Windows doesnt startup cause of faulty hard drive...

[hatemf90]

hi,

I had in my PC 2 hard disks, 1 for windows and 1 for data, the one with windows was old and causing trouble, so I tried installing windows on the second disk without formatting the partition cause it had data that I needed... it totally failed and gave a "disk read error"

I could still boot from the old drive because it is sometimes working, then I deleted the failed windows install (the windows folder) which turned out to be a mistake. then I tried deleting and formatting the partition that had the failed windows to try again (using a XP setup CD), it froze and had to close.

After that the old Windows wont load (loads forever) with the 2nd disk connected so I cant do anything to fix it, and even the XP CD freezes while loading as long as the faulty disk is connected but works fine without it

It was a perfectly working hard disk so Im hoping theres a way to rescue it? any help appreciated

btw the faulty disk is detected fine in the bios.

 

[GhislainG]

What are you trying to achieve? Any reason why the failing hard disk still is connected? If both hard disks are connected at installation time, then installing XP on the second one requires the first one to always be connected and working properly. You should disconnect the failing hard disk and then install XP on the working unit.

Since you already formatted the second hard disk, you lost all data. If it was important, I hope that you had a recent backup.

 

[GhislainG]

linnat, as far as I'm concerned, the whole thread should stay here. Just spend more time on Tom's and less on the site you're advertising.

 

[Pyree]

Don't worry ghislaing, I already reported him/her about 10 min ago. I checked all his/her message and they all carry the message of going to that site. Really annoying, making false contribution to hide the true intent of advertising the site.

 

[hatemf90]

What are you trying to achieve? Any reason why the failing hard disk still is connected? If both hard disks are connected at installation time, then installing XP on the second one requires the first one to always be connected and working properly. You should disconnect the failing hard disk and then install XP on the working unit.

Since you already formatted the second hard disk, you lost all data. If it was important, I hope that you had a recent backup.

But I didnt format the failing disk... I only managed to delete one of the 2 partitions in it, now I cant access it either by the setup CD or normally through windows. I basically lost access to it ... I feel guilty because I dont want to throw a new hard disk... I just want it working at this point.

 

[GhislainG]

It isn't accessible because you deleted the partitions. You can recover the partitions using a partition recovery utility, but if you don't care about them, then disconnect the failing hard disk and let the Windows XP installer create and format the boot partition. Why did you partition a data drive? To make it easier for backups?

 

[hatemf90]

It isn't accessible because you deleted the partitions. You can recover the partitions using a partition recovery utility, but if you don't care about them, then disconnect the failing hard disk and let the Windows XP installer create and format the boot partition. Why did you partition a data drive? To make it easier for backups?

Well a partition recovery utility will require windows to be running and the disk connected which is impossible.

what makes you think if I reinstall windows in the boot partition/disk the other disk will work? I doubt it since even the XP installer wont work with the failing disk.. (as in it wont even load and view the disks)

 

[GhislainG]

Use a bootable disk like BartPE to run the utility or use one that's provided on a bootable CD/DVD like Hiren's BootCD (it includes partition recovery tools).