System Specs:
Motherboard: ECS nForce 570 SLIT-A v5.1 Motherboard, NVIDIA, Socket 775, Serial ATA
CPU: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0GHz / 2MB Cache / 800 FSB / Socket 775
Hard Disks Used:
Original and Current: Western Digital / Caviar SE 16 / 250GB / 7200 / 16MB / SATA-300
Also Tried:
HITACHI 1TB SERIAL ATA HD 7200/16MB/SATA-3G
Seagate ST31000528AS Barracuda 7200.12 Hard Drive - 1TB, 7200 rpm, 32MB, SATA-3G
Graphics/Video Card: XFX GeForce 8600 GT
RAM: Ultra 1024MB PC4200 DDR2 533MHz Memory x3
Power Supply: Cooler Master / 430-Watt / ATX / SATA Ready
OS: Windows XP, SP2
Background:
A while back, this machine was up and running with no problems until a nasty hijack put it out of commission. It sat untouched for 4 or 5 months until I finally got a new hard drive to reinstall windows on. I decided just to put the new hard drive (Hitachi 1TB) in there and use the old one (Western Digital 250GB) as extra storage on my other (problem-free) machine.
Problem:
I installed Windows as usual, got it up and running, applied some updates (but not SP3), began installing my programs and CRASH. The restart would take forever and it would either a) hang on the Windows XP loading screen (with the running blue bar underneath the logo) or b) give me a Disk read error before it ever got to a windows screen. I reformatted, reinstalled Windows, and the exact same thing happened again.
Thinking it must be a bad drive, I got an RMA for the drive, returned it, and tried a different brand (Seagate 1TB). I went through the process and the EXACT problem happened again. I reformatted, reinstalled AGAIN the same. Convinced that it must be some other error, I thought the machine simply couldn't do these bigger drives so I put the 1TB in my working machine, tested it, and it came out fine. I then decided to restore the old, working, 250GB (WD) drive back into its original machine and start fresh with the drive that worked so well several months ago.
As you can probably guess, all of the same problems happened again. The exact same drive in the exact same system that worked a few months ago (and only went down because of the hijack) will not work now. I should mention that with the Seagate and with the current drive, the WD, during the Formatting part of the Windows installation process, the bar filled rapidly and said that the disc was damaged - but I know they are both fully functional. Also, with this most recent install attempt, I encountered some blue screens and one time had a Disk boot failure Insert system disc error at start-up instead of the Disk Read Error, Alt+Control+Delete to restart error from before.
What I've Tried:
Repair installation from Recovery Console. It got me into windows, but simple programs were corrupt because C:/$Mft is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the Chkdsk utility. I've got a full, thorough Chkdsk running right now, but I am not hopeful this will fix it outright. From what I have read, repairing the installation is often a temporary fix.
I am at wit's end. This is the first computer problem (hijacks aside) that I have not been able to fix myself via research. Thanks for reading!
Motherboard: ECS nForce 570 SLIT-A v5.1 Motherboard, NVIDIA, Socket 775, Serial ATA
CPU: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0GHz / 2MB Cache / 800 FSB / Socket 775
Hard Disks Used:
Original and Current: Western Digital / Caviar SE 16 / 250GB / 7200 / 16MB / SATA-300
Also Tried:
HITACHI 1TB SERIAL ATA HD 7200/16MB/SATA-3G
Seagate ST31000528AS Barracuda 7200.12 Hard Drive - 1TB, 7200 rpm, 32MB, SATA-3G
Graphics/Video Card: XFX GeForce 8600 GT
RAM: Ultra 1024MB PC4200 DDR2 533MHz Memory x3
Power Supply: Cooler Master / 430-Watt / ATX / SATA Ready
OS: Windows XP, SP2
Background:
A while back, this machine was up and running with no problems until a nasty hijack put it out of commission. It sat untouched for 4 or 5 months until I finally got a new hard drive to reinstall windows on. I decided just to put the new hard drive (Hitachi 1TB) in there and use the old one (Western Digital 250GB) as extra storage on my other (problem-free) machine.
Problem:
I installed Windows as usual, got it up and running, applied some updates (but not SP3), began installing my programs and CRASH. The restart would take forever and it would either a) hang on the Windows XP loading screen (with the running blue bar underneath the logo) or b) give me a Disk read error before it ever got to a windows screen. I reformatted, reinstalled Windows, and the exact same thing happened again.
Thinking it must be a bad drive, I got an RMA for the drive, returned it, and tried a different brand (Seagate 1TB). I went through the process and the EXACT problem happened again. I reformatted, reinstalled AGAIN the same. Convinced that it must be some other error, I thought the machine simply couldn't do these bigger drives so I put the 1TB in my working machine, tested it, and it came out fine. I then decided to restore the old, working, 250GB (WD) drive back into its original machine and start fresh with the drive that worked so well several months ago.
As you can probably guess, all of the same problems happened again. The exact same drive in the exact same system that worked a few months ago (and only went down because of the hijack) will not work now. I should mention that with the Seagate and with the current drive, the WD, during the Formatting part of the Windows installation process, the bar filled rapidly and said that the disc was damaged - but I know they are both fully functional. Also, with this most recent install attempt, I encountered some blue screens and one time had a Disk boot failure Insert system disc error at start-up instead of the Disk Read Error, Alt+Control+Delete to restart error from before.
What I've Tried:
Repair installation from Recovery Console. It got me into windows, but simple programs were corrupt because C:/$Mft is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the Chkdsk utility. I've got a full, thorough Chkdsk running right now, but I am not hopeful this will fix it outright. From what I have read, repairing the installation is often a temporary fix.
I am at wit's end. This is the first computer problem (hijacks aside) that I have not been able to fix myself via research. Thanks for reading!