CompSci

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Oops!- Click, Click, Click - and screen goes black!
In fact system is powered down, requires a 5 sec push of the power button to restart.

Been a stable system since built last Aug.
DFI T64A/PIII 667 bumped to 720(144*5), 128 PC133(CL2),
ATI Vidio, 2 WD 20G IDE(7200), Yamaha sound, LinkSys NIC, HP CDR, NoName(CyberMAx?)48X CD, Good HSF and case fan, Win 2000 Pro. NoName case, 250W PS. CPU temp <44C, case <32C.

Hear clickin from the case - opened it and its the HD's that click about 3 times - and system powers downdown.
Can't tell which or if both HD's click...

Sometimes it reboots right back, and sometime it starts clickin right after the Win Pro splash. Won't run idle all nite.

Sorta think HD clickin is symptom rather than cause. Have NEVER had a WD fail, but??? Have had other HDs (SeaGate,Maxtor) fail but no powerdown - usually blue screen and boot errors...

What component is tellin me its geting ready to go? or Replace? I'm getting fair warning to get all backed up before it goes totally black.

Power Suppy? MoBo? Memory? Component? Power Source!(Using good IsoTel) Just hate process of elimination, For now I've pulled everything, (cleaned, brushed and blown all) and reseated. Will pick up an 300W PS and get it ready.

Whatever it is, its causing immediate power shutouff. But the power LED is still on(like standby but need 2 sec push to reboot.
Ideas?
 

CompSci

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OK - Perhaps, its definitely something. After cleaning and reseating the machine didn't make it 6 hours. Auto PowerDown! Must be a feature. Preparing for total disk failure and getting the OS and HD's contents backed up and recoverable is good idea while I still can.

And since ya brought it up, Whats the best method for replacin a disk, OS and all. Have plenty of netsork storage for any type of image, and other Win 2000 machines. Better get ready to plug another disk into this or another machine and make a disk image of this one before it goes totally. Don't have Win 2000 software for the task hovever.

Whats the best software to use? Hear Norton Ghost can do it, make new disks/partitions and boot sectors from either saved images or other mounted disks/partions. Is it the best for the buck!
 

khha4113

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<b>Whats the best software to use? Hear Norton Ghost can do it, make new disks/partitions and boot sectors from either saved images or other mounted disks/partions. Is it the best for the buck!</b>
Yes, it is. In fact, I have used my Win2000, WinMe and Win98 <b>Image files</b> that had been backed up by Norton Ghost (DOS version) to install on several different machines without any problem (Remember to <b>FDisk</b> and <b>Format</b> the new HD before uncompressing your OS' Ghost image file).
 

CompSci

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Better get Ghost fast - machine just did it again!
Am amazed at Win 2000, its tuff but doesn't like the sudden stops, sometimes white screens and needs Active Desktop recovery. Its gettin hammered. Goin to get Ghost at CompUsa right now!

Is Ghost going to have(or let me make) a recovery disk that will boot and FDISK, and Format NTFS. Or am I going to have to throw a disk onto an opperational Win2000 machine to Format NTFS? What would be great is a recovery boot disk that would boot, have NTFS and file system support with utils, and have network access. Might have to be a bootable CD to hold it all. Sorta glue together a CD from Win 2000 Network install disks/cd and Ghost utils. That would be a SUPER CD to have around! Would have to be a custom creation.

Ever made amything like that?

And I dont know for sure that its actually an HD thats the bottom line cause to the stoppage. But protecting OS and HD contents is definitely the best place to start!
 

khha4113

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<b>Is Ghost going to have(or let me make) a recovery disk that will boot and FDISK, and Format NTFS. Or am I going to have to throw a disk onto an opperational Win2000 machine to Format NTFS? </b>
Like I said, I only have <b>DOS</b> version of Ghost and it doesn't have that option (they have Windows version but I'm not sure wheter it has or not). However, you can create your own bootdisk in Win98 or you can have its bootdisk by extracting from Win2000 CD. I think it's in directory called <b>Bootdisk</b>, double-click on either <b>Makeboot.exe</b> and follow its intructions.
<b>Might have to be a bootable CD to hold it all. </b>
Do you have Win2000 CD? I heard it is bootable, but it doesn't matter much. I installed my Win2000 (first time) by using Win98 bootdisk. You'll have an option to create either <b>FAT32</b> or <b>NTFS</b> since Win2000 supports both of them.
 

CompSci

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Ghost ain't no day at the beach! Gotit thisafternoon.

And the interfarse is thru Dos - it just knows NTFS file sys. Ya make the disk(s) to run Ghost from any OS - then boot up on(DOS). SAys ya can write images to network or CD but getting the right DOS drivers on the disks get thorny.

Have an extra IDE so I'm just gon to see if I can clone the first sys HD to it and get stable.

And the repair shop at CompUse says clickin is the way current HDs start it go...

Am Gostin, Later...
 

CompSci

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Am on new WD 40G(7200) - Seams OK..
Ghost was a bitch! Mean and Ugly! Later on it. Just took local disk to disk. Am a little ugly in partion types going from 2 20G's to 1 40G, But it works...

Suspect the second drive is/was the problem child. All in good time. Am glad to stable(IHope...)

Yes, the Win 2000 Pro CD is bootable. Every one I've ever had is, Pro, Server and Adv Server. (they CD copy that way also) And I've always installed that way, new and clean, from CD, removin/recreating the installation partition. Its really a supprizinly easy install if all your hardware is on the CD. Gets everythin first time and comes up with sound and network! (Except this box - the LNE100Tx v4 NIC isn't on the CD so ya have to feed it the floppy, With SMC NIC I've got on other machines its a once thru and get on with the apps.

Its pretty easy to make a bootable CD. Read an article that said easist way to make bootable CDs was from other bootable CDs by copying entire CD to disk and modifying, then burning from that directory, Just dont distrub too much, like the CDFS hookup. Actuall I have done it too, Sorta. I made a custom Win 2000 CD with extra directories for doc and those cazy Abit(HotROD) HPT66 drivers. Didnt hook em up so the install finds em, but I can point to manually. That CD works... so I know ya can make em pretty easily if ya get into it. And it lookS like I'm goint to have to... I don't have a Win 2000 recovery plan other than scramble. Any/All suggestions are accepted on this....

Now if this box doesn't power me off the rest of the day I'm going to have work on getting WD to replace the bad one. Ug.. They're less than an year old, and problems, that aint good. Suspect the second one - both were runnin warmer than I thought - the new one runs pretty warm too.

Wow, with power swith/control runnin thru the MoBo ya dont know whats going on. Looks like lights out and just start guessin!