NTLDR is missing

[SAW]

Firstly, I appologize if this is the wrong area to post this question, I looked at the other chapter threads and this one just seemed to be the place to post.

Im having this dreaded NTLDR is missing problem.......AGAIN!!!!!

This happened about a month ago. I ended up just reinstalling the OS. But, since this problem has happened again, I need to know what to do about it.

Ive been doing research on it now since yesterday. But, all the things ive found to resolve this problem are not working.

This is what other people say to do:

1. copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\
2. copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\

Ive tried and tried, but this doesnt work. For some reason, the drive letter for my drive has changed. At the recovery console, I typed "dir g:\" (or something like that) after going thru the alphabet to find which drive letter my cd drive is (now)...It used to be "e", dont know how it changed, but anyways...

So, in the above....I replaced "e" with "g" , so it was written like this......

copy g:\i386\ntldr c:\

After typing that, I hit enter..I can hear the drive trying to do its thing, but I get a reply saying something along the lines of "file could not be copied". (figures, just my luck)

So, after more research, I read someone saying that this file could be "hidden" and to type this:

attrib -h -r e:\i386\ntldr ......where I replaced e:\ with g:\.....this is supposed to make those files readable, yet, I still couldnt get it to work.

And then, I found this info,

1.)fixmbr
2.)fixboot
3.)copy g:\i386\ntldr c:\
4.)copy g:i386\ntdetect.com c:\

Says in that thread to do those steps in order....however, when I press enter after typing the 1st one...It asks me if im sure I want to do that????? Something about overwriting original boot, something like that anyways.

Am I...should I press "y" and hit enter for those first 2 steps? I dont want to make my situation worse and I dont know what these things are doing to my computer, so I didnt do it.

Can someone PLEASE help me. I really dont want to reinstall again only to have this happen to me again 2 weeks from now.

I talked to a tech guy/friend on the phone and he said, since it happened a short time ago, chances are, my HD has a bad sector on it and when things get written to that sector, things go screwy. Is this true? What can be done about this?

I just really dont know. Please, someone.....HELP ME!!!!!

 

[crashthenet44]

You need to figure out why you are having this problem instead of messing around trying to recover this install of Windows. Run the diagnostics for you HD and run memtest. This way you can start to isolate where this corruption is coming from.

 

[ivzk]

I had a problem like this before. Somehow, my bios decided to switch my boot sequence on me.

 

[spine]

The problem here is that windows can't see the windows drive it's installed on because the boot.ini is pointing to the wrong drive.

Either changed bios options have caused the drive sequence to change (enabling a sata channel for example where there wasn't one previously) or you've added another or otherwise did something to alter the drive sequence since you last installed XP.

Here's a copy of my boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer

In bold is the important part. A number "0" means the first drive. So here I have windows installed on the 3rd partition of my first drive (raid array set to be first in my bios boot order).


Google around on this because this is where your problems lies.

 

[SAW]

You need to figure out why you are having this problem instead of messing around trying to recover this install of Windows. Run the diagnostics for you HD and run memtest. This way you can start to isolate where this corruption is coming from.

I do not know much about computers. I do not know how to "run the diagnostics for HD" or "run memtest" .

Sorry, I just do not know.

I had a problem like this before. Somehow, my bios decided to switch my boot sequence on me.

Yeah, Ive read about that too. I havent checked yet, suppose I should though. I havent installed anything new, as far as HDs or anything like that, its all the stuff Ive had since I built this computer. Everything was working fine the day before this happened, no problems at all. The next day, I get home from work, turn on computer and this happened.

The problem here is that windows can't see the windows drive it's installed on because the boot.ini is pointing to the wrong drive.

Either changed bios options have caused the drive sequence to change (enabling a sata channel for example where there wasn't one previously) or you've added another or otherwise did something to alter the drive sequence since you last installed XP.

Here's a copy of my boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer

In bold is the important part. A number "0" means the first drive. So here I have windows installed on the 3rd partition of my first drive (raid array set to be first in my bios boot order).


Google around on this because this is where your problems lies.

Yeah, Ive been "googling" lots of stuff. From what ive read, there are lots of stuff that can cause this problem. The problem is....

I do not know how to do what you wrote. I dont even know where to begin. I feel dumb. But I just do not know.

 

[SAW]

Anyone else have any ideas?

How bout what I wrote....those 4 steps...??

 

[digital_exhaust]

I dont even know where to begin. I feel dumb. But I just do not know.

Don't feel dumb man, we all started somewhere....

It sounds like your drive is headed south.. Grab the diagnostic utilities from your drive manufacturers web site, burn the app to a cd and boot form that cd... it's a pretty simple process really.

So get started on that, and if you have questions and or problems, ask and we'll help.

 

[Dangman]

Download Memtest+ V.170, unzip it, burn the ISO file to a CD, and then boot from it, just like you would do with the XP install CD. Let Memtest+ run for at least three hours on each stick of RAM separately. If you start seeing errors, than your RAM is bad.

 

[pallesen]

have you checked the boot order in bios?

 

[SAW]

have you checked the boot order in bios?

I just did this now.....says:
1st - cd drive
2nd - hard disc
3rd - hard disc

From what I can tell, this is the same as it was/has been, so to my knowledge, nothing has changed.

Download Memtest+ V.170, unzip it, burn the ISO file to a CD, and then boot from it, just like you would do with the XP install CD. Let Memtest+ run for at least three hours on each stick of RAM separately. If you start seeing errors, than your RAM is bad.

Well, I went out and tried to grab a copy.......turns out, THIS computer sux too (is why I built a better one)

Seems as though my dvd drive isnt showing up. It opens and shuts, but im not seeing the drive anywhere....so despite being able to use this "other" computer to communicate to [H], I cant copy anything to a disc.

I do however, have 2 dvd drives in the computer that has the "ntldr" problem. Im thinking I can swap out one of the drives from that computer, to this one so I can burn stuff to disc. Only thing there is....with "this" computer im on now, it uses IDE.....my "ntldr" problem computer uses SATA. Can I still make the swap?

Don't feel dumb man, we all started somewhere....

It sounds like your drive is headed south.. Grab the diagnostic utilities from your drive manufacturers web site, burn the app to a cd and boot form that cd... it's a pretty simple process really.

So get started on that, and if you have questions and or problems, ask and we'll help.

Same answer to the above quote....Untill I can get a working drive to copy things too, I cant transfer anything to a disc.

Mann, I love computers and what they can do for me.....but when they break down, I just want to throw them out the window.

Ive got another question though...

As I was looking around THIS computer (hasnt been used since my upgrade), I happened to see the files "ntldr" and "ntdetect.com". When and IF i get the other drive to work or replaced, can I just copy those files to the disc and then put into the problemed computer and do a copy of those 2 files that way?

Both computers are using the exact same OS.

On that note, I have an "upgrade" Vista OS to upgrade from XP to Vista...Its just sitting on my desk, never even opened it when I bought it. Im considering installing it thinking this copy of XP has become currupt from all the installs Ive done over the years (not the first time ive had to do a reinstall.......ive done it many times unfortunately). Is it possible the ntldr file has gone screwy from all the reinstalls?

I hesitate to use Vista because of ALL the problems people have been having (as you know, im not good at figuring out computer problems). Last thing I want is to install Vista only to find out I cant play TF2 or make any more maps.

Thanks for all you guys' help, I really do appreciate it.

 

[anime4u]

1. Make sure you have set your boot order to:
1.CD rom
2. Harddisk
3. your choice

2. Place your windows disk into the DVD rom. Let windows take you to the blue intstall screen. Choose "R" to repair windows. You should enter the Microsoft repair console. Select 1 for your drive.
On the command line type CHKDSK /p /r

Make sure to make a space between "CHKDSK" and "/" and the "p" and then the "/"

If successful windows will run the CHKDSK program. CHKDSK finds and repairs harddrive faults. It will take some time and at the end it may fix the issue for now. If you have a bad harddisk, your computer will have future issues. Try to migrate to another harddisk as fast as possible. Using CasperXP (an HD cloning program from Future Systems) may make your life easier.

Good luck!

 

[SAW]

1. Make sure you have set your boot order to:
1.CD rom
2. Harddisk
3. your choice

2. Place your windows disk into the DVD rom. Let windows take you to the blue intstall screen. Choose "R" to repair windows. You should enter the Microsoft repair console. Select 1 for your drive.
On the command line type CHKDSK /p /r

Make sure to make a space between "CHKDSK" and "/" and the "p" and then the "/"

If successful windows will run the CHKDSK program. CHKDSK finds and repairs harddrive faults. It will take some time and at the end it may fix the issue for now. If you have a bad harddisk, your computer will have future issues. Try to migrate to another harddisk as fast as possible. Using CasperXP (an HD cloning program from Future Systems) may make your life easier.

Good luck!

Thank You for your reply....

When in BIOS, I do have it set up as you mention, so Im good to go from there...

I can get to the repair console, np there....

Ive read about this "Press 1 " then "Enter" thing the other day, I tried it and it says invalid command, or something to that matter. I asked my tech friend and she said it should only ask you to select "1" if you have more than one installation of the OS (I believe thats what she said). So, since I only have the one OS, im not asked this question???? <--I assume. Ive also read that it should ask me for the admin. password???? Ive not seen this question either. Im assuming im locked out from these ntldr files to copy off the disc because im not logged in as the Admin...damned if I know what to do about that....

Ive just got thru reading some more stuff about this situation and the common theme seems to be to do a chkdisc thingy. I will try this in the morning after work, Ive got 4 whole hours b4 i need to get up....damn computers, heh.

I'll leave with another question about what ya said though...

Just so im absolutely sure what to do here....

CHKDSKspace"/"space"p"space"/"space"r" (without quotes)

Also, does the "CHKDSK" have to be capitalized or does it not matter?

Thanks again for your time and efforts guys/gals.

 

[anime4u]

Thank You for your reply....

When in BIOS, I do have it set up as you mention, so Im good to go from there...

I can get to the repair console, np there....

Ive read about this "Press 1 " then "Enter" thing the other day, I tried it and it says invalid command, or something to that matter. I asked my tech friend and she said it should only ask you to select "1" if you have more than one installation of the OS (I believe thats what she said). So, since I only have the one OS, im not asked this question???? <--I assume. Ive also read that it should ask me for the admin. password???? Ive not seen this question either. Im assuming im locked out from these ntldr files to copy off the disc because im not logged in as the Admin...damned if I know what to do about that....

Ive just got thru reading some more stuff about this situation and the common theme seems to be to do a chkdisc thingy. I will try this in the morning after work, Ive got 4 whole hours b4 i need to get up....damn computers, heh.

I'll leave with another question about what ya said though...

Just so im absolutely sure what to do here....

CHKDSKspace"/"space"p"space"/"space"r" (without quotes)

Also, does the "CHKDSK" have to be capitalized or does it not matter?

Thanks again for your time and efforts guys/gals.

I do capitalize CHKDSK portion even though it should not matter.

1. Please type CHKDSKspace/space/r No quotation marks needed.

2. I have lost LOSTA sleep to computers! (This is looking at you MSI !)

good luck!

 

[ziv1173]

Thank You for your reply....

When in BIOS, I do have it set up as you mention, so Im good to go from there...

I can get to the repair console, np there....

Ive read about this "Press 1 " then "Enter" thing the other day, I tried it and it says invalid command, or something to that matter. I asked my tech friend and she said it should only ask you to select "1" if you have more than one installation of the OS (I believe thats what she said). So, since I only have the one OS, im not asked this question???? <--I assume. Ive also read that it should ask me for the admin. password???? Ive not seen this question either. Im assuming im locked out from these ntldr files to copy off the disc because im not logged in as the Admin...damned if I know what to do about that....

Ive just got thru reading some more stuff about this situation and the common theme seems to be to do a chkdisc thingy. I will try this in the morning after work, Ive got 4 whole hours b4 i need to get up....damn computers, heh.

I'll leave with another question about what ya said though...

Just so im absolutely sure what to do here....

CHKDSKspace"/"space"p"space"/"space"r" (without quotes)

Also, does the "CHKDSK" have to be capitalized or does it not matter?

Thanks again for your time and efforts guys/gals.

Boot to winxp cd, select repair.

You will be asked, even if you only have 1 os installed, probably. Just select it, it should be the only one to show up.

As for the admin, use the account name "Admin" (w/o quotes), and your admin password. If you do not know it..try leaving it blank. You might not have assigned it one. If you did and don't remember, try using some others you might think it would be...

Once you successfully get in & at command prompt, do the chkdsk as mentioned above. "chkdsk /p /r" or just simply "chkdsk /r" should work. without quotes, again. Let this run completely through, and once back at the command prompt, type "exit" or "quit". Can't remember which one. Or just simply reboot the computer.

Decline to boot into the boot disk, and see if it boots up now. If it doesn't, report back and we'll look into it more.

Also, one quick q, you said the computer has 2 cd/dvd drives. It might be a possibility you are asking it to copy the ntldr from the empty/non-windows-boot drive. In which case it would fail. Are you absolutely sure you are accessing the correct drive in the prompt?

Kevin

 

[MzL]

rofl i had this with vista very anoying.

i think i had the boot on

cd-room
harddrive.

then i had the vista cd in and skipped boot from cd.
got in vista.
then i deleted the partition that vista didn't delete.

and then some how it booted from normally from Hdisk.

i tried repairing. its nothing to with that i think.

just try booting with OS cd inside.
and make sure ur bios is botting from harddrive.
i think its cause window dunno which item to boot from and giving error because it can't find windows from the options u gave it.

but deffinatly cureable~~ just try everything

 

[SAW]

Im just getting home. 2, maybe 3 hours sleep last night. Im damn tired..

Before going to sleep last night, I couldnt help but to read more about this problem. I found this thread http://www.anetforums.com/posts.aspx?ThreadIndex=30064

THIS is a pure example of why I have a fear of computers....to an extent. I fear that Im going to do something and its going to make smoke come out the back of the monitor. (Not literally of course, but you get the point).

In a nutshell...what the link talks about is some people tried doing a FIXBOOT and FIXMBR. They said it seemed to work, but then, their 20g HD (the thread is somewhat old at the beginning) was reduced down to 10mb.

The other day, I typed in FIXBOOT at the recovery console c:\

It asked me if I was sure I wanted to delete the current boot sector and replace with a new one (more or less what it said, im not quoting exact wording). I had no idea what it was talkin about, so I pressed "n" and cancelled out of it. Glad I did.

ATM, I just cant think straight, too tired to try the CHKDSK thing right now. I just wanted to update you guys with what I read last night and see what ya'll thought about it. I'll try the CHKDSK in a few hours.

Thank you again for your help. [H] ROCKS....Once I get this situation resolved, I play TF2, name is [H]Saw. I usually play on fridays and on weekend nights. Look me up and we'll go shoot some spies, hehe.

 

[pallesen]

About troubleshooting:

1) BIOS is reponsible for loading the MBR

2) MBR is responsieble for load the boot sector. (fixmbr)

3) The boot sector is responsible for loading ntldr, or displaying the error message. (fixboot)

So when you see the "missing ntldr" message, you know 2 and 3 works. You are sure, that your data-harddrive is not the one that is listed first in the boot order?

 

[SAW]

About troubleshooting:

1) BIOS is reponsible for loading the MBR

2) MBR is responsieble for load the boot sector. (fixmbr)

3) The boot sector is responsible for loading ntldr, or displaying the error message. (fixboot)

So when you see the "missing ntldr" message, you know 2 and 3 works. You are sure, that your data-harddrive is not the one that is listed first in the boot order?

yeap, im sure. 1st in my boot order is dvd/cd drive, then HD, then HD.

I have 2 HD's...One is for the OS, Nod32 and other various programs such as NERO etc... its a 120g HD. The 2nd HD is partitioned. 1st partition is 100g and is my wifes side of the HD, we have mostly just our kids pics and videos on it. The 2nd partition is my side and is 300g. This is where i keep all my stuff at. Mostly games.

At very least, I know if I reinstall the OS, all my pics will remain untouched from the reinstall, but I will still loose my game installs. My tech friend said thats because some of the files for the games, even though being on another HD, still get written to the OS HD. The pics however, only being a pic application (or something to that matter) dont get touched by the reinstall.

If worse comes to worse, its the pics and videos which are important. Wish I had bought the Orange Box from the store rather than downloading it off Steam. If I have to end up reinstalling OS, I get to spend a day and half redownloading TF2 at only 150kbps.

About to attempt the CHKDSK...Stay tuned....

 

[SAW]

Well, its been about 30 min or so.

I typed:

CHKDSK /r then hit enter..

Said

CHKDSK is checking the volume...
CHKDSK is performing additional checking or recovery
CHKDSK is performing additional checking or recovery
CHKDSK is performing additional checking or recovery
1% completed.

Its been at "1%" and hasnt changed.

Is this what is supposed to happen? How long does a CHKDSK usually take? Has my system halted and I need to start again?

Oyyy, heh..

 

[SAW]

Its now been over 2 hours since I started the CHKDSK. Its still sitting at 1%.

Im thinking either I have a larger problem than first thought, or my computer got hung up somehow...

Can I just turn off the computer and try again, or will that damage something?

 

[ziv1173]

Might wanna reboot and try again. It shouldn't hurt anything. If it hangs again...well, we'll go rom there.

 

[SAW]

Well, its been another 30 min.

I tried it again, making sure I typed it right and everything.

It did the exact same thing.

Its stuck on the 1% completed. Nothing else is happening.

 

[AlmostEvil]

yea, im having the same dreaded message with one of my computers. fortunately, its my real crappy emachines and not my good one so i really dont care that much. its still a hassle but oh well. im going to try repairing the OS and if that fails, reformat. just reformated it last week too. might be the hd is going bad, dont know how old this pc is. its got an amd xp in it, so at least ~5 or 6 years i think.

 

[anime4u]

Its now been over 2 hours since I started the CHKDSK. Its still sitting at 1%.

Im thinking either I have a larger problem than first thought, or my computer got hung up somehow...

Can I just turn off the computer and try again, or will that damage something?

You are right to fear a greater issue is at work. By now you should have advanced greater than 1%. I suspect your harddrive is broken. You will not hurt your computer anymore than it is now. If FIXBOOT and FIXMBR does not work, more than likely you need to reload with a new drive.

 

[SAW]

Damn....I was afraid of that. It doesnt suprise me though. This kinda stuff ALWAYS is happing to me. Back a longgg time ago in high school, my friends would skip classes and never get caught. I did it once, got caught and spent 3 days in detention.

Ahh, well. At least now I know if I just reinstall the OS to this drive again, it will have this problem....again.

To rectify my current situation, since I cant just go out at this time and throw down more money on another HD, Im thinking of taking the HD that is in the computer Im currently on (which is a 160g).....reformating it...then putting it into my good computer and install the XP onto it.

How does that sound?

I just wish I had a current copy of XP on disc, complete with service pack 2 already on it. The disc I have, Ive had since XP came out, so my disc only has service pack 1 and after installation, I have to go thru all the update downloads....Gahhhh

I REALLY do appreciate your help "anime4u" as well as all of you who have replied.

Before I go though When the time comes to buy another HD, can Maxtor be trusted? I bought this Maxtor 120g HD at Fry's. They were having a huge sale going on with it. I think it cost me about $35 - $40 bucks for a 120g and people were grabbing them left and right. I just happened to be there, didnt know about the sale, but I picked one up anyways. I guess you get what you pay for, ehh. Maybe they were "cheap" for a reason???

 

[ziv1173]

I've never had a problem with maxtor. but then again I mainly use Seagate. Maxtor, I think, use to be pretty popular but have been outproduced by Seagate/WD lately I believe.

Either way I doubt it's much to worry about. Run chkdsk on it as soon as your install it if you are truly worried about it.

Kevin

 

[anime4u]

[Damn....I was afraid of that. It doesnt suprise me though. This kinda stuff ALWAYS is happing to me. Back a longgg time ago in high school, my friends would skip classes and never get caught. I did it once, got caught and spent 3 days in detention.

Ahh, well. At least now I know if I just reinstall the OS to this drive again, it will have this problem....again.

To rectify my current situation, since I cant just go out at this time and throw down more money on another HD, Im thinking of taking the HD that is in the computer Im currently on (which is a 160g).....reformating it...then putting it into my good computer and install the XP onto it.

How does that sound?

I just wish I had a current copy of XP on disc, complete with service pack 2 already on it. The disc I have, Ive had since XP came out, so my disc only has service pack 1 and after installation, I have to go thru all the update downloads....Gahhhh

I REALLY do appreciate your help "anime4u" as well as all of you who have replied.

Before I go though When the time comes to buy another HD, can Maxtor be trusted? I bought this Maxtor 120g HD at Fry's. They were having a huge sale going on with it. I think it cost me about $35 - $40 bucks for a 120g and people were grabbing them left and right. I just happened to be there, didnt know about the sale, but I picked one up anyways. I guess you get what you pay for, ehh. Maybe they were "cheap" for a reason???
/QUOTE]

Sorry to see your old OS drive go. I really would not trust Maxtor as your main drive. They get real hot, and from what I have seen at the shop, Maxtor is a brand to be weary of. I have tried and trusted Samung and Hitachi drives. I am now testing a WD drive now.
For reviews of harddrives have you been by StorageReview? It has tests and reviews that came in handy for me.

 

[Met-AL]

Drives are drives, there is no evidence to support one manufacturer to be worse than another or better.

The OP should test his PC for stability before settling on his drive being bad.

The fact that it hangs during a simpe check disk is alarming.

I would start with a a good 24 hours of Memtest. You can get it at http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ along with a large toolbox of other utilities, including Maxtor drive diagnostic utilities.

 

[SAW]

Just for kicks, at the recovery console, I just typed CHKDSK and then hit enter.....NO /p and /r this time.....

The message I got was.....

"The volume appears to be in good condition and was not checked. Use /p if you want to check the volume anyways".

So then I did a CHKDSK /p

Then it did the same thing, hanging up at 1%.

Nope, never been to that site before. After I built this computer, my researching on products came to an end, heh.

And for downloading a utility to use.....I can do that later on, but for now, I have one computer down with the NTLDR problem and then this one im on now, which is turning out to have a bad dvd drive....so I cant burn anything to disc atm.

To fix that problem....Since my "good" computer has 2 dvd drives, Im thinking of taking one of them out, putting into this "working" computer....Install Nero...THEN, I can download and burn things.....

Once I do that, then I can reformat this HD and install it into my good computer and go from there. ATM though, I dont really have a choice other than to use the Maxtor HD within this working computer (yes, its a Maxtor too). In my good computer, the HD holding my kids pics and my games is a Seagate 400g.

Oyyyy, my hair looks like i just stuck my finger into an electric socket.

 

[anime4u]

And for downloading a utility to use.....I can do that later on, but for now, I have one computer down with the NTLDR problem and then this one im on now, which is turning out to have a bad dvd drive....so I cant burn anything to disc atm.

To fix that problem....Since my "good" computer has 2 dvd drives, Im thinking of taking one of them out, putting into this "working" computer....Install Nero...THEN, I can download and burn things.....

Everything is turning into an epic heh?

 

[SAW]

Everything is turning into an epic heh?

That Sir...Is the understatment of the year....At this point, im afraid to turn this computer off for fear IT wont start, heh.

 

[Decibel]

Try to get your system that works so you can burn disks. Ultimatebootcd belongs in every geeks toolbox. It has a pile of useful diagnostics.

Heck, even having a Linux live CD would help.

So on the system that does work at the moment try unplugging the cd burner, especially the data cable and plugging it back in. If that doesn't work try a new cable if you have a spare. If that fails then swap in a drive from the other system.

In the meantime, unwrap your Vista disk, slap it in the broken box and boot. When it says hit any key to blah blah blah (or something...) hold down the spacebar and it will pop up with a menu. The options are something along the lines of windows setup or memory diagnostic. Use tab to navigate and run the memory diagnostic. Sorry, it's been awhile I don't remember the exact menu options. Let it run for a while, checking back every so often to make sure it hasn't hung.

Check in you BIOS to see if there is a hard drive boot order. On my system I have both the primary boot order, CD-ROM, Floppy, HDDisk... etc., and I have a separate menu for hard disk boot priority. It shows all three of my internal hard drives and my USB drives if I have them plugged in. While you're in the BIOS, what are the temps of the various components while it's sitting there idling?

Big troubleshooting hint, ISOLATE the problem. Unplug your 2nd HD. (Which has the added advantage minimizing the risk of inadvertent data loss.) Also unplug the 2nd optical drive.

Once you have the OS drive isolated, if it still doesn't boot, try another round of chkdsk. Who knows, it might work... Then, since at this point we know it's broken, go ahead and run fixmbr/fixboot. If that still fails there is always the option of a repair install. It's inelegant, but it should get you into a fubar install to back up your data and poke around.

Also - Since we're a bunch of tweakers and overclockers, is anything in your system overclocked? Overly ambitious tweaking can lead to system instability which can be manifested by hard disk data corruption.

There are two troubleshooting paths to work along here A) failing harddrive, B) an as yet undetermined system instability leading to data corruption. Start with B by letting us know system temps, running memtest or the windows memory diagnostic, etc. For A isolate the problem drive and, if we can clear the other hardware, run some disk tools, like chkdsk.

Sorry about the shotgun formatting... It's late... (Correction: early.) I'm supposed to be sleeping... I get on a plane this afternoon to go see my g/f. Hopefully, if I wasn't as lucid as I hoped to be, someone can translate.

 

[engiNURD]

Do you have a floppy drive on both computers and a blank floppy disk? If so, DL, unzip, and run the exe file to create a bootable floppy of Memtest.

It really sounds like your HDD is dying, since the system seems to freeze when running a check disk. Do you have another HDD?

Another option is repairing the windows installation. Boot from the XP CD and proceed as if you were installing a new copy. Select the same partition where windows is currently installed as the location for this new installation. Windows should detect the old version and ask if you'd like to repair it. If you don't get this option, either windows isn't on that partition you selected or your installation is FUBAR'd -- in which case you'll need to reinstall anyways.

Something is corrupting your data, and its either the HDD itself, one (or all) of your RAM sticks, or the HDD Controller (mobo). You need to figure out a way to run the diagnostics on both the RAM and HDD. Pull the CD burner out of the new computer and plug it into the old one, if you have to. Or, have a friend help you out and burn the discs you need.

 

[SAW]

Welp...

I went to the Seagate website. Downloaded their utility thingy. Burned it to disk.....Threw it into my "down" computer....started her up and....

ERROR. Almost right from the get go. Im not going to bother with quoting what it said, lets just leave it at, it didnt work. But, it did say somthing along the lines of "drive error".

All the things ive tried, both found on my own and doing what you guys have suggested, I think and believe, defiinately point to a failed HD.

As for the "ram", perhaps this is meaningless, i dunno, but after rebooting so many times, I go to know the start up screen pretty good (usually it just flies thru so I dont pay attention). One of the first things it displays is Memory Test = Good.

I think I need to face it. This HD is KaPutt...

Now, im facing another delima.

I "was" going to reformatt the HD thats on "this" computer thats working now....here, this one, the one im typing on (really, all my troubles, at this point, is laughable now)(shake your head, say alot of curse words....move on) BUTTT...Im noticing now, this HD is IDE....my "good" computer (the "down" one) is SATA.

I have another HD thats a WD80g. I forget why it was just laying around (took it out for some reason, heh). I was going to installl the 80g onto this working computer to see whats on it and to reformatt it, to then put into my "good" computer to THEN instlal the OS again.

BUTT...this 80g HD is a SATA too, which means I cant install it in this working computer cause the mobo is too old "pre-sata"

I think tomorrow, im going to need to just drop the bucks and buy a new HD and be done with it. By tomorrow, it would have been 4 days since the start of this problem.

I dont know who invited Murphy to my house, but I wish he'd get the F*&K out.

 

[engiNURD]

Yah, drives are cheap these days, so just get a new one if you don't want to format the 80GB SATA drive immediately. Though, isn't the new one still under warranty? Just get it RMA'd.

As for the "ram", perhaps this is meaningless, i dunno, but after rebooting so many times, I go to know the start up screen pretty good (usually it just flies thru so I dont pay attention). One of the first things it displays is Memory Test = Good.

The ram test done during POST isn't very extensive, and bad RAM could pass that simple test. So, if you want to be sure your RAM is good, you can still run memtest. Since it does not require a HDD and takes a while to run, this would be a good opportunity to run it (for about 24 hours).

 

[anime4u]

Welp...

I went to the Seagate website. Downloaded their utility thingy. Burned it to disk.....Threw it into my "down" computer....started her up and....

ERROR. Almost right from the get go. Im not going to bother with quoting what it said, lets just leave it at, it didnt work. But, it did say somthing along the lines of "drive error".

All the things ive tried, both found on my own and doing what you guys have suggested, I think and believe, defiinately point to a failed HD.

As for the "ram", perhaps this is meaningless, i dunno, but after rebooting so many times, I go to know the start up screen pretty good (usually it just flies thru so I dont pay attention). One of the first things it displays is Memory Test = Good.

I think I need to face it. This HD is KaPutt...

Now, im facing another delima.

I "was" going to reformatt the HD thats on "this" computer thats working now....here, this one, the one im typing on (really, all my troubles, at this point, is laughable now)(shake your head, say alot of curse words....move on) BUTTT...Im noticing now, this HD is IDE....my "good" computer (the "down" one) is SATA.

I have another HD thats a WD80g. I forget why it was just laying around (took it out for some reason, heh). I was going to installl the 80g onto this working computer to see whats on it and to reformatt it, to then put into my "good" computer to THEN instlal the OS again.

BUTT...this 80g HD is a SATA too, which means I cant install it in this working computer cause the mobo is too old "pre-sata"

I think tomorrow, im going to need to just drop the bucks and buy a new HD and be done with it. By tomorrow, it would have been 4 days since the start of this problem.

I dont know who invited Murphy to my house, but I wish he'd get the F*&K out.

I think your computer will thank you for the new SATA drive. For your information, there are SATA>IDE and IDE>SATA adaptors available to purchase from your local or internet geek store. The ram tests are all right but I think running them now may be just a training session other than a "find to fix" operation. Father Murphy is a tough old coot.

As for me, I always have 2 or 3 extra SATA drives laying around (and other computer hardware). I just can't seem to get enough of them!