Brand new system and it won't boot. 1

[Gloryhound]

Ok to begin here's the system
P4 3.2 Ghz
1gb of DDR2 ram
Abit AA8 mobo
Geforce 6200 video
Gnet Modem
120GB Seagate Barracuda HD SATA
LG DVD+/- RW + CDRW drive

System worked fine for the first day. Then it displayed a missing file error in windows and required a hard boot. Sense then the system hangs after POST and when trying a repair it displays an unknown partiton.

Anyone know what might have caused this. The only thing installed on the new system was.
AVG 7 free edition
Microsoft Antispyware Beta1
Riven
All latestest updates from microsoft for win xp pro sp2.

 

[Gloryhound]

Ok I ran the repair again and it took a long time to find the partition.. however now when it boots it displays that the hal.dll is damaged or missing.. how can I get this back when the repair disk sees the partition as "unknown" it always wants to format it.

 

[bcastner]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;314477

 

[Gloryhound]

seems the HD is bad.. thanks for your excellent suggestion bcastner.. but in this case the hardware seems at fault.

 

[s0121]

I'd try reboot from CD & use repair or upgrade to the OS.
that usually takes care of "hal".... & let it format the new found partition. you can always add it back with partition magic.


Frank Smith irc.dhcnetwork.com

SomeWhere in Kansas Near Dodge City

 

[linney]

Is the problem related to the fact that you are using a SATA Hard Drive?

Error Message:Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in you
thread779-972802

Seagate will have free diagnostic software at their site which can check the condition of your drive.

 

[bcastner]

linney wrote:[/quote]Is the problem related to the fact that you are using a SATA Hard Drive?[/quote]

I suspect the issue is very much related to this. This is likely completely and absolutely my own past problems with SATA and/or RAID as native volumes, but what I still do:

. Install and IDE drive of 20-40mb and install the OS to that drive as the system, boot, and only idientified active volume. Cost about US $30. Benefit: priceless.

. Install Recovery Console to that drive, observing the peculiarities about an upgrade to SP2: thread779-1013670

Increasingly I see new workstations without floppies, with only SATA, and/or with paired drives in a RAID.

Which is quite lovely and beautiful stuff. But save yourself a ton of grief and install the OS onto a plain old 40gb IDE drive on IDE channel 0, primary master, and set as an 'Active' partition.

Someday the utilities, the native OS features of Recovery, and other things will match your fancy new drives.

You cannot believe what a p.i.a. it is that "Someday" is not here now.

Done rant.

Bill Castner.

 

[Gloryhound]

hmm Interesting I didn't know that about SATA drives not being supported by winxp setup. However I built this system from scratch and had no problems installing the first time. After it crapped out, it was making a clicking sound, like the actuator head was caught in a loop of trying to park.

 

[s0121]

hmm Interesting I didn't know that about SATA drives not being supported by winxp setup. However I built this system from scratch and had no problems installing the first time. After it crapped out, it was making a clicking sound, like the actuator head was caught in a loop of trying to park.

sure sounds like the HD crashed... (hope your warranty is good)



Frank Smith irc.dhcnetwork.com

SomeWhere in Kansas Near Dodge City

 

[Gloryhound]

No worries the HD was less than 10 days old..