Boot failure

[furiousV]

just today, when i came home for lunch, i switched on my PC. it booted fine in windows 2000. but one of the hard disks was making a clicking noise, and then a spinup like noise. happened a few times, lagging up the PC. one final one caused the BSoD with Physical Memory Dump. fair enough, it said to just reboot if it ws the first time, these things happen. but upon booting from the hard disk, the slider goes only about 1/10th of the way and says cannot read \WINNT\SYSTEM\CONFIG\SYSTEM the file is corrupt or missing. now, the windows 2000 cd is not bootable, damn, il tyr a winXP pro cd once i can get hold of one. in the meantime, il try an dboot FC3 which i just got working. no such luck. this time its the IRQs kicking up a fuss. one can not disable IRQ 185, the SMP thing (you knmow there are two linux options to choose) it cant disable IRQ 11 and wont start up.
now, do i have to create 4 boot CDs (im currently on my isters PC and it literally takes 10 minutes to e tin a ready state from switching on, win2000) oh, and the wireless keyboard battery light is flashing. then, i will have to open up this computer, take out th efloppy drive, open up my pc and connect it. arsed. damn now this computer is playing up. any help will be appreciated, and ideas as to why this might have happened. could it be because i left a game running over night one time, even though with a 50% underclock. the CPU usage was 100%? probably not.

i promisd a mate from school a game today, doesnt look possible. i really hope i dont have to reformat

 

[VirusType2]

Sounds to me like hard drive failure

You probably need a new hard drive.

anything on there sounds like it is irrecoverable - sometimes you can send it away to have the info recovered.. or taken to a computer shop.. idk

Speaking of - Im leaving now to go buy a 200-450 GB hard drive
Good luck

 

[Asus]

I'd give it some time. Maybe it will work and give you just enough time to copy stuff off it.
Some of my drives have done that.

One trick that sometimes works, and it sounds wacky, is to put your drive in the freezer for a few mins. It shinks the head so if your problem was that the heads where actually hitting the platter then maybe it will work for a little bit. link

 

[furiousV]

i personally dontthink its a completehd failure, maybe just a fluctuation. when itry for safe mode it tells of th files being loaded, the 8th one being the corrupt one, therefore it indicates the other f ew files are present.
i managed to get some bootdisks ready, and booted from usb floppy, but it says inspecting hardware, and doesnt ask for otherfloppys (there are 4 to go). forgivemy bad typing right now, im on a laptop. and ny sisters compiuter, being about 7-8 years old probably now, has suddenly deterioted in performance. and it literally takes 5 minutes to ge the start menu up, no exaguration.
as for my hard disk, maxtor s-ata 80gb 7200rpm 8mb cache, isnt even a year old, but i shall tyr dcing it and muck about. and maybe i should try the freezer idea

 

[VirusType2]

hard drive is making clicking noises. Whats wrong?

Well I just bought a hard drive.

I was looking over the installation instructions.

One thing I noticed might help:

Q:my hard drive is making clicking noises. What is wrong?
There are several potential problems that can cause clicking sounds.

Frist, the drive itself could be failing or has failed. Other reasons could include a faulty data cable, data corruption, incorrect BIOS settings, or in some cases a virus infection. The suggestions that follow will assist you in determining the cause.

1. Power the system down and disconnect the IDE ribbon cable to the drive making the noise. Leave the power cable attached.

2. When you attach the drive to the power supply with the 40-pin data cable detached, does the clicking continue?

YES - The drive has failed and needs to be replaced. Other symptoms generall associated with clicking include:
-the auto-detect feature in the BIOS
does not detect a drive.
LET ME KNOW IF YOU NEED MORE INFO

NO-A faulty cable is a likely cause. Replace. if that doesnt fix it is possibly a virus. LET ME KNOW IF YOU NEED MORE INFO

 

[furiousV]

it probably was a virus. my computer was on the DMZ with no firewall enabled properly and i dont know if the virus scanner (AVG) was set up correctly. il stick with AntiVir, or try out Avast.
seems to beworking fine now, didnt need to do the freezer one, though it would have been exciting
i decided to reformat. the only irreplacable files were downloaded MP3s and movies, which i dont really legally own, so im not really complaining. at least my other 'legal' downloads folder was ona different drive, so i got like memtest, linux, virus scanners, patches still.
damn this screen flickers like f**k. need to get that sorted out soon.
i had to re-install win2000 twice, which is so annoying. i need toboot from 4 floppys before i can even read from CD. and the 1st floppy doesnt work to well, 50:50 chance it will work then not. then is setting to UK blablabal. but the 2nd time round, giving the partitions the letters i wanted was a major problem.
i want this S-ATA drive, with windows 2000 installed to be 'C:' but now its 'E:' and i cant change it. i also set out 2GB partitions to be used for page files, and now in Computer Management, it says Healthy (System) 'F:' and i cant change it to something like 'X:'
im really pissed off.
i appreciate you all helping me

oh btw, the drive that failed earlier, can sometimes reach temperatures of about up to 58C is that too hot? its hotter than my CPU

 

[VirusType2]

i can't help you with all of your problems becuase I simply don't have any experience.

However I can say that if you think your hard drive is getting to hot, I'm pretty sure you already know that overheating is the biggest cause of hard drive failure.

maybe you can fit another fan in there- ive seen some fans (in fact I own one) that is mounted where your empty PCI slot is, and plugs into your power supply. it was about 10$

i think US dollars are about 50% value of a pound. 5 pounds = 10$ or something similar - thanks to our recently damaged economy

also it sounds like you need a new monitor - ive got about 5 but i live in the US

anyway I saw a 17 " flat screen for sale for 75$ at the store and there are used places you can get them for like 25-125 dollars depending on the model

They are pretty cheap now becuase the world is flooded with them.

 

[furiousV]

yo thanks for your help
ever since my last order, i was planning on ordering another new hd and some HDfans when i get my next paycheque (damn hate being underpaid)
i sent off for a new tax code, gettin £350 back yeah!
my monitor is running at 60Hz, just need to up it to 85Hz then i will be fine.
you mean this kind of fan http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/vantecfancard.jpg
and
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/JCooler_FC100.jpg (which blows outwards)
im seriously considering getting these
here are the hd coolers
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/akasahdcooler_yellow.jpg
hd coolers are about £4.50 and the exhaust blower is about £3.50 which is pretty cheap
ive used up all my molex connectors, so il need some extensions, and im also seriously considering a new PSU, hence my thread a while back