unmountable boot drive

[mrhowdeedoo]

Hey Guys,

My desktop (see sig for specs) crashed and showed the blue screen (of death). I've had this before, so I simply restarted (the previous times were simply a misinstalled usb mouse), but every time I restart, it crashes, and I'm back where I started. The main difference between this screen and the previous screens, is that it says "Unmountable Boot drive". If you need more information I can type out all the info or take a picture.

Thanks,
--mrhowdeedoo

[rjfvillarosa]

Time for some harddrive diagnostics, what make and model of harddrive is it?

[mrhowdeedoo]

I really have no idea.

Is there a way to find out, since I can't boot up?

[glc]

Open the case and look at it.............

[mrhowdeedoo]

I looked at it, and there was nothing serious that my uneducated eye could see. No holes or burn spots on the hard drive.

Any more ideas?

[rjfvillarosa]

glc was suggesting you look at it to see what make and model it is.

[mrhowdeedoo]

Oh, gosh. Alright, thanks.

I looked at it again, and it's a "Barracuda ATA IV, Model St380021A"

Hope that helps.

[LeftyAce]

Download and run seatools, seagate's diagnostic program which can be obtained from their website. It runs off a bootable cd.

[hartken]

I would boot with an XP disk, see if it detects the hard drive, and then do a repair install. It will just repair the Windows files, and you won't even have to reinstall your programs. Have you ever done one before?

[mrhowdeedoo]

I'll do the seatools and see how that goes.

If that doesn't work, I'll try using the xp disk. One q about that, though. What function key do you hit to bring up the boot menu? F11, isn't it?

--mrhowdeedoo

[darkside]

i belive it deppends on your mobo/bios what button it is to bring up the boot menu so google it to fn out, or you could just press each button and see what happens

[LeftyAce]

The key depends on the bios, sometimes it's delete, or one of the F keys. The bios screen should tell you which one.

I would discourage a repair install until you're sure the drive is physically in good shape. If seatools detects a physical problem with the HDD, back up your data and get a replacement drive.

[mrhowdeedoo]

Alright, how would I make a boot cd from the seatools download?

I'm on a mac, burning it for my pc. Will this complicate things?

[Alaron]

Download the file named "ISO CDROM Image". Then when you burn the disc, make sure the disk type is "bootable" , "Image" or "ISO". Using a Mac to create the disc should not be a problem.

[mrhowdeedoo]

Ok, I'm going to sound like a complete noob, but on the 'setup' menu, how would I press "next"? I've tried enter, obviously the mouse doesn't work, neither does ctrl or arrow keys...pretty much anything else.

--mrhowdeedoo

[glc]

What setup menu?

[mrhowdeedoo]

When I booted into seatools off the cd, it brought up a progress bar. When it finished (came to 100%)

My cameras being repaired, so I had to take a picture with my webcam.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/Mr.Howdeedoo/Photo52.jpg

Maybe if you hold it up to a mirror, you'll be able to read it.

I'd like to hit the next button at the bottom.

--mrhowdeedoo

[LeftyAce]

Try pressing alt + n, or simply pressing the spacebar... this is odd, the seatools disc I have is all text based: "make a selection from 1 to 5", etc.

[glc]

Use a PS/2 keyboard.

[mrhowdeedoo]

Alright, I got a ps/2 keyboard and that works. Now I'm at a little more complicated menu and I need to checkmark the drive to run diagnostics on. Is there a keyboard short cut? Both my usb mouse and my ps/2 mouse do not work with this.

Thanks,
--mrhowdeedoo

[LeftyAce]

Using the tab key, you should be able to move focus around the window (ie by hitting tab, different buttons and check boxes will get a dotted line around them.) When you've tabbed onto the check box you want to check, hit the spacebar, and a check mark should appear. Then tab over to the "next" button or whatever is next ,and hit space to press it.

[mrhowdeedoo]

Alright, thanks for your help guys, I getting there one step at a time.

Now when I select the drives, and click 'run diagnostic' or whatever it's called, I'm not by that computer right now, it goes to the next menu, but then freezes. I've restarted twice, but the same thing happens.

--mrhowdeedoo

[glc]

Try running a ram tester.

www.memtest.org

[mrhowdeedoo]

Ok, running the test...

[mrhowdeedoo]

I'm still running the test, but it's been going for 50+ hours, should I let it keep going, or what? It's finding any 'errors'.

--mrhowdeedoo

[glc]

It runs till you quit - several passes with no errors is fine.

[mrhowdeedoo]

Oh, ok.

There hasn't been any errors. What next?

[glc]

You are saying that the ram tests good, but you can't get SeaTools to run without locking up?

Boot with the XP CD, use the repair console to run chkdsk /r on the drive.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

[mrhowdeedoo]

Ok, I've tried that. I booted with the xp cd, but all it does is load all the files, then start windows, which leads to the blue screen. I restarted, but now nothing will even show up on the monitor.

Thanks,
--mrhowdeedoo

[glc]

You are now looking at a core hardware failure.

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=168456