Serious Problems with Photo HDD

[dsze]

About a year ago, I installed several new HD's. One for websites, one for video and one big one just for photographs. Recently, my computer has gone into a reboot loop and won't start up....unless I unplug the SATA 120GB photo HD....with this unplugged, the comp. runs fine....as soon as I plug it back in though, it goes back into the reboot loop.... HELP! My photos are on this drive! I don't know what could have changed. The only thing I can think of is that I did a defrag on the photo HD the night before this started happening...

thanks,
daniel

[pcasciola]

First thing I would do is stop trying to connect that drive, and get your hands on one of those external USB hard drive cases for $30, that way you can boot the machine and then hot plug the drive to see if you can still get at the data.

Good luck.

[MageProductions.com]

Have you tried starting the machine in safe mode? (just keep hitting F-8 as the boot process begins). If you can get it to boot, right-click on the drive (from windoze explorer or "my computer") go to properties, then tools, and check the drive.

Failing that, a disk utility (I use PQ MAGIC. Norton works, as well) is in order. They come with a bootable CD or you can make bootable floppys. After booting DOS, use the uitilty to check the drive.

It's likely your drive can be saved. There are two "fats" (file allocation tables). One of them has error(s). The disk utility (in windoze, or third-party) will use the good one to repair the other.

YOU NEED TO BACK YOUR IMPORTANT FILES UP.

[dsze]

My important files are backed up, but there are recent photos my kids (everyday) that I don't backup everyday... the system will boot from the OS drive, but when I plug in the SATA (photo) drive it crashes and won't restart until I unplug it again.

-daniel

[pcasciola]

Every time you boot the machine with that disk in the system now you risk losing all the data. There is a good chance it's stuck in a loop of scanning the drive every time you boot, crashing at that point and rebooting. That would explain the infinite loop.

If you don't like the external USB case idea, then the only other advise I can offer you is to boot the machine without the drive in it, and then disable autochecking of that drive in the registry so it will ignore it during boot up. You can do this by running regedit, finding the key called HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager, and changing the value of the BootExec from autocheck autochk * to autocheck autochk /k:d * where d is the drive letter of the drive you want to disable checking on.

[dsze]

I've tried disabling the checking per your suggestion, Phil...but still no luck...the system still restarts everytime with the SATA drive is plugged into it. In the regedit, how do I know which drive letter will be assigned to the faulty drive...in order to disable it? Maybe I'm just not guessing right.

-daniel

[KennyG]

Create a floppy boot disk and boot from that instead of the hard disk.

[dsze]

I'm not sure I'm following. How is a floppy boot disk going to help the situation? I can boot up just fine (as long as the SATA drive isn't plugged in) ...I should clarify, my system runs several 'typical' IDE hard drives and one SATA drive that plugs into a PCI SATA controller card that is plugged into one of my extra PCI slots. As long as I have that SATA cable unplugged my computer runs fine, but as soon as I plug in the SATA cable, to the PCI card, the system reboots.

thanks,
daniel

[pcasciola]

Did you say you've had this SATA drive in the system for a while and this reboot loop suddenly started happening? If so, have you added any other hardware to the system recently that might be conflicting with the SATA controller?

If you're not sure what drive letter was assigned to that drive, then you can temporarily rename the BootExecute key to XBootExecute or something, just to try it. I can't see your system so I'm not even sure it's getting that far, but it seems like a good possiblity anyway.

I've recovered a lot of data off of hard drives for people by using the external USB 2.0 case trick, even for laptop hard drives. It works very well because Windows doesn't see the drive on startup if you leave it unplugged until after the system boots.

Another option is to boot without the drive connected, and then do a system restore back to the date when you last knew that drive was working. What OS are you running?

[dsze]

running WinXP Pro... Yes, I've had the SATA drive installed for quite some time with no problems. Then, I ran a defrag on the SATA drive one night and then shut the comp. down the next morning. ...it never started up again with the SATA connected.

-daniel

[pcasciola]

I thought that's what you had said, that it was in there for a while, but I just wanted to make sure.

Ok, since it's XP you have System Restore. I'd try that after trying the total disabling of autocheck. The only danger you run there is losing any new settings you may have applied or any newly installed software since whatever date you pick for the restore. Just pick the day before you ran the defrag. It's a long shot, but you never know.

[dsze]

Ok, I entered XBootExecute in the BootExecute, and nothing...still won't start with the SATA, but starts fine without.

-d

[pcasciola]

Is it getting as far as XP at least starting to load before it reboots? If so, try the System Restore. Unplug the drive so you can boot, and then run: Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore, picking the day before you ran the defrag.

I have a couple of other things you could try after that. Let me know if System Restore solves anything.

[KennyG]

I'm not sure I'm following. How is a floppy boot disk going to help the situation?

You should be able to boot from the floppy and see the SATA drive. If it won't boot from the floppy with the drive plugged in, you have more serious problems. If it does boot, you have a chance to recover the drive if it is corrupted or at least identify where the problem may be.

I keep forgetting, a lot of people have never seen anything other than Windows as an operating system.

[dsze]

The system restore didn't do it...I do believe it gets to windows...I see the windowsXP logo and then black for a while and then the dreaded blue and then restart.

Kenny, you're right some people only know windows. I actually spent a 1.5 years studying engineering though and ONLY was permitted to use unix. So, when I actually was given a mouse and had to click instead of use commands to drive everything I was lost! :) That was a long time ago though and I've only used windows since. I'm not sure about booting from the floppy though...Isn't that still going to find the bad SATA drive on boot up and do the same thing?

thanks,
daniel

[pcasciola]

I'm not sure about booting from the floppy though...Isn't that still going to find the bad SATA drive on boot up and do the same thing? Booting DOS will not check the drives the same way that Windows does. That might enable you to copy some files off the drive, but will not solve your problem going forward.

Next thing I would try is this:
1) Remove the SATA controller and start up Windows
2) Remove the SATA driver from Device Manager if it's still there
3) Shutdown
4) Re-install the SATA controller without the drive
5) Start up windows and let it auto detect the SATA controller
6) Shutdown
7) Reconnect the drive and restart

If that doesn't work, there is a good chance the drive is completely dead. Can you tell if the drive is actually spinning up? I usually hold it in my hand while the system is powering on and feel whether or not it is actually spinning and you should hear the heads unparking and seeking too.

[dsze]

Phil,

I'll try your last suggestion when I get home tonight. I do know that the faulty drive is powering up and spinning...I've felt it and heard it. I'll try reinstalling the SATA controller tonight...thanks for all your help by the way!

-daniel