I got PC problems.. when I booted up my main PC this morning, Windows starts up, then right before Windows finishes loading, I get this: Data error reading drive C Abort, Retry, Fail? Abort gets me into C: prompt Retry gets me the message again Fail gets me the message again virus? bad sectors? dead C drive? The PC was working fine last night, shut off was normal, we had some weather this morning but no lightning nearby and no power outage...so I'm assuming no surges... I am surge protected,etc... help rH
Could be anything from corrupt windows, to your Hardrive going out. MY HD went out on Wed...lost a ton of stuff...took me all night to reload all my settings....always keep your softward. DaDakota
When you are at a C:\ prompt can you DIR and see any directories? If you can then your hard drive is probably OK, windows could be corrupted though. I would try to reload a copy of windows on top of what is there. That might be the easiest. If you have a second HD in the system you could move the data and format the c: and restart from scratch.
I had the same thing happen about 2 months ago. After much investigation, I found out one of my system files was corrupt/missing. I tried repeatedly to reinstall Win 2K, but for some reason I kept getting errors on the reinstall saying that the file(various files) being copied was corrupt which I never quite understood because it was on CD. Anyway, I only had a 3 gig hard drive which was pretty much full of data, so a complete format was out of the question. I decided to go out and buy a 40 gig Maxtor with a Maxtor Ultra ATA 100 IDE card(got a $50 rebate) and install a dual boot Win 98/2K. Maxtor is still offering this deal. http://maxtor.com/promotions/pdf/UltraATA_0930MailCert.pdf
wink, yeah when I start up I can see the DIR, it's long! I have a start up disk..so i guess i wiLL try to re-install windows... thanx rH
What'd you do, rH? I have had my share of PC problems lately. Never seen that one before. Seems pretty freaking weird that you can boot up from your C: drive but then it gives you that message and you can still access files on C: . Hope that Windows re-install works for you. Surf
i'm having a hard time trying to reinstall windows! so thanks for the 'good luck' i'm still at it... rH
Not sure what OS you are on, but you may want to try a scandisk if you are in 98/95. Were you running any virus software? What problems are you getting on the OS install?
i'm running win98 i did have some virus software, but about 2 weeks ago i recently changed the settings not to load on startup. on the OS install, i could run setup.exe then the system would go into scan disk, when it gets to directory structure it stops at 9% gives me a sector error and then freezes... I guess I'm taking it into the shop tomorrow... or maybe it's time for that PIII-1.something GHZ pc? rH
it's the original HD that came with the PC (prob 3-4 yrs)... I knew when I installed my 2nd HD I should've put my OS on it... do you think the info on it is salvageable? rH
i'm having hard disk problems too. circuit city has this software on sale this week called "System Suite 3.0" from OnTrack for only $9.99. It usually costs 60 bucks. here is some info on the product http://www.ontrack.com/systemsuite/ it has some data recovery software on it that hopefully can get my data back.
Sounds like bad sectors to me too. What did you mean the Dir looks long? Recursive (over and over)? I haven't seen that in a while, but that is due to a corrupt file allocation table(FAT), I believe (not so good). I've had similar problems a number of times. If you don't want to take RocketsPimp's advice, you should find a good disk utility program that can scan your drive and fix mark-off the bad sectors. Then try to reload the OS. This could be a big waste of time if the drive is bad. If you do get the second drive, you still need to clean-up your existing C drive so that you can recover your work from it. When you are up-and-running, you should monitor your old drive daily. Check for bad sectors. If it increases, your drive will be garbage shortly. Also, if it now sounds different (esp. grinding noise), you can be pretty sure that its on its way out.
Sorry man but your drive is toast. I dont know about the data recovery software mentioned above, it may work. The data may or may not be recoverable, try to copy some to a floppy or to the second drive. Good Luck.
I think I'm gonna have to bite the bullet on this one... I'm sure some of the stuff on the drive is recoverable, but the only thing on the C: drive was my OS and my email and some program files. When I added my 2nd HD I moved all my personal stuff, MP3's, pics, etc... to the new one. So I think I'll just get a new HD, install the old OS and lose the email and whatever programs I had... live and learn rH
besides I don't enough about DOS to go in and try to copy files and stuff, besides, stuff I got would have to go on MULTIPLE floppies... forget it... I'm just gonna start back at square one. rH
What kind of drive was it? You might be able to contact them and get a partial refund or something if you complain enough. Get a good drive (Maxtor,Wester Digital, or Seagate)
Are you sure the problem is the hard drive? You might want to make sure before shelling out $80-$200 on a new drive. Unless you just want an excuse to buy a new HD... hehe
Doc- yeah, I'm pretty sure its the drive, when I try to re-install the OS (Win98) it automatically starts a scandisk, when it gets to directory structure, it stops at 9% then tells me a bad sector or something then freezes Wink- it's the original Maxtor (3-4 yrs old).. the only thing on the old HD i would want would be address book and email... Cohen - The DIR is long, cause there's a lot of stuff on that old C drive... nothing like repetive files (like a virus or anything) thanks to everyone who has replied, if ya want to come over, diagnose and take a look for yourself email me, we can set something up! hehe rH
