Help. A8V problems with SATA HD, wont boot

[Steve Hennigan]

I have recently built an new system which has been running well for the past
fortnight.
Until this morning.

I had been running a 10% overclock with no problems but decided to try my
luck a bit higher.
I changed the overclock mode to manual and tried for 225Mhz on the FSB.
Windows XP Pro booted but reported that it could not find my profile and
allocated me a guest profile instead.

I decided that this degree of overclock was to blame and rebooted to reset
the BIOS back to standard.

Rebooting from there gave a good boot from the BIOS but followed that with a
blank black screen when booting the Operating System.
Everything I have tried so far has got me nowhere. I cannot seem to see the
HD anymore.

How do I get back to recognising the HD?

System is

Athlon 64 3000+ Skt 939 (Winchester)
ASUS A8V Deluxe
WD 160 GB SATA HD
512MB (2 x 256MB) DDR PC4000 RAM

 

[Steve Hennigan]

I have recently built an new system which has been running well for the past
fortnight.
Until this morning.

I had been running a 10% overclock with no problems but decided to try my
luck a bit higher.
I changed the overclock mode to manual and tried for 225Mhz on the FSB.
Windows XP Pro booted but reported that it could not find my profile and
allocated me a guest profile instead.

I decided that this degree of overclock was to blame and rebooted to reset
the BIOS back to standard.

Rebooting from there gave a good boot from the BIOS but followed that with a
blank black screen when booting the Operating System.
Everything I have tried so far has got me nowhere. I cannot seem to see the
HD anymore.

How do I get back to recognising the HD?

System is

Athlon 64 3000+ Skt 939 (Winchester)
ASUS A8V Deluxe
WD 160 GB SATA HD
512MB (2 x 256MB) DDR PC4000 RAM

I have managed to get a bit further now:

I have used the Original XP Pro CD to get to a recovery console and
fixed the MBR which I assumed was corrupt.
This allowed me to get as far as the system telling me the the file
C:\windows\system32\********\system was corrupt. I found a procedure
on the XP Pro help site to replace this using the original copy from
the first install.

The Operating System now boots as far as the Safeboot options screen
but any menu choice from there on results in a reboot followed by a
return to the same screen.

I have considered a repair install of the OS but the XP Pro Cd only
offers to splat the original OS and settings which means losing a
large amount of personal files.

Does anyone have any ideas where I can go from here?

Steve Hennigan

 

[m.marien]

[snip]

Does anyone have any ideas where I can go from here?

Steve Hennigan

Looks like the drive got scrambled. Just reinstall from the CD. If it finds
the previous install (which it should), it will save all the settings and
drivers and just reinstall like an upgrade. You will have to reapply all the
windows updates.

There is no guarantee that any of the other personal files are intact. While
you are in safe mode, try to copy them off the drive to somewhere safe.

 

[Steve Hennigan]

[snip]

Does anyone have any ideas where I can go from here?

Steve Hennigan

Looks like the drive got scrambled. Just reinstall from the CD. If it finds
the previous install (which it should), it will save all the settings and
drivers and just reinstall like an upgrade. You will have to reapply all the
windows updates.

There is no guarantee that any of the other personal files are intact. While
you are in safe mode, try to copy them off the drive to somewhere safe.

Thanks for the advice.

I have now installed XP Pro into another directory on the same HD.
This has been quite successful, I have kept access to all the shared
folderd and all the user accounts except my own.

I need to access the contents of this in irder to copy over the files
into my new login name. But all I get is Access Denied.

All the other users on the old version of XP Pro are accessible so why
can I not get into my old account?

Steve Hennigan

 

[m.marien]

[snip]

Does anyone have any ideas where I can go from here?

Steve Hennigan

Looks like the drive got scrambled. Just reinstall from the CD. If it
finds the previous install (which it should), it will save all the
settings and drivers and just reinstall like an upgrade. You will have to
reapply all the windows updates.

There is no guarantee that any of the other personal files are intact.
While you are in safe mode, try to copy them off the drive to somewhere
safe.

Thanks for the advice.

I have now installed XP Pro into another directory on the same HD.
This has been quite successful, I have kept access to all the shared
folderd and all the user accounts except my own.

I need to access the contents of this in irder to copy over the files into
my new login name. But all I get is Access Denied.

All the other users on the old version of XP Pro are accessible so why can
I not get into my old account?

Steve Hennigan

Not sure, it could have been how you configured them. XP Home has the option
of making the folders private or shared. If they are private, then only the
owner can access them. Even if you create a new account with the same name
and password as your last account, it's not the same.

As administrator, right click the folder, pick Properties and then the
Security tab. Click the Advanced button, then the Owner tab. Click on the
Replace owner ... option and click Apply. This should replace the ownership
of the folder and you should be able to access it.