Boot sector keeps failing.
 

I browse around here sometimes and think you folks are terrific. But I have to ask if maybe someone can help me on this. :confused:

This is the 3rd time this has happened on 2 different drives.

I just bought a Western Digital 250gb in December, used it almost 2 months to the day and suddenly it wouldn't boot. The Win XP installation disk seemed like it was repairing the installation, and could see the drive, but after a number of attempts, I just reformatted it, and put all the software back on it. It worked perfectly for 2 months before it went down again.

At that point it went back to WD for a replacement. I formatted the replacment drive, put all my stuff back on it, and was just thinking last night, that it's been about two months although I haven't used that PC nearly as much lately.

Wouldn't you know it. This morning exactly the same thing. It's down again, Windows can't repair it, and I am looking at another reformat and reinstalling all the files.

I don't know why #2 has now failed, and does anyone have an idea as to how I might get that boot sector straightened out so I won't have to obliterate the files again? The XP installation disk sees the sub-dirs, and files, fixboot doesn't help.

Thanks,

ATF :)

Re: Boot sector keeps failing.
 

Try this for the solutions:
http://www.techbuilder.org/views/sho...o=1&queryText=

as for why it keeps happening, check the power connections, etc. Surges (either from the wall outlet or from a faulty power source) will wreak havoc on your HD.

good luck

Re: Boot sector keeps failing.
 

Thanks!

The article outlines the basic steps I had gone throught to try to repair the installation, and of course when that failed, to go back and reinstall it each time. The author did mention something that might be helpful;

http://www.informationweek.com/showA...leID=185301251

But I don't know if that covers the whole scope of the problem. There is one other factor for a cause, but doesn't seem to occur immediately before the crash each time. An A3**.sys wireless driver from D-link ocassionally locks up the PC with a blue screen, (shuts Windows down to avoid damage message, etc.), requiring a cold start. That appears either as the drive is filling up, or when the PC is sending or receiving a lot of data over the network.

Another factor is that this is an older PC certified for 98', upgraded to Me, and then Win XP.

So I still can't be postive about the cause, but the complete reinstall will get everything working again.

Re: Boot sector keeps failing.
 

It appears to be a problem with the driver for the Dlink wireless card, and a conflict with this Win 98 PC now running XP. There were enough incidents of blue screen death, but the last time I reformated I did not install the driver. This has been very inconvenient as this big HD in that PC was for backups of my other 2.

However it's now overdue for the boot to fail, and there have been no blue screen lockups.
ATF

Re: Boot sector keeps failing.
 

Still a repeating problem with the replacement WD drive.

Error message that hal.dll isn't found, and more recently that ntsc.sys isn't found.

Chkdsk /p from Windows installation repair console shows a problem with one or more sectors. Chkdsk /f seems to get about 72% finished and then hang.

This problem has been fairly regular and consistent every few months all this year.

Thanks

Re: Boot sector keeps failing.
 

Have you ran some memory tests? If different hard drives are having problems in the same machine, then it's not the hard drives.

There's really no easy way to check the motherboard, so if it was me who was having the problems, I would check the memory next. If the memory comes out fine and the problems still occur, it might be time to scrap the motherboard.

Re: Boot sector keeps failing.
 

Just a passing thought: you aren't using Norton GoBack, are you?

Re: Boot sector keeps failing.
 

Sorry, I apologize. I thought I was set up to get email notifications on any replies to my thread, so thus my lack of a response until now.


I did not run mem. tests as I left this a barebones system, anticipating another drive failure. I assumed running mem. tests would mean the system booted normally and therefore might not show a problem with mem. I wanted to use this system on a wireless system to back up my vast CD collection, (I leave them in the car and on my porch, but keep the originals safe).


One of the last things I did was install my old, 05'? Norton Systemworks before I started having problems again.


Western Digital sent me a 300gb in lieu of the 250gb I returned to them. It formatted, and I walked out of the room at 97% done, came back a few minutes later at looked at a black screen telling me system wasn't found or something like that. Tried to reboot the XP Pro installation disk with no better results, so couldn't reformat it again.
WD replaced that drive with another 300gb. I just booted the Win XP CD, started a format, saw it was for drive "F:", rebooted and formatted it at "C:" this time. I forgot to delte the partition, so watched. At 100% a message came on screen telling me the drive won't take a format and might be damaged. It allowed me to restart the format, I deleted the partition this time and restarted the format. Hoping for the best right now.


This PC is of Win 98' vintage, worked for a time with the 250gb before regularly scheduled failures.

Re: Boot sector keeps failing.
 

Thhis time the XP format finished, and XP copied out files to the HD.

It won't boot the XP installation CD, removing the CD states, there is a read error. So, I am stuck again. The last thing setup says is checking the system configuration if I choose to boot off the CD.

I'm staring at a blank black screen.

Re: Boot sector keeps failing.
 

You should check your BIOS settings for the HD. Make sure it's set on LBA. In the on-board chip settings turn off all the enhancements and set data transfer on PIO. Also check the jumper settings on the HD. Especially ones referring to no. of cylinders/heads/sector to see if different settings are required for your IDE controller.

Also disable the "Quick POST". It will make your BIOS to do more checks of things when it powers up.

Some BIOS-es have low level formatting utility. If you have one, use it to format the drive. It will also report any bad sectors (I doubt there would be any on the new drive)