Is my hard drive dead?

[Matthew]

My computer started acting "flaky" after I installed some questionable
software so I figured I had a virus and went to reinstall windows XP Pro
from scratch. Everything went fine with the re-format and initial install
but when it restarted I got a stop code 0x0000007B 0xF78D2524. So I tried to
just install again but when I wipe/create the partition windows says it can
not install ( I left the paper at home with the exact error message...
sorry) something about the device not having the correct boot volume??

Unfortunately I don't have a spare computer at the moment to put the drive
into to run any tests but it's an old drive so I'm thinking that it may just
be dead?

I didn't change anything in the BIOS before the reinstall, but I'll look
there for any funky settings when I get home... but other than that does
anyone have any ideas?

 

[Ed Medlin]

My computer started acting "flaky" after I installed some questionable
software so I figured I had a virus and went to reinstall windows XP Pro
from scratch. Everything went fine with the re-format and initial install
but when it restarted I got a stop code 0x0000007B 0xF78D2524. So I tried
to just install again but when I wipe/create the partition windows says it
can not install ( I left the paper at home with the exact error message...
sorry) something about the device not having the correct boot volume??

Unfortunately I don't have a spare computer at the moment to put the drive
into to run any tests but it's an old drive so I'm thinking that it may
just be dead?

I didn't change anything in the BIOS before the reinstall, but I'll look
there for any funky settings when I get home... but other than that does
anyone have any ideas?

All the major HD manufacturers have diagnostic tools that can be downloaded
at their homepages that can be placed on either bootable CDs or floppies. If
you can get to another system and download the tools that would tell you for
sure if the drive is bad.


ed

 

[JR Weiss]

My computer started acting "flaky" after I installed some questionable
software so I figured I had a virus and went to reinstall windows XP Pro
from scratch. Everything went fine with the re-format and initial install
but when it restarted I got a stop code 0x0000007B 0xF78D2524. So I tried
to just install again but when I wipe/create the partition windows says
it can not install ( I left the paper at home with the exact error
message... sorry) something about the device not having the correct boot
volume??

Unfortunately I don't have a spare computer at the moment to put the
drive into to run any tests but it's an old drive so I'm thinking that it
may just be dead?

I didn't change anything in the BIOS before the reinstall, but I'll look
there for any funky settings when I get home... but other than that does
anyone have any ideas?

Might be a boot sector virus. Find a friend with an antivirus on bootable
CD.

New HDs are cheap, too...

 

[Matthew]

All the major HD manufacturers have diagnostic tools that can be
downloaded at their homepages that can be placed on either bootable CDs or
floppies. If you can get to another system and download the tools that
would tell you for sure if the drive is bad.


ed

thanks.. I didn't realize you could do that from a bootable CD!

 

[Matthew]

Might be a boot sector virus. Find a friend with an antivirus on bootable
CD.

New HDs are cheap, too...

I just had a friend loan me one today... thanks

 

[Don Phillipson]

My computer started acting "flaky" after I installed some questionable
software so I figured I had a virus and went to reinstall windows XP Pro
from scratch. Everything went fine with the re-format and initial install
but when it restarted I got a stop code 0x0000007B 0xF78D2524. So I tried to
just install again but when I wipe/create the partition windows says it can
not install ( I left the paper at home with the exact error message...
sorry) something about the device not having the correct boot volume??

This error message probably reports a CHKDSK error. Half the time
these are remediable by repartitioning and reformatting the HD. (Some
drives are irrecoverable and must be replaced.)

 

[Matthew]

This error message probably reports a CHKDSK error. Half the time
these are remediable by repartitioning and reformatting the HD. (Some
drives are irrecoverable and must be replaced.)

well that was part of my problem.. during the windows install it wouldn't
partition and format the drive.... well it deleted the partition and created
a new one but windows wouldn't start the install on the new partition.

 

[Don Phillipson]

well that was part of my problem.. during the windows install it wouldn't
partition and format the drive.... well it deleted the partition and created
a new one but windows wouldn't start the install on the new partition.

This narratives leaves open the possibility that the user
repartitioned the drive but did not then format it before use.

 

[Eric]

 My computer started acting "flaky" after I installed some questionable
software so I figured I had a virus and went to reinstall windows XP Pro
from scratch. Everything went fine with the re-format and initial install
but when it restarted I got a stop code 0x0000007B 0xF78D2524. So I triedto
just install again but when I wipe/create the partition windows says it can
not install ( I left the paper at home with the exact error message...
sorry) something about the device not having the correct boot volume??

Unfortunately I don't have a spare computer at the moment to put the drive
into to run any tests but it's an old drive so I'm thinking that it may just
be dead?

I didn't change anything in the BIOS before the reinstall, but I'll look
there for any funky settings when I get home... but other than that does
anyone have any ideas?

This is an excellence source of hard-drive diagnostic utilities -

http://hddguru.com/

Eric,
PC Buyer Beware!
http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/

 

[Matthew]

This narratives leaves open the possibility that the user
repartitioned the drive but did not then format it before use.

nope... I deleted the existing partition then re-partitioned it then let
windows format it then start the install process when I got the blue
screen... then I tried deleting the partition again to start over, but it
would never go beyond deleting the partition in the windows install process.

Of course I just downloaded and tried the WD diagnostic disk dos version and
it won't even detect the drive so at this point I am assuming it's a loss
and will just replace it.

Thanks for all the help!