windows starts up in safe mode but not normal - Page 5

hyk · #61 August 14th, 2012, 09:19 AM

I can't get to safe mode, so was wondering if i could go to bios and select removable drive as my 1st to boot

**Murf** · #62 August 14th, 2012, 05:39 PM

Since you have identified the hard drive as an Hitachi, then here are the instructions for running the tests:

HERE

You will need to make a bootable CD with their program on it. Download this one: https://www1.hgst.com/hdd/support/do...2_v416_b00.iso

Then you need to burn it to a CD, this is a ISO image so you will need to use software that can burn the ISO to a bootable CD such as THIS ONE

Once you have the program burned to a CD, you set the 1st boot device to CDROM and boot from it to test the drive.

hyk · #63 August 18th, 2012, 03:35 AM

clear both the quick(had some errors but was fixed later) & advanced tests. after that restarted my com> went into bios and change boot device to hard-disk. still the same results.

so the next steps are reformatting the com i supposed

**Murf** · #64 August 18th, 2012, 05:48 AM

I've run out of ideas, going to ask for help.

hyk · #65 August 18th, 2012, 05:59 AM

So sorry about it , thanks again

**smurfy** · #66 August 18th, 2012, 06:30 AM

Hi hyk.
At this point, since this is a tower not a laptop, I'd be investing a few bucks on a new HDD and installing fresh.
Remove the dodgy drive before starting the fresh install.
Once you have a clean fresh XP install on a new HD, you can reconnect the old one, boot from the new one and hopefully copy any data from your old drive. Then you could try to Low level format the old drive and see if it can manage the bad sectors. If not, it's trash time.

hyk · #67 August 18th, 2012, 06:52 AM

Alright but my com is about3+ going 4 years n was wondering if getting a new computer will be better

**smurfy** · #68 August 18th, 2012, 10:20 AM

Well, a new one will always be better than a 4 year old one but if the system was doing all you needed to before these issues, spending $50 on a replacement HD is going to be better value than spending $500 on a new PC.

hyk · #69 August 18th, 2012, 11:33 AM

got to agree on this point...

another thing i was thinking about is to do a total reformatting though all my files will be gone( since the chances of retrieving the files back might be a shot too far )

**Murf** · #70 August 18th, 2012, 04:57 PM

After reading again it appears the drive does have some bad sectors that cannot be recovered. And an important Windows file(s) are sitting on that bad sector, as the Hitachi program could not recover it. Therefore, as Smurfy suggested, a new drive would be in order and it also appears the drive is still readable, just can't boot from it, so you should be able to recover all your data from it, but not any programs.

Since this is a tower you should be able to replace the drive and also hook up this hard drive as a "Slave", get Windows installed on new one then access the Slave drive to retrieve data.

What you need to determine is if the hard drive is a IDE or a SATA drive. Is this a store bought PC Tower? If so make and model we may be able to determine. Or you look at the hard drive and determine by the cable that is connected to it.

A IDE cable generally is about 2 inches flat, usually grey or black, and where it connects to the drive will have about 40 pins on it, the hard drive that is.

A SATA uses a very small cable, usually red or orange, and will have a "L" shape connector on the end..

Pictures are HERE. Let us know what type of drive, also your existing drive will have on the lable the size i.e., 80GB post that.

hyk · #71 August 19th, 2012, 02:22 AM

its a sata cable, 500Gb , any other details you require?

hitachi deskstar 7250xxxx
rpm 7200

edited: this is creepy. after i installed another hdd in the cpu, the whole com doesnt have the inital beep etc

**MaDef** · #72 August 19th, 2012, 03:43 PM

Looks like I'm a bit late to the party here. hyk, can you post your hardware specs? (make/model # is fine if it's not a custom built machine).

It looks like Murf covered all the bases in regards to the OS, It's time to look at the hardware as the cause.

You said you ran the Hitachi disk utilities and that it:

Quote:

clear both the quick(had some errors but was fixed later) & advanced tests.

Can you be a bit more specific about the results of the test? Since the system is 3+ years old, it could just be the drive is going bad (or some other component is beginning to have problems).

Is there a hardware monitoring page in your bios? (this will list the temps and voltages of the system). If so post the voltage and temp values listed. I want to see if maybe the psu is starting to get weak enough to effect the rest of the pc.

hyk · #73 August 20th, 2012, 03:09 AM

welcome to the party

its a custom built pc, intel quad core q8300, 4gb ddr2 ram, nvidia Gt9600, mother board asus P5QL-E.

Quote:

Can you be a bit more specific about the results of the test? Since the system is 3+ years old, it could just be the drive is going bad (or some other component is beginning to have problems).

The SMART test from Hitachi (HDD ) has no options, (Quick test),(advanced test). So the first time round, i tried quick test and let it run on it own.when the test was mid-way, a message pop up & say there are bad sectors in the drive, and so i click the "fix' the drive(sorry cant really remember what are the names of the options). after fixing the driving & test, a green box pops up and say no errors is found . i also did the advanced test, with no errors.

Quote:

After reading again it appears the drive does have some bad sectors that cannot be recovered. And an important Windows file(s) are sitting on that bad sector, as the Hitachi program could not recover it. Therefore, as Smurfy suggested, a new drive would be in order and it also appears the drive is still readable, just can't boot from it, so you should be able to recover all your data from it, but not any programs.

Since this is a tower you should be able to replace the drive and also hook up this hard drive as a "Slave", get Windows installed on new one then access the Slave drive to retrieve data.

on the suggestion of Murf, i bought another hard disk, but after installing it, using the sata & power cable from the PSU(550w) when i tried to power on the com, my monitor do not have any display &the cpu do not have the inital beep sound + the busy button is not lighting up( minor issue)

**Murf** · #74 August 20th, 2012, 02:25 PM

Is the old drive still hooked up? When you hook the new one up, assume it has no files on it, you need to hook it up in place of the original one, the drive will need to be partitioned and formated before the operating system is installed. Once that is done then you can hook up the "old one" to get files off of it.

If you hooked it up with the "old one" then the computer isn't finding and operating system, then it goes to the 2nd drive which is bad.

hyk · #75 August 20th, 2012, 03:24 PM

actually i tried both, old and the new drive hook up together for the first try. but when i tried to switch it on, nothing appears. for the second try, remove the old drive and put the new one in its place. another thing i need to find out if my monitor is fautly, because when its its not connected to the cpu , its shows as 'no input signal' but when i plug it in, its a blank screen when i on the cpu.