ERD Commander and Boot Discs *SOLVED*

[hech54]

.....this old Dell "Can't find drive 0, Drive 1"....etc etc.
I was even able to install CCleaner from a USB stick to the drive via ERD and run SuperAntiSpyware Portable. Everything (Windows XP) appears to be intact on the drive....but this old Dell Dimension 3100 cannot find the drive. Its Seagate 160GB SATA drive. I can't be certain that the Windows install is "legit" because the woman's son who buggered this computer is being very vague as to what started the problem....but it does have a Microsoft sticker on the computer.
She says her son "updated a virus program" on the computer when the problems began. That fake antivirus program VIRUS"....who knows. I do see two AV programs in the PROGRAMS folder (also bad news I know).

I've been in the Bios or Boot Drive List(forget the exact terminology), turned drives ON....turned drives OFF...nothing....it still cannot find the drive.

My next thing to try would be to clone the drive and transfer it to a spare 100GB drive I have laying around....unless you guys can think of something else to try first. I've done almost everything that I've read about via Google searches(pulling the MB battery, disconnecting ALL drives leaving only the Seagate, etc etc etc...same problem.

Any suggestions from you smart people before I transfer the drive and probably waste more time?

[nic2k4]

Not sure I follow you, a little skimpy on details "... ect ect". It might well be that the problem is not with the hard drive. Usually IDE controllers get enumerated first, so drive 0 and 1 should refer to IDE drives.

Are there any IDE CD/DVD drives in there? Do they have power, is the ribbon cable plugged in the right way? If there are 2 drives, was the order changed on the IDE cable? If there's only 1 drive it should be at the end of the cable. Also, check the master/slave jumper setting, if it's on CS leave it.

[hech54]

Yes...there is a Philips DVD writer (IDE), a built-in card reader(cable looks proprietary to me...not familiar) and another proprietary looking cable for the front USB ports.
The optical drive is on CS.

[budz]

try changing the Philips dvd burner jumper to master and use another ide cable. that Philips drive is prolly a Benq rebadged drive. use another sata cable as well on the seagate 160gb sata hd.

[hech54]

try changing the Philips dvd burner jumper to master and use another ide cable. that Philips drive is prolly a Benq rebadged drive.

Slight difference. New cable, changed jumper....that only gave me a slightly longer amount of time before the "drive(s) not found" error.

use another sata cable as well on the seagate 160gb sata hd.

Tried that yesterday...no change.

[hech54]

Also updated the MBR on the drive....no change.
Also did several searches for corrupt files on the Seagate via Hiram's Boot CD(forget exactly which programs)...nothing found.

I'm not even certain that Windows on that drive isn't completely boogered. ERD Commander found the Windows XP install on the drive easily.

[hech54]

Here is the initial scan with Seagate SeaTools:


Results from Seagate Seatools(top of the screen)


Results from Seagate Seatools(bottom of the screen)

[Nelson37]

IIRC, that unit will have two seperate SATA controllers, with seperate on/off controls in the BIOS. If there is a drive on SATA1, and no drive on SATA 2, and both controllers are on, then you will get a "drive not found" error for SATA 2. It should then continue to boot, assuming the drive on SATA 1 is, in fact, bootable. You have to press F1 or F2 "to continue".

So, how many controllers are on and how many are showing errors? What EXACTLY do you see after geting the error and continuing?

If you can see the drive from a Boot CD, then the drive is recognized in BIOS or you would see nothing at all. Done deal there. However, if the drive is not bootable then some other error should occur, such as "no boot device available". It may take several minutes for this error to appear.

Disconnect ALL drives and disable ALL controllers except the one needed. Try ALL the sata controllers in BIOS, one by one. There may be some optional SATA/PATA modes wherein only one or the other connection type works.

Considering the source, I would delete all partitions, create one, and format with a Dell windows CD.

[hech54]

What EXACTLY do you see after geting the error and continuing?

I'm seeing the black window that asks me to chose SAFE mode(various flavors) or continue with normal Windows.....then it goes to an endless loop over and over - "drive ? not found" press F1.....etc etc.

I'll have to make a video of what it does. I only have basic terminology of this stuff. My computers never seem to get mucked like this.

THANK YOU for the tips. Hopefully I can post a video tomorrow. I already made a video of the super-fast-scrolling DOS-type writing that I can sometimes see during the process.....so I can slow it down to find out what it's looking for or missing.

[aedipuss]

is it the dell bios that can't find the boot drive or windows? sounds like windows. if so use a windows xp boot floppy to bypass the mbr and get it started. if that doesn't work you may need to boot a windows xp cd and repair the mbr - fixmbr from the recovery console. there may be other damage as well. this is a pretty good list to work down to try and fix it.

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6031733.html

[hech54]

is it the dell bios that can't find the boot drive or windows? sounds like windows. if so use a windows xp boot floppy to bypass the mbr and get it started. if that doesn't work you may need to boot a windows xp cd and repair the mbr - fixmbr from the recovery console. there may be other damage as well. this is a pretty good list to work down to try and fix it.

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6031733.html

THANK YOU for that link. That is one of the easiest to understand I've seen for us DUMMIES.
I just now reset the computer back to factory settings and ran a hard drive test. The test found
the drive, listed the serial number of the drive and thought all was going to be well....WELL it's still not.
I'm no longer seeing the "Drive ? Not Found" error but I'm still stuck in an endless loop here.

I'm going to use my XP Pro install CD to try to fix, repair the O/S as described in the link above.
The woman who owns this computer doesn't have the money to buy a new one or even buy
XP again. She cannot find the original discs either...of course.

[Nelson37]

Once you get that safe mode message the BIOS is out of the picture, you are beginning to load Windows, the drive is recognized and being read.

Since it is most likely severely screwed up and/or infected anyway, wipe it clean and re-format. Remove ALL partitions during this process. The partition structure could have caused your problem.

Almost any Dell XP install disk will work, as long as the appropriate sticker is on the box this is perfectly legal. Using a standard XP disk is also feasible but there may be some hassle getting MS to authorize it.

Now, carefully observe this loop. Sounds like it starts to boot, hits a bad file, reboots and starts all over. Note the FIRST things you see after power up, I'll betcha they repeat, I'd also bet that after choosing safe mode, you see a bunch of stuff scroll across the screen, last letters on the far right are "mup.sys", then you hear a single beep, and see startup bios messages again.

Unless there is data on this drive that you need, wipe it and start all over.

[nic2k4]

I looked at your pictures, first I think your photobucket account has been hijacked, after visiting it I had a bunch of new windows opening on their own. I stopped at 42; had to shut the PC. You can fix that by deleting your account ad re-creating it with a new, better password.

About your seatool scan, it shows the problem is with the file system on the drive. Did you get into the recovery console and do FIXBOOT C: and FIXMBR? If you did, after that you can use CHKDSK C: to fix the drive, do the same for other drive letters. As for tip #10 don't do that one, it will repair Windows allright, but everything will be gone. Instead hit ESC, setup will tell you to install to a new folder, don't. Install in the old folder and there will be another option to repair Windows. This one keeps all your programs.

[TBoneit]

Any Dell XP disc will work on that Dell. IOWs a Dell XP disc, home or Pro, looks into the bios, Finds that it is a Dell and installs already activated. No product key needed. Is it a XP Key on the side? You don't want to use the wrong version to repair and you want to use the computers key if you are using a generic OEM disc. If your is retail then I suggest don't do it unless you are willing to give here your disc and license.

[hech54]

I looked at your pictures, first I think your photobucket account has been hijacked, after visiting it I had a bunch of new windows opening on their own. I stopped at 42; had to shut the PC. You can fix that by deleting your account ad re-creating it with a new, better password.

Thank you for the PC advice but your are COMPLETELY wrong on the photobucket account. My password is VERY unique and it loads completely normal for me as it has done since I created the account.

[nic2k4]

Thank you for the PC advice but your are COMPLETELY wrong on the photobucket account. My password is VERY unique and it loads completely normal for me as it has done since I created the account.

May very well be, just strange I had 42 new windows open when I closed the photobucket one. That's not the only thing I got wrong, disregard what I said about tip #10. I mis-read the first time, that's what you want to do to fix Windows. You wont even need to re-enter the key.

[aedipuss]

your photobuckets pics and the site work fine here, no popups.

you didn't say but are there 2 hard drives as listed in the pics? what does the bios list if you boot into it?

i'd guess this is an older p4, does it have rambus memory or ddr1? i'd check the capacitors carefully. you need to move the air shroud away from the cpu to see the capacitors behind the cpu. they are the ones that usually leak.

[hech54]

you didn't say but are there 2 hard drives as listed in the pics? what does the bios list if you boot into it?

The PC has only one HDD. I noticed the two HDDs showing up on that screen as well. I chalked it up to my lack of knowledge on partitions and such.

[hech54]

THANK YOU ALL for your advise....GREATLY appreciated.
I decided that this Windows install was too "hosed" to worry about.
Reinstalled Windows and now installing SP3 (and more) as we speak.
And the reinstall hasn't asked for any kind of license info yet...so far so good.