Hard Drive Probem

macromp

the retarded one
Joined
29 Jul 2002
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426
i posted about this before and got a few replies (which i tried) but i cant see to find the thread.

a while ago my maxtor diamondmax 9 250gb s-ata hard drive somehow stopped working, while that hard drive is plugged in the computer wont start up, just before it reaches the login screen it seems to freeze up for a bit on a black screen, then restart itself and it keeps doing this in a continuous loop.
I have to unplug the hard drive to get my computer on.
There's a lot of stuff on that hard drive and i'd really like to get it working again. I've tried different s-ata ports and such, i remember someone suggested checking the boot order in the bios which i did and couldnt see a problem with it, i fiddled with it and now i get the "windows failed to start correctly, choose one of these" thing at start up, which i cant choose because it appears before the USB kicks in (USB keyboard). so yes, if anyone knows how i may get the hard drive to work with the others, and to get rid of the boot selection, it would be much appreciated.
 
macromp said:
i posted about this before and got a few replies (which i tried) but i cant see to find the thread.
... "windows failed to start correctly, choose one of these" thing at start up, which i cant choose because it appears before the USB kicks in (USB keyboard). so yes, if anyone knows how i may get the hard drive to work with the others, and to get rid of the boot selection, it would be much appreciated.

Well I have to admit you have some weird symptoms, I would try using a PS2 keyboard and see if you can TRY and change the boot sequence, I say try because past exeperience with SATA drives has been that the computer "forgot" it had a SATA drive installed, most times (for me) all I had to do was remove the cables, re-attach, and I was up and running, even if windows had to do a system scan/check... for a bad windows shutdown, blah, blah...

FYI, even with a USB keyboard before it goes to reboot after the black screen you should be able to select your BIOS, look for the three LEDs in the top right of the keyboard to flash, as soon as they do start pressing your correspoding key to enter setup/BIOS (F2 in my case)

Please re-post and we can try and help you further...
Good luck
 
Surely not this thread? Anyways, just as a OT and yet relevant point I would say a (cheap and cheerful is fine) PS/2 keyboard should be an essential piece of kit for the reasons you have discovered. Many USB keyboards can be purchased with a PS/2 option also available if you do not wish to have two also. That said I have VERY seldom found I cannot work around to skip the necessity of the PS/2 - but sometimes this could be inconvenient - like an unwanted CMOS reset or somesuch.

If I were you I think I'd dig around a fair bit for your system specific SATA issues - not too hard, you could even just go through and do a general health check on all MOBO, BIOS, and chipset drivers - make sure you have the latest. While you are there get the Maxtor powertools and let that create a floppy to run for diagnosis on your HD. You may also wish to grap Spinrite or HDregen - see here (these can try fixing your drive, remember they take TIME to run!).

Then work back through and see if you fix your issues - post back.
 
Invest $5 in a PS2 keyboard and another $5 on PS2 mouse for emergencies.

If you have any friends with a SATA capable computer ask them to try and image the HD for you or at least see if it works in their machine.

If no friends... Plug the SATA power cable in but leave the data cable unplugged. If the machine has problems you know it is power related (bad HD or inadequate power supply). If the machine boots then it looks like a driver issue. Disable restore files, uninstall sata drivers, etc. Reboot, reeinstall (correct) drivers. Unless the SATA is the boot device any defect should not prevent windows from booting.
 

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