Harddrive

[Wolvey]

So uh...I was getting some IE popups, decided to run Windows Anti-Spyware Beta, walked away from my cpu to watch some Pro Football, saw my cpu go to a screensaver rather slowly, then looked at it pop to a blue screen.. Was like, yea that might be bad, so i turned off the cpu, waited 10 seconds, turned it back on, then saw the dell screen load windows XP, then a double beep, then it saying it can't read my harddrive

So....I call my bro, he said it probably was a video card thing, take out the card put it back in, restart....after that didnt work, i called up good old Dell, seein as its a Dell Cpu

So, i talk to this indian girl for a bit, she tells me to unplug the harddrive from the motherboard and put it back in, after countless failures, she transfers me to the technical department where i am told by an automated machine to have my credit card ready, so i decide to hang up

So, now i either have to get some Windows XP installation CDs so i can reformat my harddrive, or give it to my bro over this weekend so he can play with it to see if my harddrive is dead

So, i will probably not be online for the next few days, seeing as I cant even get to windows

[Cole]

Dude, that blows.  Did you notice that the hard drive was getting noisy or anything?  Once the hard drive goes, that's it man.  If it is booting and  telling you it can't read the hard drive, that means that it is really dead.  Maybe someone's got a spare drive you can have...

[Wolvey]

ive got a 40 GB slave drive, which my bro will probably convert to my main, unless i go to Best Buy or Comp USA and buy another 80 GB for 80 bucks, my old one was 80 GB, i only was using 45 GBs of it anyway.....

[flintlock]

My brother just had two Dell PCs loose their HD's about a week apart (the PCs are only about 3 yrs old). It got some kind of error about Dell maintenance tool detecting errors and advised him to back up his data because the HD was about to fail. The only problem was, we couldn't get by the error to back up the data so we eneded up re-imaging the PC that wasn't covered by maintenance and Dell replaced the other. There is some kind of software tool called S.M.A.R.T.S that looks for these errors and seems to just be associated with Dell. I didn't know if that was the problem, or if the HD was actually broken. Well, we re-installed all the software two weeks ago and the PC seems to be okay so far. There are complaints about Dell HD problems all over the place. You think they try a little harder to prevent the problem. Of course we had to boot from the CD and re-install all the software so I say to all you Dell owners, back up your stuff once a week and oh yeah....Ahhhhahahhahahh, loosers!

[MDK22]

Wolvey Talking to any technical support group is pointless you should just come to us first. Well unless its IBM technical support they are at least ok.

[WidowMaker]

You probably lost your MBR or master boot record. If you boot from the xp cd rom you can go to the recovery console. after you login you can type help.

use the fixmbr commend to fix the master boot record.you can also use fixboot and a couple of others to get the drive back.

[MDK22]

Hopefully thats all it is. I agree with Widow if your comp is fd up thats ur best bet but if u need to reinstall u could talk to us on vent while you do it. I think we can solve any problem that would come up.

[Mekstar]

i woulda told that indian bitch to shut the fuck up, and put "it's a Dell Dude!" faggot on the phone. this is why no one should ever buy a puter from a manufacturer. build your own. granted yes its your HD that shit out. but still did you pay 1k plus for that thing to get some dumb fuck indian hooker slob on the phone who has absolutely no idea what shes talking about. only to be led to the "Technical" dept. to pay 80 dollars and hour for some other mool fuck to still not know what the fuck hes talking about? i say build your own. did you know that the most top of the line dell, compaq, hp, whatever. has 40% tacked on to what you could build it for. not to mention even the top of the line ones are still complete shit.

[Mekstar]

oh and if you get a new drive get a Seagate "Barracuda" it is invincible!!!!!!!!!

[MDK22]

Yeah hitman u must have just gotten very unlucky with your harddrives cause i have been using maxtors for years without problems. Seagate is a good brand and if you can get sata i would suggest that you do exactly that it increases the hard drive speed  to a place where only a god (scsi) can surpase it well until they come out with fiber runing between components... but we got like 5-10 yrs b4 that happens.

[Hitman Smurf]

Actually fiber channel components already exist but their still a little expensive....but it sure looks cool

[Wolvey]

I put in the Windows XP cd install, and it couldnt read it, so it didnt even go to windows, yea it was my first cpu, so im thinkin about next time i get a new one to just build one

I'll be able to get my cpu back when my brother has the time to fix it
Its at home right now, 100 miles away.... 

[MDK22]

Wolvey man im sry i ddint see this earlier you need to download the boot disks for the windows xp disk. Yes im talking floppies, 6 to be exact,  ill point you to the site.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310994

look at the disc or insert it in a comp that works and find the version. then you use these boot disks to boot to the cdrom and then you should be able to install it. I am very sry i didnt see this post earlier man. Yeah if you have any more probs post and then pm me and or cole for sure if not other ppl too but i love helpen when it coems to comps.

[WidowMaker]

How old is your cd rom?? if you have a regular cd rom it has to be able to do a TRUE BOOT not a simulated boot. If you have a burner then they are usually all TRUE BOOT drives. You just have to go to your bios and make the correct drive the first boot device and you should be all set.

[Wolvey]

I have a burner, and my cpu does not have a floppy drive :-/

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