Problem With Harddrive
2 posters
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Problem With Harddrive
Well i have been experiencing a problem with my PC for a few months now. Every time i switch the PC on for the first time(of the day) I usually get an error saying "Reboot and Select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press any key". I then cant do anything except from switching the PC off by the button which will destroy my motherboard. I have tried putting in the Windows XP CD and pressing a key and it has taken me to the Windows XP reformatting/repairing page, I clicked repair but Windows said I don't have a hard drive...
My hard drive is also split into 3 parts: (screen shot provided)
My motherboard is a nForce 610i motherboard,7050 GeForce graphics.
Hard drive: ST3200822AS
Boot Ups Order: (Just Changed)
-Sata Driver
-CD Driver
-Nothing (Disables Floppy Disk
Use to be:
-CD Driver
-Sata Driver
-Floppy Disk
My hard drive is also split into 3 parts: (screen shot provided)
My motherboard is a nForce 610i motherboard,7050 GeForce graphics.
Hard drive: ST3200822AS
Boot Ups Order: (Just Changed)
-Sata Driver
-CD Driver
-Nothing (Disables Floppy Disk
Use to be:
-CD Driver
-Sata Driver
-Floppy Disk
FlantJohnny- Posts : 4
Join date : 2011-02-20
Re: Problem With Harddrive
Okay, I think is going to take a while to sort out, as we got to go through and try quite a number of things. Having the exact motherboard model and manufacture name would help, as you have only listed the chipset. Also as your PC is a few years old, does the hard drive have a SATA or an IDE connection and what connection are the optical drives using? While you have the PC open, looking for the motherboard model and manufacture, make sure none of the cable are loose or damage. If you got spare working cables around you, (or borrow some from a friend or a family member), swap them over.
Having three partitions on a hard drive is excessive for your average PC user, (personal I have just the one). So the problem could be there, as the BIOS is getting confuse looking for an OS after booting. There's loads of software out there to merge partitions together, (as I mention before to you, I use Partition Manager 8.5. At the moment, version 11 is $9.95, which is really cheap considering how good the program is.
But before we get to that stage, lets try some other stuff first. Now do everything in turn, rather than doing several processors at once, fixing the problem and then not knowing exactly what actually cause the problem the first place.
Stage 1 - BIOS settings
I would look first at the boot priority order in the BIOS settings, making sure the HDD is the first boot device, followed by the CD/DVD-ROM drive. While you are there and if the USB is listed as a boot device, turn if off. You PC and and USB devices will still work, but the PC will not boot from an USB device until you make it. If that doesn't work, just have the HDD listed and turn off the CD/DVD ROM. If you have any external hard drives connected, then disconnect them before booting. Also for good measure take out any USB devices you do not need to boot the PC i.e. USB sticks, printers, scanners and joysticks, then try booting the machine.
after that check your BIOS for a setting "onboard RAID enable" or something to that effect. If that's enabled, your OS is looking for a RAID configuration of two or more SATA drives that you don't have. If it's there and enabled, disable it.
Stage 2 - Use Windows Recovery Console
This is not for amateurs. You have to be very, very careful using this to fix you PC. You should never go into the Recovery Console to just "look around", as you will probably end up doing more harm then good. Then you got bigger problem on your hands, trying to repair the Windows installation.
Last week I wrote an article for our website on the Wiki, on how to use the Recovery Console, so please have a look at that, (please click here). Full instruction are in the Wiki article on how to get into the Recovery Console.
As the problem is to do with the Windows boot sequence, then maybe the the master boot record is broken. The 'fixmbr' command will be probably what you need, as this will put a new master boot record onto the boot device. The fimbr command is really suppose to be used used when a PC doesn't boot at all, so this might be overkill to fix the problem. Please read that article careful first and do some Google searching to see if there is something else in the Recovery Console which might fix it instead. Also print the article and any other info off so you got something to refer to, if you do decide to use the Recovery Console.
I'd used the 'chkdsk' (‘check disk’) command first. This will scan the hard disk for errors. By adding the parameter ‘/p’ by typing chkdsk /p, you’ll get a more thorough check and then, if problems are found, the command chkdsk /r prompts Recovery Console to block off any bad sectors and recover and retrievable data. If that doesn't work, then look at using the 'fixmbr' command.
Having three partitions on a hard drive is excessive for your average PC user, (personal I have just the one). So the problem could be there, as the BIOS is getting confuse looking for an OS after booting. There's loads of software out there to merge partitions together, (as I mention before to you, I use Partition Manager 8.5. At the moment, version 11 is $9.95, which is really cheap considering how good the program is.
But before we get to that stage, lets try some other stuff first. Now do everything in turn, rather than doing several processors at once, fixing the problem and then not knowing exactly what actually cause the problem the first place.
Stage 1 - BIOS settings
I would look first at the boot priority order in the BIOS settings, making sure the HDD is the first boot device, followed by the CD/DVD-ROM drive. While you are there and if the USB is listed as a boot device, turn if off. You PC and and USB devices will still work, but the PC will not boot from an USB device until you make it. If that doesn't work, just have the HDD listed and turn off the CD/DVD ROM. If you have any external hard drives connected, then disconnect them before booting. Also for good measure take out any USB devices you do not need to boot the PC i.e. USB sticks, printers, scanners and joysticks, then try booting the machine.
after that check your BIOS for a setting "onboard RAID enable" or something to that effect. If that's enabled, your OS is looking for a RAID configuration of two or more SATA drives that you don't have. If it's there and enabled, disable it.
Stage 2 - Use Windows Recovery Console
This is not for amateurs. You have to be very, very careful using this to fix you PC. You should never go into the Recovery Console to just "look around", as you will probably end up doing more harm then good. Then you got bigger problem on your hands, trying to repair the Windows installation.
Last week I wrote an article for our website on the Wiki, on how to use the Recovery Console, so please have a look at that, (please click here). Full instruction are in the Wiki article on how to get into the Recovery Console.
As the problem is to do with the Windows boot sequence, then maybe the the master boot record is broken. The 'fixmbr' command will be probably what you need, as this will put a new master boot record onto the boot device. The fimbr command is really suppose to be used used when a PC doesn't boot at all, so this might be overkill to fix the problem. Please read that article careful first and do some Google searching to see if there is something else in the Recovery Console which might fix it instead. Also print the article and any other info off so you got something to refer to, if you do decide to use the Recovery Console.
I'd used the 'chkdsk' (‘check disk’) command first. This will scan the hard disk for errors. By adding the parameter ‘/p’ by typing chkdsk /p, you’ll get a more thorough check and then, if problems are found, the command chkdsk /r prompts Recovery Console to block off any bad sectors and recover and retrievable data. If that doesn't work, then look at using the 'fixmbr' command.
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