Hard Drive not being detected..and NTLDR errors...

[Eclipse 0]

I just want some advice on what to do with these problem on 2 different PC's...

 

 

One PC has XP Professional. The PC is turned on, and it said that the hard drive was not detected. Then, it was restarted over 20 times, and finally, it went past the error, and went to the portion of start up where it says XP Pro with the little bar scrolling. It stood there for 10 minutes, and then a blue screen appeared with an error of some sort. He restarted again, and it said the hard drive wasn't detected. What can I do to fix that? I remember I had 2000 Pro, and when that blue screen of death popped up, Windows never started again.

 

Now, the second problem is this: Another PC with XP Pro on it, and it says that NTLDR is missing. Of course, without that, NO NT based OS is starting. How can I repair the NTLDR file? I hope that reformatting isn't the way to solve both of these problems.

 

Any help is appreciated...

[NoCalMike 0]

Run CMOS, and change the hard drive setting to AUTO. Reboot.....

 

If that doesn't work, open up your computer and make sure none of the connectors are loose or unplugged.

[Guest Contentious C]

I'm having a similar sort of problem. I have a Dell with a 40 GB HD, running XP Home, and I tried to hook up my 80 GB HD as a second drive. Because of the way the box is configured and the sorts of tools you need to open it, I was only able to set it up as a secondary slave drive (same IDE cable as the DVD/CD-RW combo drive).

 

When I go into my settings and set the "secondary slave" position to AUTO, it will often just shut off the drive entirely and make these horrendous clicking sounds, like it's trying to recognize the damn thing. If I leave that setting at OFF, it will recognize the drive and use it properly, but it keeps telling me there are errors on the drive and that data sometimes can't be written to the drive. It's possible the drive is screwed up somehow, but I haven't run defragmenter or any utility to find out.

 

Finally, regardless of whether or not the drive is hooked up or set to AUTO/OFF, every time I shut down the computer, it gives me a blue screen saying there's a stop error: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. It doesn't prevent me from booting up again and running normally, and I have absolutely no other problems with the system aside from that, but I'd like to be able to fix it so that A) the drive doesn't act wonky, and B) I quit getting this stop error.

[Dr. Tom 0]

One PC has XP Professional. The PC is turned on, and it said that the hard drive was not detected. Then, it was restarted over 20 times, and finally, it went past the error, and went to the portion of start up where it says XP Pro with the little bar scrolling. It stood there for 10 minutes, and then a blue screen appeared with an error of some sort. He restarted again, and it said the hard drive wasn't detected. What can I do to fix that? I remember I had 2000 Pro, and when that blue screen of death popped up, Windows never started again.

This is most likely a bad hard drive. Go into BIOS and see if the hard drive is being detected there at all. If it's not, then your drive is dead, and the data on it is most likely irretrievable without spending a lot of money. This, of course, presumes all connections and cables are good, so you should make sure of that before going out and getting a new drive.

 

Now, the second problem is this: Another PC with XP Pro on it, and it says that NTLDR is missing. Of course, without that, NO NT based OS is starting. How can I repair the NTLDR file? I hope that reformatting isn't the way to solve both of these problems.

Well, reformatting WILL solve this problem, but it might not be necessary. If you have the original XP Pro CD, insert it into the CD drive and boot from it. When it loads, go into the repair console and try to fix the install. Missing files can sometimes be replaced this way, but it's far from 100% successful.

 

When I go into my settings and set the "secondary slave" position to AUTO, it will often just shut off the drive entirely and make these horrendous clicking sounds, like it's trying to recognize the damn thing.

Not good. Loud hard drive usually = bad hard drive. "Horrendous clicking sounds," in particular, usually mean a problem with either the heads or the reader arm. If you can, hook it up on the primary channel and see if the same thing happens. Longer IDE cables can be found, and they're usually necessary to add drives to Dells, in my experience. Make sure you get an ATA-100 cable with 80 wires, too.

 

If I leave that setting at OFF, it will recognize the drive and use it properly, but it keeps telling me there are errors on the drive and that data sometimes can't be written to the drive.

That's very odd. I'd definitely run a chkdsk on that and see what happens. If it reports any bad sectors, as a new hard drive, it was defective out of the box. It doesn't happen a lot anymore, but it still happens. At my previous job, we lost six hard drives in a series of Dells within the first month they were deployed.

 

Finally, regardless of whether or not the drive is hooked up or set to AUTO/OFF, every time I shut down the computer, it gives me a blue screen saying there's a stop error: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.

Simple: don't shut down the PC.

 

Try hooking the drive up on the primary channel and determining whether or not it's defective. It sounds like it is, and that might be the cause of your blue screen error message.

[Eclipse 0]

The NTLDR problem was fixed. I went into the Recovery Console, and copied a new NTLDR file. But then, I remembered: Maybe there are CD's and/or floppies that it read and tries to boot before the HDD. There was a CD and a mouse driver floppy in there. I took them out, and the PC booted.

 

I am gonna try and check the BIOS settings out. If not....then ALOT OF DATA will be lost because then a reformat will have to happen.

[Dr. Tom 0]

But then, I remembered: Maybe there are CD's and/or floppies that it read and tries to boot before the HDD. There was a CD and a mouse driver floppy in there. I took them out, and the PC booted.

Y'know, I was actually going to mention that you should make sure there are no floppy disks in the A: drive and no non-bootable CDs in the CD drive. While 9X operating systems used to give the "non-system disk or disk error" message, NT-based OSes usually give you the NTLDR message. I can't tell you how many panicked people I've calmed down by simply having them eject a floppy disk.

[Eclipse 0]

But then, I remembered: Maybe there are CD's and/or floppies that it read and tries to boot before the HDD. There was a CD and a mouse driver floppy in there. I took them out, and the PC booted.

Y'know, I was actually going to mention that you should make sure there are no floppy disks in the A: drive and no non-bootable CDs in the CD drive. While 9X operating systems used to give the "non-system disk or disk error" message, NT-based OSes usually give you the NTLDR message. I can't tell you how many panicked people I've calmed down by simply having them eject a floppy disk.

Yeah, his boot order was set with the floppy first, and it was trying to boot from that..

[NoCalMike 0]

I am glad to see my A+ classes are paying off, cause I actually understand the conversation in this thread. I just finished PC Config 2, and passed my first practice A+ hardware exam.......next up is the A+ class, the practice A+ exam for software.....and then the REAL EXAM......oh and then my 2nd year of school which is all about the MCSE........*gulp*

[NoCalMike 0]

also make sure all your connectors are hooked up black-to-black.....hehehehe

[Eclipse 0]

Well, I actually found out more about his problems, and to confirm the fact he needs a new HDD: He tells me that the hard drive does this weird clicking and low buzzing noise. Wouldn't that mean the read/write head is busted? But yeah, he definately needs a new HDD. GOOD thing he happened to back up a little while before this happened.