Notebook wont Boot

[jj]

Hi running xp and computer wont boot and cmos wont detect the hard drive is
there, any ideas?? it booted earlier all right then turned it off and then
turned it on later and it wont boot, it gets to the stage of detecting the
boot devices
thanks

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

Set the BIOS to boot a floppy first, see if you can load a boot floppy. If
not, then you have a serious hardware problem, did you change any settings
in the BIOS? You may need to bring it to a shop for service. If you are able
to boot, then you have a hard drive problem. Check your detection settings,
and download and run a drive diagnostic tool from the hard drive
manufacturer to see if the drive has failed.

It wouldn't hurt to reseat the cabling either.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[jj]

no floppy - boot from cd OK
no bios settings have been changed OK
fujitsu drive diognostic pass OK
dont think it is the cabeling since notebook only 2 weeks old but will have
a look, do you think it might be a virus?boot sector?? because on boot up
its says detect ide0 OK then just hangs there

 

[jj]

ok windowsxp setup detected drive but wont reinstall xp without formating
because it says the drive is damaged, any ideas how to get around this so i
can get my data off??
thanks

 

[PeTe]

Run XP Setup, create a new partition, install it on that,
dont bother with the activation theres no need, install
partition magic, get it to repair ur c: drive then boot
into c: it should wrk then install partition magic on
that partition, delete the partition u used to repair c:
and bobs ur uncle. or if u cant make a new partition get
a new drive and do the same on that drive except 4 the
partitions

 

[jj]

yeh wont partition dont really want to buy a new drive

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Only useful if there is free space in which to do this, something most home
users don't have. Doing so may not work anyways if the partition is damaged.

If the existing partition is damaged, you can remove the hard drive and
slave it in another machine to save the files (must be another XP machine if
using NTFS), though there is no guarantee that you will be able to access it
this way either. Hope you created backup files your data regularly, you may
need to employ them.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[jj]

doh only a couple of weeks old and backup hasn't been setup yet