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I took everything out of my PC and rebuilt it. This was the easiest way to tidy up the cables because they were in a terrible mess. However none were damaged and the computer worked just fine before with no problems whatsoever.
So, I take teh computer apart, rebuild it. I plug everything in exactly the same way as it was before, even everything plugged in round the back and the IDE cables. The only mistake I made was that I put the IDE cables in the wrong way round (pin 1 was not at socket 1). So I've sorted that mistake out and now, the following events occur:
- The GRUB bootloader loads, instead of Fedora Core with a list of bootable operaing systems. I don't know how to use GRUB.
- Because I despirately need my PC for college, I delete every partition on my hard drive and start a fresh.
- The Fedora Core DVD does not read, so that's Linux out the window.
- The Red Hat CDs will read, but I don't want Red Hat - it's crap.
- The Windows XP Professional CD won't boot at startup, but the Windows XP Home Edition one does.
- I begin the setup process for Windows XP Home Edition.
- All is fine - it creates the partiton for itself and formats it. It then copies the necessary files over to the new partition to continue the installation.
- Compute reboots, as expected
- Message appears referring to my hard drive:
Quote
Disk read error occured. Press CTRL + ALT + DEL to reboot.- I reboot, same message appears.
*shrug* Any ideas? The red light on the front of my PC does not seem to be lighting up too, and I'm pretty sure I've wired that up properly, but that doesn't matter currently. I need help for the first problem.
There is now only one partition on my hard drive, and that contains the Windows XP Home Edition files for continuing the setup
You need to check your hard drive - go to the drive manufacturer's web site & download the DOS checking utility they all have available.
"I know that I'm mad - I've always been mad..."
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The hard drive company is Seagate. Which tool do I need to download? Currently there is no operating system in it because I can't get one to install. However, Windows 98's DOS will run from the Win98 CD.
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I have just used the tools offered on that page, and they do not run. I take it that they need an operating system like Windows XP installed? That's another problem with my hard drive - there is currently no operating system, though I have tried installing one. I get different outcomes for different OS's when I try to install them.
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"and they do not run" not a very helpful statment, explain.
You will need the one for dos "SeaTools Desktop" . download the program and run it , it will make a bootable floppy with the needed test utilities. Befor you download click on the "Learn more".
You may have to enter bios setup and change the boot order to have floppy listed befor the hdd.
If the hdd test ok , would next run a memory test utility.
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They do not run on the computer that has the problem at all. So I ran the one for creating the boot disk on a different machine, and the created boot disks do not run on the faulty computer. They do not boot at startup.
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if the floppy does not even attempt to boot, you will have to enter bios setup.
1) make sure the bios sees the floppy drive
2)make sure the floppy is the first boot device
due to the difference in the bios routines can not say where to look.if 1 & 2 are correct then you may have something connected wrong in the comp.
I would suspect a cable is loose, or not connect correct, to floppy and/or hdd.
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The floppy problem is sorted now. Somehow the IDE cable had worked itself loose.
Ok, so I have just ran the SeaTools dianostic program and the hard drive failed the test. There was a massive, massive list of damaged sectors. I think I've come to the conclusion that I need a new HDD.
Am I right in thinking that?
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it does indeed point to a bad hdd, but if it was working with no problems till you messed with the cables, it could be a bad or intermittent cable.
Connecting the cable up wrong when you fisrt rebuilt the comp could have damaged the motherboard IDE circirity and/or that of the hdd.could try differend IDE cable on the other mobod IDE connector.
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Oh well. I give in. Got myself a new one, 40GB bigger, for the same price I paid for that one.
At the minute it works a charm, but then there's Windows XP. My XP problem is simple to fix, I just need the time and transport!
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 XP 2900+ getting correct ...
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HHD Error
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