How to tell if hardrive is dead?

[Chris]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (More info?)

I had Windows ME on my old harddrive and woke up one morning to my screen
saying low memory. I couldn''t access it anymore. tried safe mode etc but
nothing worked.
it goes to the WIN ME screen and stays there. sounds like the hardrive is
trying to spin but can't go any farther.

Is the hardrive now dead or is it still got data on it?
I tried to create a master/slave with a new harddrive and Win XP and Ghost
program also to no avail.
How do you tell if the hardrive is officially dead or able to work again? I
had lot of important data that I hadn't put on cd's yet.
Can computer dealers access it to tell if the drive is still in working
condition at all?
thanks for any help.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (More info?)

You need to run the manufacturer's tests. Download from their site or run
from a cd if one came with the hard drive.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)
"chris" <cachasenh@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:uRUk5ftIFHA.1860@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>I had Windows ME on my old harddrive and woke up one morning to my screen
>saying low memory. I couldn''t access it anymore. tried safe mode etc but
>nothing worked.
> it goes to the WIN ME screen and stays there. sounds like the hardrive is
> trying to spin but can't go any farther.
>
> Is the hardrive now dead or is it still got data on it?
> I tried to create a master/slave with a new harddrive and Win XP and Ghost
> program also to no avail.
> How do you tell if the hardrive is officially dead or able to work again?
> I had lot of important data that I hadn't put on cd's yet.
> Can computer dealers access it to tell if the drive is still in working
> condition at all?
> thanks for any help.
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (More info?)

On Mon, 7 Mar 2005 00:40:25 -0500, chris wrote:

> I had Windows ME on my old harddrive and woke up one morning to my screen
> saying low memory. I couldn''t access it anymore. tried safe mode etc but
> nothing worked.
> it goes to the WIN ME screen and stays there. sounds like the hardrive is
> trying to spin but can't go any farther.
>
> Is the hardrive now dead or is it still got data on it?
> I tried to create a master/slave with a new harddrive and Win XP and Ghost
> program also to no avail.
> How do you tell if the hardrive is officially dead or able to work again? I
> had lot of important data that I hadn't put on cd's yet.
> Can computer dealers access it to tell if the drive is still in working
> condition at all?
> thanks for any help.

It sounds like the hard drive is booting since you get to the screen where
the operating system is loading. Sounds more like a file system problem
than a dead hard drive. Len gives good advice about using a boot floppy to
see if the drive is still readable.

Not enough details here about the new hard drive and the attempted and
failed XP install to give any suggestions.

--
Sharon F
MS-MVP ~ Windows Shell/User

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (More info?)

Could also try booting from a floppy. At the A: prompt, type C: . If the HDD
is recognised, you should then be in the C:\ root. Now type "dir" (without
quotes) which SHOULD give you the directory list.
If you get an error (unable to switch to C:, or unable to read directory)
then at the very least your HDD boot partition is corrupt. For reasons
unknown you are posting an ME question in XP ng - from yr post it's
impossible to tell whether the "low memory" error is due to yr HDD being
over-full, a virus/malware problem, faulty RAM or an OS problem.
Advice given above is a basic test for HD readability which can be done by a
user. If the HDD is the problem, then follow Colin's advice. And, if it IS
a problem not recoverable by software, it's an expensive and not-guranteed
trip to a data recovery specialist. Regular backups would avoid it.
Good Luck!
Sincerely, Len

"chris" <cachasenh@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:uRUk5ftIFHA.1860@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>I had Windows ME on my old harddrive and woke up one morning to my screen
>saying low memory. I couldn''t access it anymore. tried safe mode etc but
>nothing worked.
> it goes to the WIN ME screen and stays there. sounds like the hardrive is
> trying to spin but can't go any farther.
>
> Is the hardrive now dead or is it still got data on it?
> I tried to create a master/slave with a new harddrive and Win XP and Ghost
> program also to no avail.
> How do you tell if the hardrive is officially dead or able to work again?
> I had lot of important data that I hadn't put on cd's yet.
> Can computer dealers access it to tell if the drive is still in working
> condition at all?
> thanks for any help.
>