I am going nuts...with XP

[stayouttadabunker]

Typing to you guys from my spare $75 POS craptop computer...

I used to love XP...had this one for 11 years...yes...11 friggin' years without ANY problems.
I made this computer at night after work when I helped build the Detroit Metropolitan Air Terminal for Northwest Airlines 11 years ago...for fun...
Now I can't even get past the last blinking cursor that's right after the line that says >>>

"Searching for Boot Record from IDE-0..OK"

Sooo.... O-K....it found a boot record on the main hard drive ( I previously changed the boot order because it kept trying to boot from LAN networked PXE-something I've never ever used... !!)

So why isn't this computer getting to the black XP LOGO page anymore? 



A little history...
The hard drive and motherboard was changed about 2 years ago.
I installed & set up the MSI K8M Neo-V 7032 motherboard up using plain old MB BIOS default settings and there in and a copy of WinXP Home Edition using windows own Firewall and updates...did nothing else.
Hard drive is a 250BG Western Digital IDE...I still have a SATA drive in original plastic
bag ...I knew nothing about RAID stuff and never had time to learn and throw in the upgrade - so I never hooked it up...

Anyways, I have a lot...and I mean a LOT of slot stuff on this puppy....
I gotta save it...

Think I should double ZIP-Lock bag the hard drive in the freezer?

Below is a very, very short video clip I made from my den showing
you all it can do right now...from power up...to freeze frame  >>>


<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/L_dcT2j8Dlc&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/L_dcT2j8Dlc&rel=0</a>

[Hotrodslots69]

Stay do you have only one hard drive in that box? can you swap another to see if it is the drive, or even put it in another computer as a slave and move files, have you changed anything in the box recently, also check power supply maybe swap the power lead into the hard drive it looks as if it never get out of bios can you update your firmware?

[stayouttadabunker]

Yep one 1 hard drive in a what is now a yellowed tower cabinet ...lol  WTF happened to the nice color it once had?!?!?  
I was embarrassed carrying that thing around at work...looks like a late 1980's cell phone.  
I forgot how freaking heavy they can be!!!

Tried a known good IDE 30GB hard drive....same results.
I'm going to see if this HD will act as a slave in another computer.
I'll have to change the jumper to slave I think (excuse me...It's been years )
stick a power cable and use the spare connector on the ribbon cable that I never used right?

[Hotrodslots69]

Does your bios have a flash rest or something like that to reset the bios to new in case its corrupt, is the HD in question spinning up or doing nothing and yes you will have to change it to slave or auto select

[stayouttadabunker]

The BIOs asked my to "hit any key" to flash it, so I did right?
 and the screen went bright red and pink
and jumbled and beautiful like 4th of July fireworks!

Then it went into this mode with the cursor blinking like that Eagles song...

Here's a picture of "My Dinosaur" on the floor getting ready
to hit the garbage can in the morning...I may give it a proper burial at sea...(uh, that's too far)
well, how about the nearest river... chained to cement blocks?    >>>

[stayouttadabunker]

I could also stand it out in the backyard and pump it fulla buckshot....  
My favorite for wide-spreading buckshot would be the left-most semi-auto pump...
pulling both triggers at the same moment utilizing the double-barreled shotgun knocks people right back onto their arse! >>>

[Hotrodslots69]

did you reboot the box after the great colors

[stayouttadabunker]

did you reboot the box after the great colors

Nope...whatever it tried to do is exactly what the video clip is showing ya...
tomorrow, it might look like swiss cheese...lol

[Hotrodslots69]

I also have another idea see attached beside water bottle, to bad you don't live closer Directions you put it in the box, pull back the pink paper and light the green fuse and run like you stole it!!!!!!

[stayouttadabunker]

lol...those are easy to make ...!
I used to use army surplus store "pineapples".
Those were just a little bit dangerous though! lol
When you hear a high pitched wheezing whistling sound going slightly over your head as one goes off - you know that was just a little bit toooo close!
You've come to the stark realization why they were called "pineapples" !  

[Hotrodslots69]

the first time a friend of mine taped one to a 1 gallon milk jug full of GAS and lit it,.................. you could see it 5 miles away   I was told to never have 5 or more at the same time or bad things happen!

[stayouttadabunker]

yeah...three of them kick the other two in directions you don't expect them to be....


Anyways, I've had this thing long enough and I'm really like my laptop more than ever.
Tower desktops are sooooo passe...! 

Back then, it cost me like around a $1,000 bucks to build it...saved
a lot because they were like 3 - 4 thousand back then...now I can get
a half decent laptop for less than half of that price from 11 yrs ago!

I just gotta see if I can save the stuff from the Western Digital hard drive is all...

[Hotrodslots69]

If you can put in a box that is networked in your house you can then move the files to your new computer if the old HD is good

[stayouttadabunker]

If you can put in a box that is networked in your house you can then move the files to your new computer if the old HD is good

That seems to be my only option...
I will try it tomorrow...it's getting late here on the east coast...
Thank you so much for your efforts! 

[Hotrodslots69]

Just playing the new game I got today Talk at you latter

[jbshocks]

If all you care about is the data I use one of these http://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-Adapter-Inches-Drive-Back-Up/dp/accessories/B0019HLE7Q to recover from drives.  I think I got mine for about $12 at micro center.  Hook the bare drive up and see what it does.   You can then tap on the drive and what not if needed but if both drives you tried act the same one of these will let you read the data off.

[StatFreak]

Bunker, I've been up for over 24 hours, so pardon me if I ramble or miss something...

Based on your video, your computer has a CDROM drive and the BIOS is already set to try to boot from it first (so you don't even need to change the boot order). If you have a CD version of WinBlows, then put it in the drive and boot from the CD, then see if you can read the drive at all.

If you don't have a way to boot from the CD drive, then you can either take the drive out and hook it up to any working computer or put another bootable HDD into your tower. Again, from the video I see that the slave position on the first cable is still free. You would change the bad drive to slave and put the good bootable drive on the cable as master, then boot from the good drive and try to access the bad drive. Your machine has an IDE drive and controller, so the "good" drive would also have to be an IDE (not a SATA).

If you only have a laptop and need to use USB, then do as hotrodslots69 suggests and get am IDE to USB converter so you can plug the drive into the laptop's USB port.


If you can't access the data once you have a way to attach the drive to a working computer, try putting the drive in the freezer for 15 or 20 minutes, remove it, and then immediately try to access the drive again. Try not to let any moisture condense on the drive when you remove it from the freezer (that could be difficult to manage.) If you can get to your data, start copying it off as fast as you can. You might have to repeat the cooling process more than once to get all the data.

If that doesn't work you could try to use a recovery program. I can't recommend one but I"m sure that some of our other members can.

One more idea would be to try another board on the drive (just in case the one on the drive is bad.) That would entail getting another IDENTICAL drive (the exact same brand and model) and swapping the PCBs.

Hope one of these ideas works for you.


Stat



P.S. You could try cooling off the drive as a first step and then attempt to boot from it. See, I told you I was punchy.

[poppo]

I agree that the easiest thing to do is just buy a cheap IDE hard drive enclosure and see if you have access with another computer/laptop. Be sure it is a self powered unit though as the USB port won't be able to power older full size hard drives. If you happen to have an external USB DVD writer laying around, you can use that too. Just swap the DVD unit for the drive.

[stayouttadabunker]

okay, I have the hard drive hooked up to the "zero" side of the IDE cable
( The "1" connector of the IDE cable is usually a spare slave connector).
The hard is jumped as "Master" and going into the motherboard.
I can get to the XP logo screen with the blue cursor going across,
 then I get a black screen and nothing else...see video clip below>>>

I'm going to move this drive to the "1" connector on the IDE cable
( I will have to move it's jumper to "slave" position)
and install a known good drive as a new master
and see what happens...>>>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/qdMyzyZWX2w&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/qdMyzyZWX2w&rel=0</a>

[proten]

Try putting the jumper on your hard drive to the CS
position. CS for cable select.

[stayouttadabunker]

Try putting the jumper on your hard drive to the CS
position. CS for cable select.

okay...
Realized I have no idea which hard drive belongs in this sucker now....
I switched the HD jumper to the "CS" position.
It doesn't matter anyways...both hard drives - when on the CS position, produce the same results.

It just keeps rebooting.... >>>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/YkXQYGAucjE&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/YkXQYGAucjE&rel=0</a>

[Hotrodslots69]

If you move a XP drive around it knows it original computer and it will cause you problems with windows asking for your re authenticate it, but it sounds like your mother board is having problems not your HD, because you would not have the same problem on 2 different drives if it were the HD, it could be your memory or your main chio set over heating does it have a fan and does it work and is it moving air

[proten]

I should have watched the video first.
The hard drive is being accessed so the master-slave configuration is OK.
The rebooting is a software problem.
I would reset all connectors and ram
and then run a drive repair program on the hard drive.

[stayouttadabunker]

I should have watched the video first.
The hard drive is being accessed so the master-slave configuration is OK.
The rebooting is a software problem.
I would reset all connectors and ram
and then run a drive repair program on the hard drive.

According to my MSI MS-7032 motherboard manual >>>
removing the battery jumper on the motherboard, with
the power off - resets the MB.
Exactly WHAT that procedure resets - I don't know...
I will try that again...

Any recommendations on a decent drive repair program on the internet? 

[poppo]

My $02

The machine is starting to boot into XP. If it was a 'computer hardware' problem, it would not be geting that far. A XP reboot cycle is 99.999% software related. A corrupt driver or something.

Try XP's safe mode. Hold the F8 key while the machine is booting (after the BIOS screen) then you can first try 'Last known good configuration'. If that doesn't work, just uses Safe mode, no networks support'. Let us know what it does.