Computer Croaked

[Robert Kosek]

Lets see if anyone has an idea on how to recover from this, because I sure don't.

I went out to pick up a few things for my Father from his office, and in the time it took to do so my computer did a 'random reboot'. What I mean by that is that the PC simply decided to reboot right there and then; I have never predicted one successfully. So I come home to find a black screen staring at me while locked in the "Detecting IDE Drives" part of the boot process. I hit reset and tried again, hoping that it was a freak error, to get the exact same results. So I reset again and hit Delete to try and reach the setup screen. It froze before reaching the "Detecting" message.

I have two drives, my D drive is older and smaller which I use for backups, and my primary is a 120gb Maxtor drive upon which I have all my work, programming and writing. Quite literally everything. Aside from removing the drive itself and mounting it as a slave to another system, is there any way to see if my files are safe? And is this the bios, and not the primary drive?

I usually wouldn't ask, I'm practically A+ certified and have worked on computers for 15 years or so, but this problem has me worried. I have been planning on replacing my system, but I really didn't want to do it this way. :?

Any advice? I have about $700 free with which to make a new system, but I can't make it until after I move in 2 weeks. The data loss is roughly 40gb of personal things and tinkering, plus financial records (as a consultant/contractor) unless I can recover it...

[Robert Kosek]

Just booted it again with a hunch, and I am afraid that I am correct.

My processor clocks in at 1500, when it is actually an AMD 2700 XP. This motherboard is cranky about any over/under clocking. Memory clocks in at 100 mhz, not 200 (pc 3200 SDRAM).

Looks like my bios was wiped/infected while I don't have a floppy drive with which to fix it.

[WILL]

Well I'm not A+, but I used to play with DSO/Windows and the guts of the common clone PC like it was nobody's business. Lets see if I can give you a hand.

First you want to make sure that pins or cables have not shifted due to long duration of heat exchange or a clumbsy pet or foot. I automatically assume you've done this already though.

:idea: What you can do is try to make another HDD bootable. Install Windows on the other one. We'll call it the 'Recovery HDD'. (make sure the version can access the version of the partition you have on the 'defective' drive!)

Now switch the hardware configuration so that the defective drive is now a pri. slave(to be a D:) and the Recovery HDD is now the pri. master(to be a C:). If the system okay's the drive configuration then boot from your CDs and install Windows onto the Recovery HDD.

You can try installing windows onto the Recovery HDD without the defective HDD hooked up for paranoia's sake, but it should not matter so long as you are smart about choosing the C: and not the D: drive.

Now with luck you'l be able to access the 'unknown' defective HDD and see if indeed your files are save.

However if you cannot get past the hardware reconfiguration stage, then this method is useless. And I'd say that your onl chance to recover everything would be to stash it someplace appropreate and send it off to a data recovery farm for a '$1000 a pop' to get what you lost.

BTW, I'm quite sure that Windows XP will not nuke all the files on the installing harddrive so long as it doesn't contain a WINDOWS or WINNT folder. So thats an option if you lack the 3rd HDD to try this method.

[WILL]

:o After all that typing...

:|

...

:cylon: :cylon: :cylon: :cylon: :cylon:
:cylon: :cylon: :cylon: :cylon: :cylon:

~Destroy the human!~

:lol:

You did fix the problem it right?

Are you crazy? Put you programming stuff on the D: drive where it's safe! :)

[Robert Kosek]

Heh, I used to put the programming stuff onto my D drive, but I nearly lost it all last time because of a flaky D drive. :P

I unplugged the PC from the wall, removed the battery on the motherboard and waited for a few. Thankfully I was able to fully reconfigure and get it in the boot stages. I am going to let the system run a full chkdsk!

I said I was 'practically' certified. :D I took one look at the study book, laughed and tossed it aside with a "They're making me study outdated info just to get certified?". Hehe, ISA, ESA aren't used anymore and if they are the system needs a terrible upgrade! From OS/2 to XP...

[Traveler]

It sounds like you motherboard is broken, as I doubt both of your harddisks were fried at the same time. What you could try is to remove one and see what happens when you start with just one.

If that doesn't help, I'd try looking for a different pc to test your disks. Perhaps a friend wouldn't might borrowing his pc for 30 mins (if you've got 15 years behind you, I'm sure one or two might owe you a favor or two for the times you fixed their problems).
Attach your HD as slave, fire up the pc, check bios if its reading the new HD. Then boot normally, although safe mode is preferred, and check your files.

In any case good luck solving this puzzle :)

Edit: nevermind,.. just saw you fixed the problem :)

[tux]

so resetting the cmos worked then?

[Robert Kosek]

Thanks guys, it had me frowning pretty heavily for a few minutes there. I'm backing up my important stuff as I type.

And yes, my motherboard is pretty old now and has given me nothing but trouble since I upgraded to it. Which is why the next time I upgrade I won't buy anything from ASUS. Out of 2 motherboards of the exact model I have, both experience strange issues and aren't worth their cost.

[WILL]

If you have to go with an AMD CPU or a non-Intel board, I'd recomend VIA...

And a thumb drive for your project backups. I use my MP3 player (works just like a 2.5 GB USB drive) and it works like a charm.

Of course my system is barely 6 months old, so I don't think I have to worry for at least a year or so at the latest...

[tux]

I'd recomend VIA...

I wouldnt

but maby i should expand on that...

every VIA motherboard i've had has been slow and had unstable drivers.


you cant loose with either an nvidia nforce or ati xpress chipset

[Robert Kosek]

I'm probably going MSI (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130048) this time around. :D I've been planning out a cheap but easily expandible system for later upgrades.

[NecroDOME]

I didn't took the time to read it all, but if you lost any data, you could try recovering it with Get data back or something like that...

[WILL]

MSI is fairly good too, I think.

It you go laptop though I recommend Toshiba. They're probably one of the best. (at least for my own use) Mine cost me only $800CAD and it works amazing, great valued design features for the price too. It's a Toshiba Satellite M70. (the ATI Radeon XPRESS M20 runs AoEIII rather well, in fact most games up to about 2004-2005 run great at full settings.)

The Viao is crap and Sony is WAY too expensive and IBM is crappy esp. for games. :P Not too sure about HP, but it wasn't my cup of tea. Have not tried Acer, though I was slightly shocked to hear about them a few years back, might be cheap... And then there is Compac... *shutter* If they still make these, just stay away man. *shutter again* Does Dell make laptops? And no clue about Gateway2000... *shrug*


Best thing about laptops... compact little buggers! :D Esp. for travel or remote usage.

[tux]

um will... why would he get a laptop just because a motherboard stopped working.

good choice on the K9N. you havnt mentioned what cpu you currently have but be warned that the K9N is an AM2 (and DDR2) motherboard

[Robert Kosek]

Quite right Tux. My next computer will be a full system; I won't carry parts over. I'm looking at this setup for my next rig:

AMD Athalon 64 X2 3800+ XP (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103735)
eVGA Geforce 7600GS 256MB PCI-E (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130020)
MSI K9N SLI Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130048)
WB 250GB Harddrive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144417)
G.Skill PC2 6400 1gb RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231063)
Antec Smartpower 2.0 PSU (http://www.pricegrabber.com/p__Antec_Antec_SmartPower_2_0_500_Watt_ATX12V_v2_0 _PSU_PCIE_Ready_Model_SP500,__8262335/)

I already have a new case which I bought on sale with an additional 120mm fan, which runs fast and very silent. So really, I will probably buy either XP Pro or an early copy of Vista depending on a few factors. maybe just my current copy of XP Home with a ton of downloaded upgrades. All in all that hovers in the 7 to 8 hundred mark, with easy upgrades of doubling the memory or gfx cards in the near future. And that's all without bargain shopping too. ;)

[WILL]

Eh, some people prefer laptops. :) I personally only find a slight performance difference in them. Then again it depends on your usage habits. If you're into the latest games and hardware then yeah... but if not it's not a big issue. (Like I said, I can play a ton of current games and they look great.)

One great thing is that it's small enough for my needs. I don't have a very big apartment and I do take my work litterally with me often enough (esp. during my Navy years) so the ability to just take a small book-sized computer with me is great. And when I have it setup in my home, I put it on my desk in my living room/dinning room area as a small office. When I want to sit and enjoy my living room I can just fold the screen and it's stops being an office when I want. :P

But then again there is the ability to upgrade over time that laptops still lack. Maybe one day... :roll:

At any rate tell us what you end up getting Robert. I'd like to keep up to date a bit more than I have in the recent past.

[JernejL]

Thanks guys, it had me frowning pretty heavily for a few minutes there. I'm backing up my important stuff as I type.

And yes, my motherboard is pretty old now and has given me nothing but trouble since I upgraded to it. Which is why the next time I upgrade I won't buy anything from ASUS. Out of 2 motherboards of the exact model I have, both experience strange issues and aren't worth their cost.

Asus can sometimes make good motherboards and sometimes crap, usually anything cheaper is crap, such as non-working onboard network cards, but their highier class boards are usually okay, still, if anything goes wrong with asus motherboards, all you need is asus repair kit: