$=Mercenary=$

Hello, I am in a pickle and this problem came out of nowhere. My comp started and brought me to the F8 boot screen, the one where you can choose if you want to start windows normally or in safe mode and what not. So i hit start normally and it would bring up the windows XP loading screen, then it would just restart out of no where and go back to the F8 start screen, i tried starting from last known good configuration. same thing. started in safe mode. same thing. Could anyone please let me know what the heck is going?

THRiLL KiLL

can you get into safemode?

you might have to put in your xp cdrom and do a repair....

worst case senerio... re install windows... but do not format the drive.. just have windows install over its self.. and then u will need to reinstall any servicepacks/updates... but you wont loose any installed programs unless you format... or have it install to a diffrent drive...

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TimberWolf

Quote: Originally Posted by $=Mercenary=$ Hello, I am in a pickle and this problem came out of nowhere. My comp started and brought me to the F8 boot screen, the one where you can choose if you want to start windows normally or in safe mode and what not. So i hit start normally and it would bring up the windows XP loading screen, then it would just restart out of no where and go back to the F8 start screen, i tried starting from last known good configuration. same thing. started in safe mode. same thing. Could anyone please let me know what the heck is going?

Just had this on a friend's PC. In her case, the HDD became corrupt. After doing a reinstall, it happened again (same day). Long story short, HDD was bad.

Short answer: Try a windows repair first.

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$=Mercenary=$

i went to go do a repair install and there was no repair option, so i went into the recovery console, ran chkdsk and it said i had some errors on the volume, even when i did a bootcfg /scan it said there was an error. so i copyed e:/i386/ntldr c:/ and the htdetect to c:/ and my windows booted!

do you think i should still try and do a repair if it works just to be on the safe side or do you think im all set?




edit: i checked the windows repair and this time it gives me option to repair. also, i have a K8N-E deluxe asus mobo and it has some sorta built in detection for hard disks called S.M.A.R.T that probably monitors the status of the hard drive. and when my system starts up in the post menu it come up with an error says "Hard Disk:S.M.A.R.T. Status BAD, backup, and replace. "

Im guessing this is telling me my hard drive is bad? Please help me out cause now everything seems to work fine

TimberWolf

I am not familar with the SMART HDD tool, however I would error on the side of caution and at least back up all the important stuff.

My gut tells me that either you had a freakish crash or yes, the HDD is going bad.

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THRiLL KiLL

get yer data off the drive now.. smart is a ob-board diagnostic, on the hdd that informs you when yer drive is about to kick the bucket.... i would get of the mopst important stuff 1st... too much movmen t on the hdd head might kill it...

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$=Mercenary=$

whats an ob-board diagnostic?

Highperf15

Quote: Originally Posted by $=Mercenary=$ whats an ob-board diagnostic?

It referes to a diagnostic program that monitors the health of your Hard Drive. How old is the hard drive and what's the make and model?

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Albedo

Quote: Originally Posted by $=Mercenary=$ Im guessing this is telling me my hard drive is bad? Please help me out cause now everything seems to work fine.

Well, if it says your HDD is bad, then it probably is. I'd transfer all your files to another hard drive ASAP, before it crashes completely.

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goodman123

yeah it's looks like you'll need a new HD ... but if you're lucky it's only a bad or corrupt boot files
then a format & reinstall of windows should fix it if repare doesn't work?

do you have more then 1 partition on that drive?

if not... then next time do at lest 2 partitions 1 for your windows C: & a D: for games , backup files etc..

then if something like that ever happen again you could always format your C: & reinstalling windows without loosing anything that you already have as a backup in your D:

but the best way for backin up files are to have 2 HD

anyhow good luck! & i hope your HD is still good

Highperf15

Really the best way is one HD for the OS and one for all your files...........anything that can be reinstalled, put on the OS drive.

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$=Mercenary=$

well its a western digital 120 gb, got it about 2 christmas's ago, got it off newegg, anyways, i was backing up my stuff like you guys recommended, at one point when everything was going fine, my comp just froze up, i thought my hdd was gone for good, but i rebooted and it worked fine, i dont even get the error from the ob diagnostic thing. but just be on the safe side i already have a new hdd on its way, so if the hdd really is crapping out i have some stuff backed up and will have a brand new hdd on hand, thanks alot everyone for lending their 2 cents. ill keep you guys updated if the thing does crap out

godling

Quote: Originally Posted by $=Mercenary=$ "Hard Disk:S.M.A.R.T. Status BAD, backup, and replace. " Im guessing this is telling me my hard drive is bad? Please help me out cause now everything seems to work fine

What Timberwolf said. Got the following from somewhere (sorry, I can normally link, but this was text I just picked up:

Quote: S.M.A.R.T. stands for Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology. S.M.A.R.T. technology was developed by a number of major hard disk drive manufacturers in a concerted effort to increase the reliability of drives. It is a technology that enables the PC to predict the future failure of hard disk drives. S.M.A.R.T. technology has become an industry standard for hard drive manufacturers. Through the S.M.A.R.T. system, modern hard disk drives incorporate a suite of advanced diagnostics that monitor the internal operations of a drive and provide an early warning for many types of potential problems. When a potential problem is detected, the drive can be repaired or replaced before any data is lost or damaged. The S.M.A.R.T. system monitors the drive for anything that might seem out of the ordinary, documents it, and analyzes the data. If it sees something that indicates a problem, it is capable of notifying the user (or system administrator). S.M.A.R.T. monitors disk performance, faulty sectors, recalibration, CRC errors, drive spin-up time, drive heads, distance between the heads and the disk platters, drive temperature, and characteristics of the media, motor and servomechanisms. The errors the system can detect can be predicted by a number of methods. Currently the SMART system can detect about 70% of all hard drive errors. Here's an example: motor and/or bearing failure can be predicted by an increase in the drive spin-up time and the number of retries it takes to get the drive spinning at full speed. Or, if the drive notes that error correction is being needed excessively, it can attribute this to a broken drive head or surface contamination, and it will create an alert before the problem gets worse. Armed with a prediction of failure, the user or system administrator can make a backup copy of key data, replace a suspect device prior to data loss, and avoid undesired downtime.

-godling

$=Mercenary=$

wow godling thanks for the breifing lol, so either my hard drive is on its last thread of life or it was some freakish crash corruption and its all good now, im not getting the error anymore so well see what happens

goodman123

Quote: Originally Posted by $=Mercenary=$ wow godling thanks for the breifing lol, so either my hard drive is on its last thread of life or it was some freakish crash corruption and its all good now, im not getting the error anymore so well see what happens

Good i'm happy to see it's still works (must have bean some corrupt files?)

another tip (if you dont mind) do a defrag once a mounth & clean all the sh*t you dont need
keeping a HD clean & in order will help you not to loose files & you'll keep your HD going fast

Albedo

I find the disk cleanup to be very helpful... often times i find i have around 1gb of temporary internet files...

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$=Mercenary=$

yea thanks alot guys for all your input, pimprig forums have always been there for me when i have a comp problem, **** you guys even helped me build my comp and install water cooling about 2 years back,

and yea a good defrag and disk clean up probably would not hurt after this mishap

once again thanks all for the support and help, keep you updated if the hdd craps out