Black screen after post! Help.

[arasan]

Hi I have a HP a630n with 500g HD. I got it from a friend of mine for my son without a HD.
I purchased a wd 500g Hd. partitioned it 100G+400G. Installed xp pro sp3, MS office, Bit defender 2009. Everygthing was fine for a while and my bit defender expired and did not want to renew, so I chose Mc Afee offered free from comcast. After couple of days pc boots up and hangs at the login screen. Contacted HP and followed their tech by going back to "last know config" booted fine then next day when turned on after the xp screen just black screen nothing else.

After several failed attempt I formatted the remaining 400g partition and installed xp again. installed fine. Now I have 2 xp os install. The first partition still doesnt work. can I copy the entire drive(c partition to my new install since that old partion had some files that I need?
Also I have office xp on there can I transfer to the new partition without the cd install?
can the 1st partition be rescued? What is the cause of black screen? If I delete the Bit defender and Mc Afee folder, will it be removed? I installed a pc tools firewall plus. Have not yet connected to the internet yet. Is this firewall good?
have 1gb of ram.
Any help, suggestions appreciated. Thanks

[glc]

The best thing to do is pull the drive and use a USB adapter to rescue your files to another PC, then wipe the drive (zero fill) and start over. EVERYTHING will have to be reinstalled.

Stay away from McAfee - use one of the "big 3" free antivirus packages - AVG, Avast, or Avira. If you have a router, the XP firewall is adequate. The more stuff you install, the more likely you will have problems. All I use is one of those 3 packages, and Malwarebytes as a manual scanner.

[arasan]

Thanks GLC.
I have few more questions:
Is there a problem having two OS in the same physical drive but on different partition? I can see my old(1st) partition as C: and the new partition as J:

How do i make it skip the c: and boot directly from J:

Can't I just delete the mcafee and bitdefender and other suspects and see if C drive is bootable!
I guess what I am trying to find is what caused the crash so I'll have better understanding next time, instead of reformatting the drive evrytime when there is a problem.

If those steps doesnt work how can I wipe clean just the c: drive. step by step.

I am going the uninstall pc tools plus and go with avast.
Thanks for your help.

[arasan]

oh one more thing. Is avira anti virus or firewall? I just uninstalled the pc tools plus and I want to put a antivirus and a firewall. what about comodo internet security? if you can comment on that, thanks.

[glc]

XP has a builtin firewall - with that and a router you are okay.

Wipe the ENTIRE DRIVE with a zero fill utility (you can download utility software from WD that has a zero fill utility) after rescuing your files. Trying to work around that will cause you continuing headaches. Isn't it better fixing it RIGHT before you have more time invested in it, and a lot more files that need to be preserved?

[arasan]

Thanks. Can you tell me where i can get the zero fill utility? WD is that Western Digital hard drive maker?
Does this program includes step or can I find these steps in the forum here?
Thanks again.

[glc]

http://support.wdc.com/product/downl...sid=30&lang=en

"Write zeros to drive"

[fwallis]

Hi GLC,

I just wanted to know that is this site used for removing partitions on your hard drive making
it blank?

[glc]

That is the site to download Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics. One of its modules is "write zeros to drive" which strips EVERYTHING, putting the drive back to "as manufactured" condition. It only works with Western Digital drives, other manufacturers have similar utilities, or you can use a generic program such as Active Killdisk or Darik's Boot and Nuke.

[arasan]

Hi, I am back again. Now i am deeper hole than before. I went thru the above steps. Zero'd the drive twice. Still cannot install win xp pro. Took me two days. Formatting and zeroing the drive partitioning and deleting and reformating back and forth. I am not sure what step I am missing. Finally i made partition drive(50+450) and formatted just the 50g for time sake and try install, but "Error loading operating system" What is going on?
Again I zero the drive using quick method and tried install the xp with different disc I dont know where I got the disc from I found them in my cd pile. But this time it says do you want format and there is already a os installed and its not recommended to install two os intall on the same partition and gave me a option to format the 50g partition and it says set up unable to format the partition. The disk may be damaged....... you must select a different partition. WD tool says my drive is fine. It took me the whole night went to bed 7am, family is not happy i spent the entire day in front of the pc. back at it 2pm and now I have to go to work. Looking for help to solve this nightmare!

[glc]

Your optical drive may be dirty or failing. Your CD's may be dirty or scratched.

Go to hp.com and see if you can order a set of recovery CD's for that model.

[arasan]

Thanks. I will clean the cd drives. I went to hp site recov. disc are no longer avail. for this model. Did a google found couple places that has the discs for $29. Can they be trusted? because one site had iso downlaod image somewhere in uk for $149.00 huge price difference. I know hp charges $19 if available.
thanks.

The sites are
http://www.restoredisks.com/finddisk.asp?mode=opsys

http://www.computersurgeons.com/Sear...esults#Results

[glc]

Get them from Computer Surgeons.

Sales Policy 1) All customer are encouraged to call the call center for technical service if you experience any difficulty performing the recovery. If you are unable to perform the recovery process, ALL customers are permitted to ship the computer to the Recovery Center for a technician to perform the recovery on the computer. This is a free service offered to all customers. There will be a shipping label included in your recovery kit, with ship to address, instructions, etc. for utilizing this free service.

[rwest]

You can try cleaning your cd/dvds this way:
The best method I have used repeatedly, is to soak them in nothing but boiling distilled water for apx. one mimute. Gently wipe dry with a soft cloth going from center to outside edge.

Onced cleaned, a very light coat of hard shell turtle wax will not only help protect your disk, but will also help with the refraction of light(makes the disk easier to be read).

I have successfully used this method to repair multiple disks that were failing. i have about a 85-90% success rate.

The hot boiling water does not damage the disks, it just cleans 'em. The disks are made at a higher temperature than what water boils at.

Distilled water has nothing in it to leave behind.

[glc]

I've had REAL good results using Meguiars PlastX for cleaning and polishing CD's and DVD's.

[arasan]

HI, just came home from work. its 3 am in the morning. This is the first thing I looked at. so you know how much this thing is bugging me. Thanks for the advice I will try the "surgeons" and the cleaning tips.

I will order the restore disk and post the results back when I am done. If nothing works I get another small cheaper HD and try again.

good night(morning!)