Cannot boot to windows Hard drive failure?

[jdbaker82]

Ok this computer is about 1 year old and I have noticed that the hard drive would make some weird grinding and clicking noises at time's and sometimes the computer would just shut down out of no where. I went to turn it on today and I got a message that said C:/WINNT/????? (I forgot exactly) cannot be found or is corrupted. I then restarted and held F8 to try and revert to Last Known Good config and it still would not boot with the same message. I then used the Windows CD to boot to the recovery console and the C:/WINNT drive did appear as #1 and I tried to run CHKDSK /p and it only got 25% through when it said it could not complete because there is errors or corruption on the drive. Now everytime I start the computer it gives me a message saying there is a problem with the Hard Drive please contact Gateway troubleshooting guide, and I can no longer even boot with F8 as a message appears saying "Disk read error". I get the impression the Hard drive may be toast but what is the best way for me to verify this besides booting to the Windows CD and reformatting. I was able to boot to BIOS and everything looked fine there from what I could tell.

[nanosani]

Use chkdsk /f instead of /p and then check it again.

[jdbaker82]

Use chkdsk /f instead of /p and then check it again.

When I tried CHKDSK /f it is an invalid command, so I tried CHKDSK /r and it finished 25% and failed to go any further.

So now when I boot I am getting "A Problem with the Hard drive has been detected" followed by "A disk read error occured", and I noticed that one time right about "A disk read error occured" it said CDBOOT: Couldnt find NTLDR.

I booted into BIOS and checked the IDE config:
SATA Port 0 WDCWD1600xxxxx
SATA Port 1 Not Detected
PATA Pim Master Not detected
PATA Prim Slave Not detected

So now it appears the HD may be fine but the OS is corrupt, and needs a reformatt?

Is anyone familiar with the console and possible commands I may be able to fix this with?

Also I am wondering why I can no longer hold f8 to get to the menu that let's you boot to Last known good and safe mode etc..

[nanosani]

Boot from cd rom and when it says Install new windows press enter and then press r for automated repair ... if there's a problem with windows startup it'll repair by itself.

[jdbaker82]

Boot from cd rom and when it says Install new windows press enter and then press r for automated repair ... if there's a problem with windows startup it'll repair by itself.

I didnt see an option to repair except for the recovery console? When does it give me an option to repair, when I go to install it just gives the option to partition etc..?

[kc0arf]

Hello,

If I were you, I would boot to the CD and re-partition the drive, and re-install cleanly. If you have data on that disk that you need, you will need heroic measures to get it off safely.

Christian

[jdbaker82]

That's what I was afraid of, but if the hard drive is still good couldnt I just connect it to another computer as a secondary hard drive and retrieve data that way?, and then reformat/partition and clean install?

[nanosani]

That's what I was afraid of, but if the hard drive is still good couldnt I just connect it to another computer as a secondary hard drive and retrieve data that way?, and then reformat/partition and clean install?

Yes you can do it this way ... and your windows will be cleaner than ever :D.

Or booting from cd .... when the option comes:

Install windows
Repair windows through Recovery console
Quit setup

Choose the first option (press enter)

Now it'll search for previous versions of windows and if found it'll give you an option to repair it or to install a new copy ....

You'll choose the first option to repair it (by pressing r) ... it'll automatically repair windows startup n bla bla.

[kc0arf]

Hello,

You did not mention any data that had to be recovered.

Might want to develop a backup strategy so that you would not have to worry the next time this happens.

Good luck with it.

Christian