HD Recovery?

[del320]

So, after eight years of unstinting service, my trusty Mesh PIII, 866 Mhz, 512 mb RAM, 30GB gave up the ghost last week. It booted up normally (XP) right up to the point where the blue sign-on screen appears, at which point it went “ping”, switched off, restarted and went through the process ad nauseum.

Not really bothered as just about everything was backed up – just a PITA wrestling with Vista and setting things up the way I want on my sooper-dooper new quad-core 2.2Ghz, 4 GB RAM, 500GB etc, etc...

But before I take a club hammer to the old HD, could the fault be something other than the HD? Is there possibly any simple way of recovering the few odds and ends I lost? Really nothing important - so has to be free and not involve delving into my new PC.

Thanks!

 

[HughJarse]

LOl Im guessing we've got another service pack 3 thread
http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=59022

 

[scooter]

if you have a 3 plug ide cable connect to new hd when up and running and remove the files that you want regarding shutting down it is probably a wee bit software that has corrupted or recently installed

 

[del320]

Thanks to you both but SP3 has not been installed, nor had I been playing around with programs/downloads/settings. Even then, I was able to revert the drive with GoBack and I tried safe mode. All as normal right up to when the sign-on screen is about to appear then it just switches off and starts right back to the beginning

Didn't know about the cable - will certainly bear that in mind.

Any other thoughts?

 

[richard]

It could be the power supply - although I wouldnt expect it to happen at the same point (unless its when some power management feature is turned on by the software that starts as you log in)

Richard

 

[HughJarse]

Hiya Del, can you qualify how service pack 3 had not been installed? Your symptoms are very leading. Have you specifically told the pc not to background download and install??


Hard drives generally crunch, grind and fail. The dont "generally" start restarting at the same point.

 

[whizzkid11]

As mentioned above, a simple restart at logon screen does not sound like a hardware issue. I wouls say it is some driver etc.

I would suggest, connecting the old drive in your new pc as a secondary drive, transfer all of your personal files etc - then plug it back into the old pc and rebuild XP.

Personally speaking I would back up the files needed and bin the old system. That spec is just not worth the hassle for a desktop system.

---------------

Just read the rest of your post - you don't want to delve into the new PC, then you could give the old pc a clean install of XP - just for curiousity sake. I am pretty sure its not thehard drive but some software issue.... maybe memory.

 

[del320]

Thanks again, chaps

Hugh - auto downloads/installs not permitted. I'm not that daft!

Whizz - Yeah - I was thinking along similar lines, perhaps an electrical issue - it would just need some old corroded dry joint or something. As you say, it's more a curiousity issue. Things can always go phut but I always like to know why.

As Hugh correctly states, drives usually make a nasty sound as they die but, again, everything appears normal right up to the same point.

Mmmmm...

 

[Sp!ke]

run a checkdisk.

It'll likely boot afterwards.

 

[popuptoaster]

If you can be bothered its easy to plug the drive into your new pc to access the files you want back, you might have to use the IDE cable from the old pc though as a lot of new ones come with SATA drives now.

I'd leave the drive in the new pc, always handy to have more than one in case of failiure, the new MB's with SATA make running RAID easy, i have 4 medium sized drives in mine instead of one huge one, seen to many people losing years of baby and kids pics (worse than losing documents and work stuff in my opinion) to not do backups AND have multiple copies of stuff.

 

[del320]

Well, I'm not going to let my life ebb away over this but I tried a re-boot in safe mode using the option not to restart in the event of failure.

Lo and behold - up came message: Stop c000021a {Fatal System Error}
The session manager initialization system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0xc000026c (0x00000000, 0x0000000) The system has been shut down.

Go onto MS Help and Support or Google it and there are dozens of "solutions" on offer.

Probably the most helpful - or at least for me the most understandable - was the comment on vnunet.com stating that "Something key has been fried in the Win XP boot up sequence..." Yup!

Before I finally attack the HD with my club hammer, I'll look further into scooter's cable idea.

This is just why I have no great desire for a brand new Mercedes: One insignificant piece of software goes AWOL and you're stuffed.

 

[whizzkid11]

As mentioned above, a simple restart at logon screen does not sound like a hardware issue. I wouls say it is some driver etc.

.... I am pretty sure its not thehard drive but some software issue....

I quote myself again....

Looking at the failure codes - fatal error occured... fine. When you look further at the status codes ...0026C refers to some drivers not being loaded...

In terms of action items, I personally would try the following if you haven't already done so...

1. Reseat the memory modules

2. Hit F8 on boot up and try 'Last know good configuration' option

3. Use your windows XP setup disk and enter the recovery mode to try and recover it.

4. A clean install of windows XP - simply because there is no data to suggest which drivers are missing/corrupt.

The fact that you are getting to the logon screen would suggest that your HDD cables and communications should be okay.

- Was!

 

[del320]

Thanks, whizz. Trouble is, I'm no expert.

1. Simply don't understand that!

2. Tried that - same outcome.

3. Yes - but how do I get the machine to recognise and attempt to read the disc?

4. No problem there if I could overcome 3.

(also disabled GoBack as that was indicated as a possible root cause).

 

[whizzkid11]

Thanks, whizz. Trouble is, I'm no expert.

1. Simply don't understand that!

2. Tried that - same outcome.

3. Yes - but how do I get the machine to recognise and attempt to read the disc?

4. No problem there if I could overcome 3.

(also disabled GoBack as that was indicated as a possible root cause).

1. - I will expalin how to do it ifthe others fail... basically involves opening up the PC and taking out the memory modules and putting back in.

2. fair enough

3. Now you have me confused... I am referring to using a Windows XP Installation CD in the CD ROM.

The fact that you can get to the windows logon screen and safe mode means that the system can see and talk to your hard disk drive.

You need to boot from the CD and go in as though you are installing windows XP - then you will be presented with a recovery option.

 

[del320]

1. - I will expalin how to do it ifthe others fail... basically involves opening up the PC and taking out the memory modules and putting back in.

The fact that you can get to the windows logon screen and safe mode means that the system can see and talk to your hard disk drive.You need to boot from the CD and go in as though you are installing windows XP - then you will be presented with a recovery option.

I really appreciate your help here.

Just to clarify - I get to the sign-on screen but it appears for less than one nanosecond before going black... then everything off and a restart.

Thus, the only control I have is Del for setup and f8 for safe mode and the other options listed. I've now tried them all.

Can't proceed unless I can get the disc drive recognised.

 

[HughJarse]

Push Del, go into your bios, navigate to drives section, then make your cd/dvd drive the first to be read when the pc starts up. it will then boot from cd before it gets to hard drive.

Alternately as youve bought a new one, throw the thing in the bin and spend the time having a nice cup of tea.

 

[whizzkid11]

Hi Del,

Not insulting your intelligence in anyway....

I am assuming that you have a CD-ROM drive in the system, and am hoping that you have Windows XP installation disc (actual media) available to use.

On startup, hit DEL and go into the BIOS (a system of that age is probably a phoenix/Award bios)

On the front page you should be able to see the Hard drisk drive listed under Primary or Secondary

Something like this:

OR

If the disk is visible here, it means the system board can see it. The CD ROM should also be visible.

You now need to go to the BOOT menu at the top bar, and then change the BOOT ORDER to have CD ROM as first device.

Once you have that set you need to exit the BIOS while saving any changes made.

When then pop the installation CD in the CD Rom drive and restart the system.

It should boot off the CD ROM and then you get the recovery options.

Once again - apologies if it sounds like I am giving Lewis Hamilton a driving lesson.... (some say he needs one... )

 

[del320]

Thanks again to you and Hugh for the crystal clears. If nothing else, I've learned a lot doing something I wouldn't have dared to do before.

So, in went the disc - "disc read error - remove and press any key". Now I just don't believe the disc could also be corrupted and I tried it in both internal drives as well as an external one. No joy.

I played around some more (don't ask...) but it always returned to disc read error. So then I had a "brainwave". I dredged all my old W98SE startup and boot floppy from the garage and slung it in!

All looked terribly promising scrolling down pages of gobbledegoook until an option was offered to reformat the HD (warning, of course that all contents would be lost)

On I pressed and after some time another error message appeared - and the whole thing froze.

Swiched off. Now all I get is a black screen with A:\ flashing. Otherwise nothing - ie does nothing, can do nothing.

So I appear to have comprehensively jiggered the machine

No worries - taking Hugh's advice - binning!

 

[del320]

Warning - thread resurrection

I have at last visited Maplins and for the princely sum of £29.99 acquired a neat little box of gubbins into which I've slid the old hard drive and plugged into a USB. I've effectively got another external drive.

I've recovered all the unimportant, but nice to have back, stuff - but I can't work out how or where to find some old e-mails. (Outlook Express)

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks.

 

[whizzkid11]

I have at last visited Maplins and for the princely sum of £29.99 acquired a neat little box of gubbins into which I've slid the old hard drive and plugged into a USB. I've effectively got another external drive.

I've recovered all the unimportant, but nice to have back, stuff - but I can't work out how or where to find some old e-mails. (Outlook Express)

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks.

By default it should be:

C:\Documents and Settings\<USERNAME>\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\<{DAB1D564-4C80-430F-A422-79363549C6D0}>\Microsoft\Outlook Express

The highlighted bits are variables, specific to your system.

In that folder you will have .dbx files for each folder that you had in Outlook Express - it would be worth copying the files to a temporary location on your new system, and then IMPORT the mail from these folders using your new installation of Outlook Express.

Hope that helps.... for furture its is worth backing up these folders regularly to keep your mail.....