Serious Hard-drive problem? :(

[Anglezi]

Hi all..

I have Amd Athlon computer bought it since 1999.
Its a 27.2Gb Hard-drive, but has recently about a week or two ago it started to freez everytime it loaded up.
Basically i would turn it on it would start and i would open any program but after 10 seconds it would freeze. I formated my hard-drive and tried to re-install windows xp pro again, but this time as soon as i get to entering the serial number it frezzes and i have to restart it again but this happens constantly. My hard-drive makes a lot of noise aswell and one more thing it red light stays on all the time and it does not flicker.

Plz guys im a newbie.
Anyhelp would be greatly appreciated.

Thanx in advance...

[rjfvillarosa]

Do you know the make of the hard drive?

[Vigo]

I have Amd Athlon computer bought it since 1999.


Why are you still paying for it?!?! :confused: ;)

Hmm... can you swap out a different hard drive to make sure its the actual drive thats the problem?

[RJ]

Download the diagnostic tool from the hard drive's manufacturer and let it check the hard drive.

RJ

[Anglezi]

Do you know the make of the hard drive?

Not really to be honest:( and i cant check untill tomorrow!
Time here 20:56....

[rjfvillarosa]

I understand the time :o I am a Brit living in the Caribbean
Find out what hard drive it is and then you can go to the manufacturers site and download a very simple diagnostic tester that you run in DOS.
If you are not sure no worries just get the make of the hard drive and we can talk you through it.

[Anglezi]

Why are you still paying for it?!?! :confused: ;)

Hmm... can you swap out a different hard drive to make sure its the actual drive thats the problem?

I have a budget of £60 to £80 for a new hard-drive.
I just want to make sure, befire i take the step of purchesing another one,because i havent got money to throw away....

[Anglezi]

I understand the time :o I am a Brit living in the Caribbean
Find out what hard drive it is and then you can go to the manufacturers site and download a very simple diagnostic tester that you run in DOS.
If you are not sure no worries just get the make of the hard drive and we can talk you through it.

:) Thnx for you help i will have it looked up tomorrow and let you guys know.
Hope the weather there is better than over here. Well it`s not been so bad here actually compared to recent years.

RJ - Thank You ...

P.S I`ll let you guys know a.s.a.p..!

[rjfvillarosa]

I have a budget of £60 to £80 for a new hard-drive.
I just want to make sure, befire i take the step of purchesing another one,because i havent got money to throw away....
Anglezi don't worry Vigo was only teasing, the way you worded your original question made it sound like you bought the computer in 1999 and you were still paying for it.

[rjfvillarosa]

:) Thnx for you help i will have it looked up tomorrow and let you guys know.
Hope the weather there is better than over here. Well it`s not been so bad here actually compared to recent years.

Please don't tell me about the cold I am coming back for xmas in a few weeks and I have been shouting at this lot here to stop talking about snow......

[Anglezi]

Please don't tell me about the cold I am coming back for xmas in a few weeks and I have been shouting at this lot here to stop talking about snow......

:) eheheh personally i think over here it`s great when we have snow, coz i dosen`t happen that often and its great atmosphere when you familly get together christmas tree fire place nice TURKEY in front of you..? :)

P.S Sorry if im abusing any-rules here. To all admins and moderators.

[rjfvillarosa]

:) eheheh personally i think over here it`s great when we have snow, coz i dosen`t happen that often and its great atmosphere when you familly get together christmas tree fire place nice TURKEY in front of you..? :)

P.S Sorry if im abusing any-rules here. To all admins and moderators.
Your OK it's your first post but I am going to get a slap on the wrist that's for sure... :(
But I have an excuse... I had to get past 666 post's
Mod's move it to general discussion...

[Anglezi]

Guys i got news its a WB CAVIAR 272AA Enhanced IDE Hard Drive, 40 pin conn.

[rjfvillarosa]

This link should take you to the download page of Western Digital, so that you can download the diagnostic utility. have a read and let me know if everything is OK.
http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp?swid=1
Select the caviar7200 or the protege5400 and download the "Old lifeguard data diagnostic" program name...DlgDiag28.zip, this should do the job for an old hard drive like that.

[Anglezi]

A slight problem i have a WD CAVIAR 272AA here and there are only three types of WD. They dont seem to have the one i need..? or am i wrong?

[rjfvillarosa]

The downloadable file DlgDiag28.zip is a tool that should work on all old WD's like the one you have.
Click on either the caviar 7200 or the protege5400 and then click on the old lifegaurd tool and just below you will see a download button.

[Anglezi]

What should i do after i download-ed it.?..

[rjfvillarosa]

OK now you need to put a formated floppy in the drive and double click the program (do you have winzip?). It will now either unzip itself to an unzipped folder that winzip will create or it may create the boot program and ask you for a destination to write the program to, just point it to the floppy and create a bootable floppy, if it creates the unzipped folder then go to the folder and double click the program again this time sending it to the floppy.
After all this just put the floppy in the machine with the bad hard drive and start/restart the machine, it will boot into DOS and give you a welcome screen that will help you run diagnostics on the drive.

[Anglezi]

Ok i will do that tomorrow coz know my brother is asleep and he`ll be a bit pissed if i woke him up. Thnx so far! :) Much appreciated...

[Vigo]

Indeed, I was only teasing. Sorry if you took it otherwise.

I was asking if you had another hard drive to swap out simply to test the machine with. That would quickly determine whether it is indeed a problem with your hard drive.

[Anglezi]

I`v tryied doing the diagnostic thing but i get this message up

Updating ESCD...
DISK I/O ERROR

Replace Disk then press anykey...

[rjfvillarosa]

Does this happen during the tests? or can you not get the program to start?

[Anglezi]

Guys i have discoverd finally that it`s not my hard-drive actually that has failed but my windows xp pro cd-rom (copied version)...
The other day i tried to install win 98 SE and had no problems what`s so ever.

I`m thinking of buying win xp but went to see the price`s and for proffesional version it was 260 pounds and for home edition it was 170pounds.
Obviously i can`t spend this amount in this software coz a new pc i had a look at was 300 flat screen 80gb hard-drive 512mb ram cant remmeber the rest...

What do you guys think i should do?

[RJ]

If the new PC you had a look at is a brand name system, then it'll come with Windows XP anyway, so you can buy it.
If it's a self-built .. . well, then you can forget it for now, and invest in the OS first.

RJ

[Bob_41]

The computer was purchased in 1999, we better make sure this computer can handle xp, I think the minimum is 333 pentium processor or compatible and even then it is sluggish also xp requires 128 meg of ram to run minus whatever programs you will be running. :)

[rjfvillarosa]

I`m thinking of buying win xp but went to see the price`s and for proffesional version it was 260 pounds and for home edition it was 170pounds.
www.overclockers.co.uk are selling the OEM version of XP Home for a little under £60