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Computer gurus - help!

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mauii
Posts: 6166 - Karma: 32
Hello, I'm in need of a little help. Its a bit long, but If you know your computers.. PLEASE!!! help!

This morning Windows XP decided it didn't want to boot when I was starting up. Now this isn't the most unusual situation in the world. The problem is a bit more puzzling.

The computer wont start in safe mode, so a restore is out of the picture. The last known good configuration command isn't much help either. So, the next thing i've tried doing is booting off an external harddrive that has a working OS on it, in hopes of runing the internal as a slave and trying to fix the problem... My bios is supposed to be able to boot from usb drives - but surprise.. no luck. So, next thing i've tried is booting from the xp dvd and using the recovery console... but heres the baffling part... it can't detect a hard drive. In fact, I couldnt re-install windows if i wanted to, because it doesnt see a hard drive when i attempt to do even that. So one might conclude a hard drive failure... but the windows xp boot up splash screen still pops up when you attempt to start (before it blue screens / automatically restarts), the drive gets warm, and you can hear it spinning.. so i believe its still working.

Normally at this point, id pop in a different hard drive, and perhaps try running the one with the problem externally. But this laptop is an HP and has some lame proprietary stuck on adapter on the hard drive so it doesnt fit standard IDE.

anyway.. HELP!

Thanks very very much in advance.
Dec 8 2006 2:57PM
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skijunkiedtm
Posts: 9229 - Karma: 61
ask nopoles
Dec 8 2006 3:01PM
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clrumivier4life
Posts: 2429 - Karma: 9
Before I read the whole thing, my first thought was Windows CD recovery console with the "chkdsk /r" command.  This command fixes any errors on the drive and I have used it tons of times to fix this same exact problem.  What does the recovery console say when you try to run it?  Is it simply "no drive detected?"
Dec 8 2006 3:15PM
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mauii
Posts: 6166 - Karma: 32
Yeah, It says it cannot run the recovery console because there were no hard drives detected.

Interestingly, when i plug in my external hard drive, which has XP MCE 05 on it, it won't boot from it, even though im supposed to be able to boot from usb ( changed the boot order, made sure everything was good). Whats interesting here is that even though I cant boot from it, the recovery console detects it, and I'm able to run chkdsk /r on the external drive with no problems.

This is baffling because I havent been fucking around with anything.. it just spontaneously happened. Whats worse is I have exams right now and need the damn thing. FUCK!
Dec 8 2006 3:24PM
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clrumivier4life
Posts: 2429 - Karma: 9
Does the hard drive show up in bios?
Dec 8 2006 3:44PM
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clrumivier4life
Posts: 2429 - Karma: 9
Also, was this the computer that was used to install windows on the external?
Dec 8 2006 3:46PM
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leckett1
Posts: 6476 - Karma: 294
looks like its time to kick your computers ass
Dec 8 2006 3:48PM
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clrumivier4life
Posts: 2429 - Karma: 9
Another thing, try putting the windows cd in and restart the computer.  It will say "To set up Windows XP now, press ENTER".  Hit enter and accept the license agreement.  It will then search for existing xp installations.  If you get to this point, hit R to repair the existing istallation.
Dec 8 2006 3:54PM
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skisebski
Posts: 5970 - Karma: 21
great advice kyle
Dec 8 2006 4:07PM
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jibsworth
Posts: 1554 - Karma: 12
Wow, I had this exact same problem and I pretty much tried everything you have so far, still couldn't get it to work.

I am eager to hear a actual solution to this problem.
Dec 8 2006 4:15PM
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Skipig25
Posts: 10729 - Karma: 256
I don't want to have to state the obvious, but you need to take it to a shop.
Dec 8 2006 4:19PM
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mauii
Posts: 6166 - Karma: 32
The bios is shitty and specially made for laptops (one cd drive only, one dvd drive only), so it just has generic names "hard disk drive" and "dvd rom drive", which always show in the boot order list. It doesnt even have a place where it lists the drives by themselves.
Dec 8 2006 7:06PM
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mauii
Posts: 6166 - Karma: 32
It wasn't
Dec 8 2006 7:09PM
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mauii
Posts: 6166 - Karma: 32
Yeah, i tried doing that. Won't detect a hard drive so its a no go. Just says you can not continue without a hard disk drive. Damn it, my computer is an asshole.
Dec 8 2006 7:11PM
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mauii
Posts: 6166 - Karma: 32
and have the greasy faced punk ass kid at best buy steal my porno collection? never!

But I dont think that is the obvious solution. I'm prety broke, and chances are anything they could do, i could do as well. There is a way to fix this.. just gotta keep trying!

Any other ideas?
Dec 8 2006 7:14PM
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Peter.
Posts: 23796 - Karma: 13,012
i always keep my computer on
just dont turn it off...
Dec 8 2006 9:24PM
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Mezmerize19
Posts: 6475 - Karma: 18
After reading that im left with a question for you.


How the hell are you online?
Dec 8 2006 9:31PM
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mauii
Posts: 6166 - Karma: 32
^I'm in my schools library
Dec 8 2006 9:36PM
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Badfish2
Posts: 3453 - Karma: 21
are you competent enough to try knoppix??
It's a basically linux on a CD - no hard drive required.. but it should be able to read your hard drive.
http://www.knoppix.org/

There's lots of tips out there.. but this one i just searched and it has some good tips:
http://www.shockfamily.net/cedric/knoppix/

But it sounds like hard drive failure.. not good news.


Dec 8 2006 10:03PM
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Badfish2
Posts: 3453 - Karma: 21
OH, and I have a compaq laptop, the adapter for the 2.5" hard drive slips off mine.  but you have to remember that laptops won't fit a standard ide drive without an adapter because the interface supplies power to the drive, while a standard 3.5" IDE hard drive uses a separate plug to supply the power.
Dec 8 2006 10:13PM
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mauii
Posts: 6166 - Karma: 32
Hey, thanks for the responses everyone. I managed to get access to recovery partition on my hard drive. Something was causing a prety big problem, so i had to format the drive.. but its better than nothing.

Dec 9 2006 1:57PM
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clrumivier4life
Posts: 2429 - Karma: 9
The external hard drive didn't work because it wasn't the computer that you use to installed Windows on it.  Windows installs based on the hardware that you have.  You probably could have reinstalled windows on the external using the laptop and then booted from it and tried to access the other hard drive that way.  Oh well, at least you got something :)
Dec 9 2006 3:17PM
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shagboy
Posts: 1431 - Karma: 40
if i were you i would have checked the psu.
Dec 15 2006 8:55AM
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hendrik.
Posts: 6715 - Karma: 267
your mother board is shot.
Dec 15 2006 4:26PM
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KillerMonkey
Posts: 6435 - Karma: 108
Every school has a computer club, just go check them out, prolly way smarter than the kid at best buy or maybe the same one but this time its free
Dec 15 2006 4:54PM
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mauii
Posts: 6166 - Karma: 32
no it isnt.

The computer is working now due to a little help from the recovery partition on the drive. thanks anyway
Dec 15 2006 5:30PM
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mauii
Posts: 6166 - Karma: 32
it's a laptop
Dec 15 2006 5:31PM
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