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Omg What Have I Done

Thermite Paste

Thermite Paste

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Dec 17, 2003
Messages
5,650
i was swapping my dvd rom drive with acd burner so i could install suse linux on another pc, when all heywire broke loose. when i changed it, i couldnt start windows. it said to enter a boot disk. WTF. so i put the dvd rom back, and it still wouldnt start. so i cleared the bios, and it STILL wouldnt fix it. i tried a new sata cable and power cable, same problem. i unplugged all the devices except the hdd, vid card, procesor and mobo, and it STILL DIDNT WORK. then i used the ultimate boot disk to run some diagnostics on my hard drive, which checked out fine. so that leaves it with the data being corrupted or something. the question is, WHAT THE HELL DID I DO :confused: i just swapped my cdrom drives, now my hdd is messed up. is there anyway i can save it? i REALLY dont feel like reformatting, as i have several assignments for my school on there. i dont have another pc with sata support to transfer it off of. my friend has one, but his is fucked up with spyware beyond repair and his cousin wont let me fix it.

[edit]: i also tried setting the boot devices so the hdd was the only device, and tried various different orders.
 
Is the BIOS seeing all of your drives? Even double check ALL cables, not just the SATA and make sure nothing is loose. Could it be the jumper settings on the newly introdiced optical drive? It could make things a bit haywire...
 
my bios reads the drive fine and even tells me how many gigabytes it is (160). and i think the jumper settings might have screwed it up in the first place, but i dont see how that would last through clearing the cmos and unplugging the cdrom drive.
 
You could try a boot disc and an "fdisk /fixmbr"...but you could lose your data. I'm not sure why, but it sounds like you've lost your bootstrap/mbr and you computer doesn't know where to look.
 
you need more dvd burners for burning dvds that is why or its the fact you dont have any good hard drives and i for on ewelcome our new leader i hope they do a great job for us in this world so ya i would get some new raptors and what not to get the fix of your small computer and they siad it was ok to do it so go for it man fix it like a good person can or just go to best buy and pay eleventy billion for a new one? lol maybe or lol maybe not today ok cya
 
diablo111 said:
You could try a boot disc and an "fdisk /fixmbr"...but you could lose your data. I'm not sure why, but it sounds like you've lost your bootstrap/mbr and you computer doesn't know where to look.
Click to expand...

I've had to do this once or twice and I've never lost any data, if this is the problem and you follow these instructions then you shouldn't have to worry about anything.
 
Before you do anything, check the following.

Make sure all the IDE cables are securely connected to the motherboard and to each device.

Make sure the jumpers dont conflict on each IDE channel (both set to master is not a good thing)

Make sure the Molex connector for power is connected securely.

More than likely its either 1) or 2).
 
heiro, this is a sata drive, not ide.

diablo111 said:
You could try a boot disc and an "fdisk /fixmbr"...but you could lose your data. I'm not sure why, but it sounds like you've lost your bootstrap/mbr and you computer doesn't know where to look.
Click to expand...

and can i do this without the windows xp cd?
 
If all you did was unplug hardware... odds are you jarred a cable loose somewhere, most likely running to your HDD. Removing a DVD drive wont erase boot files... take a few breaths and TRIPLE check everything.

You will find the problem.

edit. Look at your location in your profile, and think of it :D
 
Check all wires, make sure everything is plugged in correctly... perhaps the IDE cable plugging the HD to the mobo is loose?
 
theNoid said:
If all you did was unplug hardware... odds are you jarred a cable loose somewhere, most likely running to your HDD. Removing a DVD drive wont erase boot files... take a few breaths and TRIPLE check everything.

You will find the problem.

edit. Look at your location in your profile, and think of it :D
Click to expand...

I fully agree, before you take any drastic steps, double check EVERYTHING! The only reason I think your MBR may have been lost...if everything is being detected properly by the BIOS, but the drive still will not boot...well, that's the only thing that makes sense <<shrugs>>...maybe the wrong jumper settings did a weird boot order and hosed it? Download a win98 bootdisk (if you don't have one) from bootdisk.com, boot form the floppy and at the prompt type fdisk /fixmbr. However, I could definately be wrong...so do it at your own risk...also I think you can fix it if you boot from the WinXP CD and go into the repair console.
 
OMG GUYS I AM A COMPLETE AND TOTAL IDIOT SHOOT ME NOW.

i was checking what the noid said, and i remembered something. i had an old 4 gb hdd in there too, and i thought it didnt server a purpose as i was reformatting it awile ago and didnt tke it out. so what hapened was i took it out, while actually the windows xp os was loaded on that hard drive for some reason, and all my files were being saved on the sata.
[insert smiley with face smacking head here] so im sorry i wasted your time guys. i completely forgot about it after i removed it :(
 
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