Unknown Hard error

[michaeloro]

Hello,

I was hoping someone could give me some advise on a problem I am having.
I am attempting to fix a friend's dell dimension 3000 XP 2

Whenever the system boots it says:

STOP: C0000221 Unknown Hard Error

I was able to boot in safe mode, I ran a scan and there were about a dozen virus including ones that disabled the firewall and anti-virus and it possibly the system restore.

I removed all that I could find. The computer would not boot up from CD, so I put the hard drive in my computer and ran a diskcheck.

This did not solve the problem. I also checked all cables and switched them out, along with the RAM and this did not work.

I assumed the problem was one of the virii messed with the system files causing it not to boot.

I was going to do a clean wipe, but the CD will not read any CD's at all, it does not recognize anything, as such I can not boot from a CD.

Also the system restore does not work either, I tried several methods, but it will get all the way to the end and you have to click next to begin, but then nothing happens.

I know the computer is probably worth about $100, and I am spending a great deal of time on it, but this is the first time I came across a problem I could not fix and it is driving me crazy. I probably tried a half dozen other programs, registry fixers, hard drive repars, error checking, etc with no luck.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Guest]

wow... thats instense... I recently did a OS re-install b/c of a virus

its weird that you can't get the cd boot... try going into the bios and looking at the different options related to IDE drives

If you can get that to work re-installing sounds like the best course of action

also tell your friend to stop downloading pr0n

 

[bobbknight]

Yep you have a bad system file.
I the bios set to boot from cd?

 

[michaeloro]

Thanks, Yes it is set to boot from CD.

Only problem is the CD drive won't recognize any CDs. So I can't boot from disc to do a clean wipe and reinstall

Even when I start up in safe mode, it won't rear anything, not even a music CD.

 

[michaeloro]

I also tried my Boot CD in another computer and it works fine.

I am completely out of ideas....

 

[13thmonkey]

It could be that the CD drive is dead (that might also stop it booting as it cannot report what it is), or perhaps the ide channel it is on is dead, does the bios recognise it? not that it means much. Try swapping it out with a spare if you've got one.

 

[michaeloro]

I tried another CD drive and same problem. The hard drive and CD are on different IDE cables also, but it is recoginizing the CD rom just not aNY cdS

 

[rdb]

Put the drive back into your system as a second hd, format the drive. Move it back to his computer as the master and install windows.

 

[michaeloro]

rdb, I considered that, but lets say I put it back into my computer and format it. How do i know that is going to solve the problem with his CD rom, I could be stuck with a blank drive and no way to load the OS.

I considered loading it into my system as a master and trying to boot from CD, any thoughts on this?>

 

[Guest]

wow... thats instense... I recently did a OS re-install b/c of a virus

its weird that you can't get the cd boot... try going into the bios and looking at the different options related to IDE drives

If you can get that to work re-installing sounds like the best course of action

also tell your friend to stop downloading pr0n

sir am using in windows xp but my harddisk is unkonw format. how to clear the UNKOWN format ple help me.

sir i true to chkdsk not clear. any other option ple tel me sir

 

[13thmonkey]

if your HDD is visble in windows with an unknown format you could use windows explorer and right click on that drive and the option to format is under that menu, obvioiusly you will loose all data on that drive.