PC No Longer Recognises C: And Will Not Boot Up

[zenjem]

Hi all, first post and I hope it's one that some of you will recognise - it's got me stumped.

I tried to connect a projector to my PC because my monitor was in the process of dying. I booted up the PC, but got no display on the projector. I don't actually recall pressing any keys on my keyboard, and I disconnected the projector and reconnected my monitor, expecting to see the usual logon screen.

However, the screen was black, with the following writing:

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
C:\Windows\System32\Config\System

You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original Setup CD-ROM.
Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair."

Now, I've seen this message before, and with help from Microsoft TechNet I've repaired the problem by copying across the copy of the System file from the Repair folder, using this article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/

However, on this occasion, I couldn't copy the file - I was being told "Access Denied".

After a while, I did a "dir" on the C: drive, and noticed that the directories that came up were actually those on my external Seagate drive, which was normally my G: drive.

For some strange reason, my PC now believed that my external hard drive (G was my system drive with my beloved (and much needed) operating system on.

So what did it now think my internal hard drive was? I checked all the other drive letters, and my internal hard drive has completely vanished.

My internal hard drive is a SATA drive - I opened up the PC and made sure everything was seated correctly, closed it up, connected everything back in and powered up again - still the same result.

So I thought that was that, I've lost my files, I will have to reinstall the operating system, and I booted from my Windows XP CD-Rom, and yes, you've guessed it...

When I came to delete the existing partition, the Windows Setup process could not see it. According to Windows Setup, there is no hard drive present in the PC.

Two hours ago it was working fine, and now, apparently, there is no hard drive in my PC. Except, of course, there is one there. My PC just cannot see it.

I have no experience of SATA drives or their associated issues. I'm praying that one of you fine people will recognise this issue and tell me exactly what I need to do to retrieve my poor old C: drive and all his files and folders...

Thanks in advance,
Michael.

[liambl]

Is the internal Seagate drive showing up in the BIOS?

[Khalil]

More than likely your HDD is dead. If it is not showing up in the Bios I would RMA it if it is still under warranty. Use this link to see if it is still under warranty http://support.seagate.com/customer/...validation.jsp
If it is still showing up in Bios I would recommend running the Seagate diagnostic software on it.
If the diagnostics software cannot detect it then it is dead for sure and probably not spinning at all.
Hopefuly all your important data was backed up.

[zenjem]

Thanks for the advice guys.

The Seagate 320GB is the external drive.

The 160GB SATA is the internal drive. I powered up the PC and went in to Setup, and the 160GB internal drive is showing up there.

I rebooted and went into the Boot Menu, and ran the diagnostics on the internal hard drive, and the result was: Pass.

So the internal drive is possibly healthy...

But the PC still seems to be thinking the the external Seagate (formerly G is the C: drive...

Maybe it's a question of drive letter assignment, but I'm totally in the dark now...

[Deleriumce]

Just power off the external drive and start the pc without it. I think It'll do the trick

[zenjem]

Cheers - I've already tried that (sorry, I should have mentioned that ).

The PC is still not recognising my C: drive as the C: drive (or as the drive with the O/S on it).

I'm wondering whether I can take a drive from another PC, put it into this one, boot up with that drive (using the drive I'm having problems with as a slave), then reassign the correct drive, and then put the other hard drive back in the other PC....

[liambl]

You "could" take the HDD out of another PC, but you would have to spend some time removing the drivers for the PC it is in, then you would have to contest with Microsoft's Windows activation. I think it is more complicated than just drive letter, perhaps get hold of a Windows disc and try to repair. To do this select install, not repair using recovery conole. Then it will detect if there are any OS's that are damaged. It might show up there and you should be able to repair it.

[Deleriumce]

If you can boot windows from cd than perhaps new clean instalation will do the trick. Otherwise try to find your hard in bios and tweak some settings there see If you can fix it. Also try restoring bios to default settings sometimes this does the trick.

[zenjem]

Cheers guys.

I have tried to reinstall from the windows XP CD-Rom, but unfortunately when you get to the stage where you create/delete partitions, there is no hard drive recognised in the PC, so there is nowhere for me to reinstall the OS - bizarre eh?

Actually, I could re-attach the external hard drive and maybe install the O/S on there - mind you, it would probably still not recognise the internal hard drive - but it's something I could try.

First off, I will try Del's suggestion of resetting the BIOS to default settings.

I also have a zip file coming to me from a pal, which will allow me to create a bootable disk with some utilities on, so I will try that too and post my results.

Thanks for your time all

[zenjem]

Originally Posted by Deleriumce Also try restoring bios to default settings sometimes this does the trick.

I thought that was a great idea, Del... I noticed some encouraging changes straight away - but sadly, eventually, I was greeted with the same error message...

[zenjem]

Well my hare-brained idea of re-connecting the external Seagate drive and installing the O/S on that drive has failed, as it was unable to install an O/S on that type of drive (this was probably reasonably predictable but I thought I'd give it a go anyway, hehe...).

So now I'm back to square one...

[Deleriumce]

Do you have raid drive installed for the drive? If not see your motherboard number and download it from internet or look up in the motherboard driver cd if you have it for sata raid disc function. Put that on floppy and when you start installing windows press F6 when promped. Maybe this'll do the trick. If not try and see what's under integrated peripherals in the bios and you can post some of the options here so I can try to help you.