Re: hive corrupted...

Hi all,

Thanks once for all the amazing info. But it looks like I'm screwed.
The micro center guy told me that the hard drive is clicking. I made
the mistake of trying to reboot too many times and ran too many dell
diag tests the last three days without knowing about all this.

Quick question, if my dell diag can turn the hard drive on/off, do
tests called march test, write test and pass but fail occasionally on
read tests, does it not mean that hard drive is okay and only parts of
it are corrupted?? Then what is this clicking thing??

Do you guys think that this needs a new hard drive install. I saw
prices like $115 installed for a new 60GB hard drive. Sound
reasonable??

Arvind



Patrick Keenan wrote:
"Arvind" <arvind.phd@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1163190096.592478.152840@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Patrick,

Thanks. I'd really appreciate it if you could mail me instructions on
how to do the hard drive back up you have mentioned above.

It's very simple. Get a USB drive case of the correct size, remove the
hard disk from your laptop, and attach it to the case.

The method varies depending on the construction of the laptop. Some
laptops use an extra header on the hard disk pins, and that has to be
removed. It just pushes on.


I also sometimes get a message like

"PBR for descriptor 2 loading...done

A disk read error occured
Press alt+ctrl+del..."

That can sometimes mean that the BIOS needs updating to deal with issues
with attached USB devices.


Dell diag shows that hard drive can be accessed but some parts/blocks
are corrupted (cannot be read from). Does this suggest anything to
you?

Yes, it suggests that you should replace the drive soonest, before it fails.
If your Dell came with XP install disks, this is pretty straightforward.

HTH
-pk


Thanks,

Arvind


Patrick Keenan wrote:
"Arvind" <arvind.phd@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1163184257.377146.41620@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi,

I have a dell 600m laptop with XP home. It is not booting.
Re-installing the OS is my last option since I have some important data
in it.

I have tried several of the tricks online, but none of them work
because the entire c:\windows
directory is not seen. Tricks include using recovery console and
replacing the 4 hives with the ones in repair directory (not working
because c:\windows is not seen on startup of recovery console, only c:
is seen). Also, commands like cd windows, md tmp etc. do not work. I
get the message "access denied".


Does any of u know a place in Dallas where they will diagonize laptop
issue related things at a reasonable price? If any of u is an expert
on such things, please let me know if you have any ideas on how to fix
this.

Thanks,

Arvind

Sounds like it may be more than the hive that is corrupted, but you may
have
simply set a policy that limits the scope of the Recovery Console.

You might consider removing the drive and attaching it to another system
via
a USB-hard disk connector, and getting your important data *off* it
before
proceeding.

If you're having other problems with the drive, consider replacing it
with a
new drive, doing a clean install, and then copying your data back over
from
the old drive.

HTH
-pk


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: freebsd-questions Digest, Vol 250, Issue 2
    ... FreeBSD 7.1R on laptop ... Busy disk and page fault ... Re: Which install? ...
    (freebsd-questions)
  • Re: Computer Infected:
    ... Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition ... Dell Application – Backup Dell installed programs, ... SeagateDisk Utility ... You do NOT want to do a Repair or Recovery install. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: What is the difference between the OEM & the Microsoft version of Win XP Pro ???
    ... Please describe this "Win disk" in as much detail as possible. ... It's the disk that Dell sent with the laptop. ... installation disk for XP Pro at some point and install it on the laptop? ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: Fresh Install went Wonderfully
    ... Dell diagnostics can be accessed from your Dell utilities CD if you need to ... Internet connection working so you can download additional drivers. ... Chose the main partition to install Windows on. ... Now I plan on doing fresh install on my other laptop. ...
    (alt.sys.pc-clone.dell)
  • Additional Windows Vista License
    ... The third party did indeed install my Dell DVD of Vista 32 on my VM guest system, but of course it would not activate, as you noted. ... The point David is making is that the DVD of Windows Vista Dell supplied with your laptop is an OEM version and only licensed for installation on the laptop it was supplied with. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.vista.general)