Hard Drive Crashed

[Tara]

Yesterday my computer out of nowhere rebooted and came up with the
"non-system disk" error, and then went to the flashing cursor in the
left top corner of the screen. Having seen this particular flashing
cursor problem before, I thought that fixmbr would take care of the
problem. Unfortunately when I try to boot from my Windows 2000 CD, it
says that the drive is new or erased or doesn't have a recognized
operating system on it. I hit C to reinstall Windows and it shows the
following:

39203 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on Bus 0 on atapi
(Setup cannot access this disk)

If I hit Enter to install, I get a blue screen - Stop: 0x0000001E
(0x0000005, 0xBFFC0A16, 0x00000000, 0x633F6668)
KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
***Address BFFC0A16 base at BFFA2000, DateStamp 3cd969s - setupdd.sys

Unfortunately, even though I know better, I have no backup for this
drive and desparately need to get data off it. I've tried slaving it
to another drive, and the BIOS sees it, but Windows does not. I've
tried ERD Commander 2000 and it doesn't even see the drive - only the
floppy and CD drives.

I am at a total loss here as to what I can try. I don't think it's any
of the other hardware in the machine, as I was able to reimage another
drive in it without any problems.

Any help would really be appreciated - it would prevent me from
standing out in the parking lot waiting for someone to run my stupid
ass over!!!

 

[Dan Seur]

First, download and run the drive manu's (free) diagnostic from their
website. Your problem sounds like a failing drive; just make sure.

Then buy (~$30 as I recall) the Spinrite product from www.grc.com. This
too is a bootable diskette-sized product. It not only analyzes a disk
surface but can sometimes (it has for me) restore the disk to operating
condition.

Then get your material off that failing drive immediately. Do not assume
that disk is now OK if Spinrite manages to recover your files. Replace
it. Talk to the manu's tech support people about the diagnostic results;
drive warranties are long-lived and replacement happens.

Yesterday my computer out of nowhere rebooted and came up with the
"non-system disk" error, and then went to the flashing cursor in the
left top corner of the screen. Having seen this particular flashing
cursor problem before, I thought that fixmbr would take care of the
problem. Unfortunately when I try to boot from my Windows 2000 CD, it
says that the drive is new or erased or doesn't have a recognized
operating system on it. I hit C to reinstall Windows and it shows the
following:

39203 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on Bus 0 on atapi
(Setup cannot access this disk)

If I hit Enter to install, I get a blue screen - Stop: 0x0000001E
(0x0000005, 0xBFFC0A16, 0x00000000, 0x633F6668)
KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
***Address BFFC0A16 base at BFFA2000, DateStamp 3cd969s - setupdd.sys

Unfortunately, even though I know better, I have no backup for this
drive and desparately need to get data off it. I've tried slaving it
to another drive, and the BIOS sees it, but Windows does not. I've
tried ERD Commander 2000 and it doesn't even see the drive - only the
floppy and CD drives.

I am at a total loss here as to what I can try. I don't think it's any
of the other hardware in the machine, as I was able to reimage another
drive in it without any problems.

Any help would really be appreciated - it would prevent me from
standing out in the parking lot waiting for someone to run my stupid
ass over!!!



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