laptop wont boot into windows after fresh install

[clever_j]

Hi guys

I have a laptop here which stopped booting... so i decided to reinstall windows xp.. after first phase of installation, where the windows setup requires me to remove the windowsXP CD and reboot, that's when it stops working.. which is actually my problem in the first place..

When you turn it on, it first checks for bootable CDs.. after that it proceeds to boot IDE-0 and it says OK.. but that's it.. it stops there.

I've reinstalled windows many times..

all booteable CDs work.. WindowsXP, hirens BootCD... etc.. but when im trying to boot the thing from the actual hard drive, it stops at "OK" (see above)


Using Hiren's Boot CD tools, i tested everyting.. CPU, RAM, Motherboard, etc. everything passed except hard drive... it failed on this thing called "Linear Verify" test..

I ran HDD Recovery and it found AND RECOVERED 1 bad block.. redid the installation again.. same problem

If ya'll were trouble shooting this, what do you guys think about this?

tea

 

[Blitze105]

Crazy!
To start I'd like to say this will prolly make you go, "What the hell, does he think I'm an idiot?"
Heres what to do:
1. Get powermax. http://downloads.maxtor.com/_files/maxtor/en_us/downloads/powermax.exe
2. Use that to Format completely. (Un hook any back up hard drives just to be safe)
3. Now that you have an empty hard drive, boot up off ur cd.
4. let it install and do not remove your disk until u can access your desktop.
If that goes wrong post back and we'll tamper with your bios.

 

[clever_j]

@ Blitze105

do you think i'm an idiot?!! lolz hehehe kiddin

Hiren's bootCD has powermax on it.. there are also other tools for format completely...

Question though, what's causing this? Why do you suggest a reformat? is it the MBR that you think is the culprit?

I've reinstalled the windows many times.. shouldnt that be as good enough as reformat?

 

[dexta182]

dont format the MBR as you can kill you hard drive for good. Run partion magic which will pick up the bad block and make it unusable for windows. or if you have the money get a new hard drive as you will find issues later down the track with it.
good luck

 

[MikePB3]

fresh copy much better you don't have reminents of files laying around and its much faster and reg is CLEAN

 

[SHAWN]

Is the Laptop under warranty? I would call tech support and try to RMA it. I think did all the troubleshooting you could of. Try reseating the RAM. Thats about all I can think of.

 

[clever_j]

dont format the MBR as you can kill you hard drive for good. Run partion magic which will pick up the bad block and make it unusable for windows.

HDD REcovery already fixed the bad sector problem...same thing

fresh copy much better you don't have reminents of files laying around and its much faster and reg is CLEAN

Like i said, i've reinstalled XP many many times.. it just stops at the blank screen with the blinking line.... as if it was still loading..

Is the Laptop under warranty? I would call tech support and try to RMA it. I think did all the troubleshooting you could of. Try reseating the RAM. Thats about all I can think of.

nope.. out of warranty..

I ran tests on it and ram was good.. i will try that reseating ram technique, but, i dont think it's gona do any good cause, i just removed the hard drive and used my Laptop HD to Desktop IDE converter, and booted that on my own computer.. it didnt boot.. just that blinking line again where it's supposed to be loading something...

Could it be a hard drive problem?

I also attached the little hd as slave to my desktop and it showed just fine under windows explorer.. i see the files i needed to recover, etc..

 

[Blitze105]

wait up, you have a slave drive?
try unnatching it. then make sure ur main drive is set on master. now go into your bios, make sure ur booting off hdd-01
then try to boot.

PS
why did i say use powermax? kus windows sux at formatting it leaves file bits and junk like that. clean format is good for a computer every year or so.... (in my opinion) sorry if any one doesn't agree... but that is why i said it.

 

[clever_j]

wait up, you have a slave drive?
try unnatching it. then make sure ur main drive is set on master. now go into your bios, make sure ur booting off hdd-01
then try to boot.

yes.. but when i was trying to boot the laptop HD, i didnt have a slave drive.. it was set to master HD0 ... the same setup as if it was in the laptop.. after all attempts, i attached it as slave and booted with my regular HD... did this just to see what data i can salvage..

I see your point.. will do so then..

 

[SkyHi]

Or you can always google Linear Verify.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-56596

-SkyHi