall Windows with the other machines you tested it with.
 
are you sure? btw, i keep trying to run the diagnostic software that came from western digital, but i can't get any of the boot cd's to run.
 
Yes, I'm pretty sure. And you'll have to boot into your BIOS and set it to boot from CD before the HDD.
 
drivingmonkey said:
sure enough, it didn't work when i tried the hd out in another computer.
Click to expand...
Elaborate what you mean by "didn't work"? Were you unable to access the data from a different WinXP install, did the HDD not show up in the BIOS or what exactly did not work. There are many different levels of "working" each of which require different troubleshooting steps.
 
bios detected it fine, every time it goes to windows though it goes to the bsod as soon as it gets to that XP screen with the loading bar.

the exact same thing happened when i tried it in another computer
 
Reinstall windows. Don't reformat. It'll save your data and upgrade Windows to your new hardware.
 
drivingmonkey said:
bios detected it fine, every time it goes to windows though it goes to the bsod as soon as it gets to that XP screen with the loading bar.

the exact same thing happened when i tried it in another computer
Click to expand...

Unless the two sets of hardware were very similar, trying to boot from a windows install of one machine on the other hardware will often result in a BSOD. The drivers won't be right (espicially the IDE controller and boot up stuff) which is bad news for a windows install.

Take the "bad" drive and put it on the second PC, but set it up as a slave (not boot). I would then run a disk check and defrag and if both work fine, your issue most likely isn't a hard drive hardware issue.

 
okay, i already ordered a new PSU, but anyway, i decided to take the time to put the old mobo, processor, and gpu in and fire 'er up. Just as you guys predicted, it worked. I tried to uninstall the old mobo drivers in device manager, but my attempts were proven fruitless when i got another bsod when i put the new hardware back in. I found my windows install disk and am working with that right now. I tried to repair the first time, but my computer wouldn't boot. It would boot up, give me the screen where you can go to safe mode, normal boot, or last good configuration. no matter which one i select, the computer just reboots afterwards!! this is getting to be a frustrating week, please give your 2 cents if you have any suggestions or fixes for this!!
 
Put you old drives together with your new mobo/cpu/gpu. Then goto post #8.

If you want to save your old data (If you don't have viruses or spyware).
DON'T REFORMAT. Just install windows on the existing partition.
If it tells you that theres already a windows installation there, you should be given to option to overwrite it or some such.
 
no, i did reinstall windows, twice, it just won't boot or anything now though, when it should load xp it just reboots and keeps looping like that
 
Too many things have happened in this post. Clarify. You installed Windows to your OLD hard drives attached with your NEW parts, AFTER all of the other swapping you did?
 
yes. I put the old hard drive in with the old components and verified that it still worked. With this setup, I tried my best to uninstall the drivers associated with the old components. I then installed the new components with the old hard drive. I got a BSOD. I put my new windows in and did a re-install of windows, repaired, no reformatting. After the repair, my windows will not boot. It goes through bios, then where windows should take over, it just reboots.
 
my mistake, sorry, i misworded, that's what i did do, re-install, not the repair. and afterwards, it just won't load...grrrr...
 
Do you have any important data on that drive that isn't backed up? If not, then just go ahead and reformat. If you do, then you need to take it to a working PC and copy the data off of it.

My 1,024th post. Yeah!
 
well, i guess i could attempt a reformat....nothing that'll kill me to lose, but i'd highly prefer to not lose it all... its late right now...tomorrow, i'll try to put in a different hard drive, and reformat it and see if i can get the hard drive to run as a slave after that and then transfer some data
 
okay, so installing a fresh install of windows on a new hard drive worked like a charm. The other old hard drive booted fine as a slave too. My problem is that I need a way to transfer all of the programs and stuff that i was using on my old hard drive onto the new one. Does anyone know of a way to get my programs and games off of one hd to another so that they will still work?
 
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