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Help with XP
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Posted by: Dr Spanner

Hi Guys,

I wonder if any of you can help with a problem.

I have an old PC that I run on my home network, it has a second 128 Gig hard drive which I use to store all my music. I was having some problems with the PC so I thought I would reinstall XP pro.

Half way through the reinstall the PC rebooted and froze. I switched it off and on and now the PC does not even load up the BIOS. It seems to be completely dead, the monitor does not receive any kind of signal.

In the old days you would stick a boot floppy into the the machine and restart from there, but I have no idea what you do now.

Any ideas?

Posted by: iankb

If you can't get into the BIOS setup, it will never get as far as reading a floppy. You should get some diagnostic beeps that might give you some idea of a POST fault.

Posted by: MarkE19

I had a similar probelm recently when I upgraded my RAM. After the install the PC would power up but not boot. All I got was 3 short bleeps. On reading the MoBo manual it said that the 3 beeps mean there is no graphics card installed :confused: . Having not even touched the graphics card I was a little confused, but removed and reseated it and the PC booted fine.
Chances are that something needs to be reseated in the PC. Listen for any bleeps and then RTFM :D

Mark.

Posted by: ADG

Certainly sounds like a hw problem. Could be that's what was causing the original trouble. Might be power supply, ram, etc.

Posted by: Fatbloke

Indeed - listen for motherboard beeps. If none then it might be the power supply? Can you hear anything when you start up??

I'd remove and reseat everything, memory..cards..cables just in case anything is loose.

You can visit www.bootdisk.com if you want a XP type bootdisk... that's assuming you still have a floppy drive.

Posted by: Dr Spanner

Thanks for you time guys. When I switch the machine, there is noise from the fan then the hard drive seems to start, there is then a single beep, a bit more spinning from the main hard drive then nothing apart from a gentle hum from (I think) the fan.

I have taken out all the cards, memory boards and cables and re-connected them and seems to have no effect.

Can it really be a coincidence that it happened when I was reinstalling windows?

Posted by: ADG

While I'm not a big believer in coincidences, they do occur. I think this is a perfect example. It sounds very much like the power supply. But if you want to run it by some of our more technical people, click on the link in my signature, join the forum and post the question.

Posted by: MarkE19

Does your monitor receive a signal from the graphics card when you 'TRY' to boot the PC? On my monitor the power light goes from amber - no signal, to green when it picks up the PC. It could be the monitor that is knackered!
I think on my PC a single beep just means that it is booting normally.

Yep, just checked the manual - one short beep when displaying logo > no error during POST

Another thought - Do you have an AGP or PCI graphics card that you use, but also have a MoBo with onboard graphics? Going into BIOS and disable the onboard graphics might solve this. Installing XP might somehow have reset the BIOS setup.

Mark.

Posted by: ADG

quote:
Originally posted by MarkE19
I think on my PC a single beep just means that it is booting normally.

Yep, just checked the manual - one short beep when displaying logo > no error during POST

Mark.

Every bios - and the "beep" error signals they provide - is different.

Posted by: cwaring

http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/sys/beep/index-i.htm

Posted by: Fatbloke

If you have power and, we assume a good POST, then I'd be looking at the hard drive...

However, since you don't get anything on screen you first need to check out the monitor, followed by the graphics card to eliminate any 'visual' problems.

If you have another PC perhaps use that as the test system and swap the monitor over to it, then perhaps the graphice card too.

If they are both OK, I'd then swap the boot hard drives over to see whether you get anything on screen. It may well be that the drive has been damaged and cant load any O/S but without anything on screen you're never going to be able to tell..

Posted by: Dr Spanner

Thanks again for your time guys, I bit the bullet and took the PC to a local repair shop who fixed it (problem with my 2nd Graphics card).

The problem now is that the second hard drive is unreadable. Windows XP asks if I want to format it. This is the same hard drive I have spent a month filling with my entire CD collection! I would rather not go through it all again. Any ideas on how I can recover my 35 Gig of MP3 files?

Posted by: Ramblnman

quote:
Originally posted by Dr Spanner
Thanks again for your time guys, I bit the bullet and took the PC to a local repair shop who fixed it (problem with my 2nd Graphics card).

The problem now is that the second hard drive is unreadable. Windows XP asks if I want to format it. This is the same hard drive I have spent a month filling with my entire CD collection! I would rather not go through it all again. Any ideas on how I can recover my 35 Gig of MP3 files?

Take a look at this thread - there are several suggestions. Hopefully one of them will work!

Recovery tools

Posted by: alert5

1. Boot Linux from CD (Knoppix is a great choice)
2. If you can mount the 128GB drive you'll most likely be able to copy your mp3s to the other HD or even burn them to CD from Knoppix

Good luck

Posted by: manolan

This link http://www-106.ibm.com/developerwor...ry/l-knopx.html recommends Knoppix as the ultimate test of whether there's been a real failure, or not.

Posted by: Dr Spanner

Cheers fellers, I used "File Scavenger" on www.quetek.com and I got ALL my files out. I decided to try that first as my Linux is pretty much non existent and I wouldn't have even known the commands to check the disk.

Anyway - A great success :)